rsavaj wrote:Honestly, I can see the logic behind the "one step back, two steps forward" thing. Tanking, rebuilding, whatever the hell you want to call it...it's a good fantasy to have, and we all want to dream of that superduperstar we drafted leading this city to its first championship.
But as I've gotten a bit older(mid-20s, mind you) and busier, with less time to really stress out about the NBA the way I did during the SSOL years, my priority as a fan has shifted from "THIS TEAM MUST WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP OR ELSE!" to "when I come home from work at the end of the day, I just want to watch an entertaining and competitive team."
Philadelphia and Orlando may be closer to a championship than we are, because maybe they've drafted the next big thing. But you know what? I....kind of don't really care about the title or bust stuff anymore. I know that sounds blasphemous, and 17 year old me would not believe I'm saying it, but as long as the team is fun and filled with guys I can root for, I'll take it. Maybe we never win a title because we're never bad enough to land "THE GUY", and yeah, that's frustrating, but if I have a chance at watching a good team play fun basketball most nights of the year, I'm more than satisfied at this point.
Carry on.
It's not blasphemous at all. (skip to third paragraph if not planning on reading whole post) I've thought about posting the same thing the last couple of hours. I'm happy being the 4th winningest franchise of all time. Of course I'd like a championship and would love a superstar but those are not easy to come by. We almost got one with Kareem but lost the coin flip and then ended up with the 2nd pick after David Robinson. You could tank for years and never get the pick right. It's been said before, that if OKC would have gotten the #1 pick the year they took Durant they would have taken Oden, and if they got the #2 pick the year they took Westbrook they would have drafted Beasley. How would that have worked out for them?
I wouldn't trade those KJ or Nash years for anything. I'd take a team that is ALWAYS competitive as long as they are not past their prime fighting for the 8th seed (then I would rebuild, and hopefully fast...this past season was kind of a miracle). I admit, for a while I was kind of hoping we would be bad to get one of those top guys, especially the way our team played the year before this past one and the projection of our team for this past year being abysmal anyway. Despite their being a handful of people who expected us to be pretty good (I remember Big Foot for sure was the one who believed in the team the most), no one knew how good Bledsoe, Green or Plumlee could be.
I kind of hate the championship or bust mentality these days. I'd easily rather have a team over a 10 year period that
1)barely missed the playoffs a couple of years, got knocked out in the first round a couple of years, got knocked out in the second round a couple of years, got knocked out in the WCF a couple of years, and lost in the NBA finals a couple of years...
than
2)a team that was terrible for 7 years, suddenly made it to the 2nd round one year, than to WCF one year, then won an NBA championship
#1 It would be fun yet heartbreaking but also in a way it's special because you go through it all with the players and fans
#2 would be nice to see it built and get there, but it would be pretty frustrating and probably hard to watch a lot of the time. More importantly, if this route was taken, trying to get a few top picks and hoping they lead you to a championship, doesn't guarantee anything, and for most teams, they end up in the lottery for years, only to finally reach the playoffs for one or two years and then realize they are at their peak and they have to start over.
Bad teams typically have guys wanting out, nobody wanting to go play for them, etc.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Philly over the years. It will be a long process and I think it is more likely a disaster than a success, but either way it will be interesting to see. They are probably at best, about 4 years away from being at least 500.
