Cards stacked against teams like Wizards in NBA

When the Wizards were selected third in the NBA Draft Lottery, excitement grew at the prospect of adding another key piece to the team. After the team’s dramatic turnaround with the return of John Wall from injury last season, the Wizards already look poised to challenge for a playoff spot. Adding the number three overall pick will be a major asset to this team.

But will it be enough in today’s NBA?

Miami’s second straight NBA championship underscores the uphill battle the Wizards face. Even the most casual of basketball fans know the story of ‘The Big 3’ coming together in Miami. Since that time, the Heat have gone to the finals three straight years and have won it the last two. Now, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul are reportedly talking about playing together next season.

Do you think the Wizards are on their list of teams they would play for?

In this era of the NBA, free agency is being driven by superstars planning coming together and picking where they want to go. The problem is, none of those superstars are picking places like Toronto, Milwaukee, Washington, etc.

Sure, there are smaller market teams that have found some success, such as Oklahoma City, but they hit the draft jackpot with Kevin Durant. Not every team can rely on finding a Lebron or a Durant in the draft.

There are only two formulas for success in the NBA. Either a team drafts a superstar who can recruit others or traditional basketball powers (Celtics, Lakers) or popular cities attract superstars in free agency. The last team to win the championship that did not fit this mold was the 2004 Detroit Pistons.

What really makes this unfair is that for those teams without a superstar, making the playoffs can actually hurt your chances of eventually building a championship team.

Making the playoffs in the NBA is different than in the other sports where every year each team has a chance to win regardless of the seeding. In the history of the NBA, the lowest ever seed to win the championship was the 6^th seeded Houston Rockets in 1995. Upsets are always possible from series to series, but for the most part only a handful of teams have a real shot at winning the championship.

Milwaukee made the playoffs this year, but they had no shot of winning and were swept in the first round by Miami. How are they supposed to get better? Do you think they can get Chris Paul? Of course not. The Bucks, however, will not get a lottery pick because they made the playoffs. Unless they find a real steal in the draft, the Bucks will not be able to lure superstar players to Milwaukee in free agency.

What about Memphis or Indiana who made it to the conference finals? Don’t  these smaller market teams prove every team has a chance? Not really. Both these teams will be competing with the Lakers, Heat, Spurs, and Celtics for the same free agents. I seriously doubt we will see Howard in Memphis or Paul in Indiana any time soon.

Getting back to the Wizards, they have the chance to add another weapon, but with the relative weakness of the draft, they are unlikely to add a Durant-level star. Barring another injury-plagued season, the Wizards will likely make the playoffs in 2014.

It will be exciting to see playoff basketball in DC again, but Otto Porter Jr. or Anthony Bennett or whomever they take in the draft will not make them a championship team. The only real way to continue building is through free agency.

Are John Wall and Bradley Beal enough of a draw to bring in big time free agents? Probably not.

As unbelievable and unfair as it may be, the Wizards are rapidly approaching the ceiling of the Wall era. In five years, Wall will be 28 and at best the Wizards will be a middle of the pack playoff team, capable of playing their way to the conference championship, but no further. Then, the team will have to start over.

Unless they can find that big time star in the draft, the cards will always be stacked against teams like the Wizards. That is, until the NBA institutes a hard salary cap.

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Chris Wright hosts 1st MS Basketball Jamboree

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Do We Still Need All-Star Games?

Somewhere around Ne-Yo's 15th terrible song to open the NBA All-Star game, my suspicions were confirmed: we do not need all-star games anymore.

The entire NBA All-Star weekend was full of elaborate attempts to distract the viewer’s attention away from the mediocre basketball being played. None of the real stars participated in what has become the marquee event, the dunk contest. Rather than seeing Kevin Durant take on LeBron James, the fans were treated to a final matchup of Jeremy Evans and Terrence Ross. Who?

The game itself was played with an effort that would have disgusted players from the 2011 Pro Bowl. Half the players walked aimlessly around the court as the gameplay devolved into one-on-one matchups with players pretending to play defense. As soon as the other player moved to drive it in, though, the defender would pull off and casually watch his opponent take it in for the dunk. I imagine dunking is pretty easy for a professional basketball player when no one is even attempting to defend.

The entire game was meaningless and boring. After the first five dunks, they all began to look the same. The game became tiresome before the first quarter even ended. Would anyone truly care if the NBA just got rid of this pointless weekend?

The lackluster all-star showing is not specific to the NBA; the all-star games of all the major sports are just as embarrassing. Part of the problem is that there just is no good time for an all-star game to be played. In basketball, baseball, and hockey the regular season comes to a screeching halt somewhere near the halfway point for these games. The break is nice for the players, but not great for the fans.  As the playoff chase is heating up, the season stops.  Rather than watching meaningful games, fans now have to watch these lackluster exhibition games.

The problem is even worse in football. Football is too physical and taxing a sport to have an exhibition game smack dab in the middle of the season. Having it after the season, however, is incredibly anti-climactic, prompting the NFL to move the game to the week before the Super Bowl. Now, the Pro Bowl excludes all players from the two best teams in the league. The NFL is left with a choice of playing a game when no one cares or excluding some of the best, most deserving players.

Not only are these games inconvenient, the effort level makes them difficult to watch. Players do not want to play at 100% and risk injury with nothing to play for. Baseball tried to fix this problem by awarding the winning team home-field advantage in the World Series and thus make the game ‘meaningful’, but I have seen no difference in the level of play.

Before leagues begin scrambling for ways to compel their players to give more effort, they should stop and think about the consequences. Owners and players are constantly at odds over playing in international tournaments such as the Olympics because of the risk of injury. Isn’t it counterintuitive to then force players to compete in a mid-season exhibition game? How can the NHL refuse to allow its players to go to the Sochi Olympics and then demand 100% effort in an all-star game? True, the all-star game is only one game as opposed to an entire tournament, but it seems unfair to force competition in something the players seeming do not care about while denying them the chance to compete in something that matters to them.

Ultimately, leagues cannot expect fans to care in a game played at half-speed. Name an all-star team so the players are still honored, but remove the games. Not only are they terrible to watch, but the ridiculous spectacle surrounding these games have become embarrassing. Somewhere between Ne-Yo’s excruciating performance and Kevin Hart’s tiresome antics, I was done. The NBA should save itself the trouble and give us the games we actually want to see.