People say that the worst thing an NBA team can be is mediocre. You want to be fighting for either a title or a high draft pick, and being in the middle gets you neither. But that’s not right at all. The worst thing for an NBA team to be—at least from a fan perspective—is awful. I fully understand that GMs have responsibilities that stretch further than winning a few games in the short-term, but I'm not a GM. I'm a fan.
In particular, I'm a Nets fan who watches every game. During the past few years, the Nets have touted their flexibility, touted how promising the future was, all while losing almost every game. I know that savvy fans are supposed recognize and appreciate when a team is better positioning itself for the future. We're supposed to applaud freeing up cap space and shedding bad contracts. We're supposed to covet draft picks, no matter their placement. We're supposed to accept losing seasons because we understand that the middle is no place to be. We're supposed to operate on logic and be content waiting for the future.
Well, then I guess I'm done being a savvy fan. Because I'm not sure the future exists. An expiring contract can’t hedge more on a pick and lottery protection never helped Johan Petro’s brain relay signals to his hands any faster. Cap room can't knock down 15-footers. The worst thing a team can be is 12-70. Give me mediocrity right now, thank you. In an ESPN chat the other day, Chad Ford ended a paragraph that disparaged the Nets by sarcastically saying, "Enjoy your 42-40 Nets everyone!" Thanks, Chad! I sincerely will enjoy if my Nets go 42-40. That would be really fun to watch.
By trading for Joe Johnson, that's exactly what the Nets are locking in for the next few years—a decent team that has a chance to win every game, will make the playoffs every year, then exit the playoffs before the Finals. They are becoming the Hawks and there's nothing wrong with that.
I’ve been mildly obsessed with the Johnson-Smith-Horford-Williams Atlanta squad for some time now. I often wondered aloud if there was anything wrong with always striving for the middle. By seeming satisfied with winning the majority of their games and just making the playoffs every year, the team's management appeared to have accepted a truth that most teams choose to ignore: Essentially, no teams win the title. To be exact, just one team wins each year. And—in the past 20 years at least—it's most often either the Lakers, Spurs or Bulls. But by signing Joe Johnson in 2007 to a monstrous contract (one that many smart NBA heads bemoaned as instantly the worst contract in the league) they cemented their commitment to mediocrity. It was clearly a strategy—to continually be very decent, nothing more—that management was behind. They recognized how slim their chances of ever winning it all were, and decided to give their fans instant gratification (albeit of a lesser variety) instead of promising them the moon at some future date. A hamburger today and all that.
And now the Nets are striving to become the Hawks and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, as a Nets fan, I much prefer this route to the highway of despair and losing that the team has been barreling down for the past four years or so. Simply put, the team I root for is better today than they were last week. That's really the only thing I can worry about and hope for as a fan of the team. Sure, Joe Johnson is owed $89.3 million over the next three seasons (when his value on the basketball court will most certainly be worth less than that) and that will kind of debilitate the Nets. But, Joe Johnson is also very good at basketball, better than probably (definitely) 95 percent of Nets player in the last five years. What do you want for nothing? A rubber biscuit? The Nets probably won't win a championship with the core of Deron, Gerald, Joe and Brook. But they probably won't a championship with any core. They probably won't win a championship. No one does. (Well, LeBron and Dirk and Kobe do.) But I'd rather see good, fun, competitive basketball while they're not winning a championship than a horror show of blood and empty seats.
I’ve been mildly obsessed with the Johnson-Smith-Horford-Williams Atlanta squad for some time now. I often wondered aloud if there was anything wrong with always striving for the middle. By seeming satisfied with winning the majority of their games and just making the playoffs every year, the team's management appeared to have accepted a truth that most teams choose to ignore: Essentially, no teams win the title. To be exact, just one team wins each year. And—in the past 20 years at least—it's most often either the Lakers, Spurs or Bulls. But by signing Joe Johnson in 2007 to a monstrous contract (one that many smart NBA heads bemoaned as instantly the worst contract in the league) they cemented their commitment to mediocrity. It was clearly a strategy—to continually be very decent, nothing more—that management was behind. They recognized how slim their chances of ever winning it all were, and decided to give their fans instant gratification (albeit of a lesser variety) instead of promising them the moon at some future date. A hamburger today and all that.
And now the Nets are striving to become the Hawks and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, as a Nets fan, I much prefer this route to the highway of despair and losing that the team has been barreling down for the past four years or so. Simply put, the team I root for is better today than they were last week. That's really the only thing I can worry about and hope for as a fan of the team. Sure, Joe Johnson is owed $89.3 million over the next three seasons (when his value on the basketball court will most certainly be worth less than that) and that will kind of debilitate the Nets. But, Joe Johnson is also very good at basketball, better than probably (definitely) 95 percent of Nets player in the last five years. What do you want for nothing? A rubber biscuit? The Nets probably won't win a championship with the core of Deron, Gerald, Joe and Brook. But they probably won't a championship with any core. They probably won't win a championship. No one does. (Well, LeBron and Dirk and Kobe do.) But I'd rather see good, fun, competitive basketball while they're not winning a championship than a horror show of blood and empty seats.
We all settle for mediocrity at some point, in some regard. Sometimes you eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Sometimes you watch "Storage Wars." Sometimes you trade for Joe Johnson.
Really enjoyed this piece. I think your point regarding fielding a competitive team with a chance to win each game is underrated and important.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that the Net's don't have a chance to contend for the East this season, though.
If Brook can stay healthy, their starting lineup is probably as good as any team in the East with the exception of Miami. And the Heatles are still weak at the PG position, something someone of D-Will's quality should be able to eat up.
Yeah, on paper they could be pretty good this year, depending on how they fill out the rest of the roster. Mainly, I just really want them to keep Gerald Green.
ReplyDeleteBilly King / Danny Ferry are proving coach K can really produce GM's
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