Top Percolating Topics on a Fun-Sunday

Without much preamble and pomp I will get to the point, in order to make these typographical-diarrhea sessions more reader friendly for the dozens and dozens (edit: dozens should have remained singular) of readers surfing my code, I will try a new format.

1. Insidious NBA

In former posts I have delved into a stories revolving around the NBA’s bigger picture. The Death of Parity looked at the alarming trend of super-friends creating super-teams and the impact it would have to the future of the NBA.

A PSA for Fanatics- Soaps and Sports (which is an awful title looking back) highlighted the melo-dramatics behind the Carmelo Anthony trade saga and some of the NBA’s biggest power-players behind the scenes.

Another somewhat unlikely puppet-master has emerged as told in this outstanding piece by Adrian Wajnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It highlights the reemergence of Isaiah Thomas, his influence on the New York Knicks and the incompetence of James Dolan, owner, New York Knicks.

These convoluted and insidious issues have been making a slow trot down the NBA’s yellow brick road for some time now and will meet at the collective bargaining table. The big question is when they meet the all powerful wizard- David Stern, whether he will stick to the script and feign grievance toward people like Wordwide Wes, who has been the common facilitator in all these scenario’s, or actually do something about it.

2. Raptors at the Trade Deadline

Much was/is made of the TPE (traded player exception) obtained in the Chris Bosh trade with Miami that allows Toronto to take on a player or combination of players totaling roughly $12-million without having to be under the cap.

This asset has diminished daily since the trade last summer. The TPE will not be used at the trade deadline. If the Raptors were in a position to make a playoff push the chances of it being expensed would increase but the salary it would take on would prove to be too expensive for a non-playoff team.

Once a team is over the tax threshold, they pay double the dollar amount for every dollar they are over. This is needless spending for a team going nowhere this season. The more likely scenario is that they utilize the TPE around the draft or beginning of free agency.

3. Hard-luck Raps

Piggybacking on the last point the Raptors can’t seem to get a break. The year they acquire an asset that would bring sublime flexibility two other teams also acquire the same asset making the laws of scarcity moot. Cleveland and Utah (before they used their TPE to acquire Al Jefferson) would compete in any trade involving a TPE making its value low.

Add to that equation the fact that the majority of NBA teams have cleared the decks over the last few seasons to be a player in last summer’s free agency and this summer’s CBA (collective bargaining agreement) and it’s created the perfect storm of high supply and low demand, an exact opposite of what the Raptors need to be successful in any trade discussions.
More back luck?

The model for being a successful franchise in the salary cap era is to rebuild through the draft. The NBA is a league that depends on superstars and a franchise will sometimes need to put themselves in a position to be lucky by losing and getting a higher pick in the draft.

A high pick is no guarantee though as Raptors fans know all too well. In 2006 the Raptors got lucky in a sense by winning the draft lottery and selecting number one overall. The problem is the 2006 draft looks like one of the worst drafts in recent history, producing no real superstar.

The Raptors are playing the part well this season to do the same thing, be in a position to be lucky, but striking out in a superstar-less draft. There may end up being players that can turn franchises around, but right now it looks like the same old story for the Raptors.

- J.Moore

A PSA for Fanatics

Soaps and Sports

Growing up my grandmother used to love watching her “stories”. To some ladies and men General Hospital was their daily medicine, for others it was The Young and the Restless but for this special lady it was Coronation Street, the long-running CBC soap. As a spritely young tike, I couldn’t fathom the value of Britt’s in a perpetual state of flux but as they say “different strokes” right?

This is a PSA for those that will never understand the obsession some have with professional sports. I am not talking the fans that need to see the game, enjoy it and let go from closing buzzer to opening bell. I am referring to the fanatics in the truest sense of the word. These are the men and women that read about it, listen to it, watch it, think about it and in some cases write about it in a way that makes one wonder how they function in the “real world”.

The answer is simple; these are our “stories” as the famous street was to my grandmother.

As media coverage grows, especially in the sports & entertainment realm, the behind the scenes stories that were in the past left only to those in the inner-sanctum of the sport have become available, dissected and almost or as enthralling as the grace that inhabits the court, ice, field, diamond or pitch.

The National Basketball League is going through one of the most enthralling periods with more twists, turns and characters since the Air Jordon era. An era that reads like a Sorkin-esque (see: The Social Network, The West Wing, A Few Good Men) script with Scorsese behind the lens.

William Wesley

First let me introduce some of the players. Meet William Wesley aka Worldwide Wes:

http://bit.ly/3ZG0aQ

This is a man that may be the most influential man in the NBA. Yes, more influential then a GM, owner or even the commish David Stern. The simple reason, and these reason are never such, is because the NBA is a player-driven league. Every league has stars but NBA players by the nature of the sport hold more power then players in other sports because of scarcity; there are fewer players on an NBA roster than any other sport, making them more valuable. Worldwide Wes’ core competency is getting close to the biggest players in the game and more importantly gaining influence of their business decisions.

Mikhail Prokhorov

Now Meet Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets. A polarizing figure that has speculated ties to the Russian mafia.

http://bit.ly/dLEH9E

Now why would a billionaire buy into one of the least valued franchise that lacks talent and a viable place to play the game? Two reasons: the first is ego. This is a man that has defied the odds and come out on top at every delineation. The second reason is far more calculated, the New Jersey Nets will soon become the Brooklyn Nets. Possibly the shortest move, distance wise, in sports history might potentially work out to be the most valuable move from a dollars and cents perspective.

How do these two connect?

Carmelo Anthony.

In the summer of 2010 Wesley and Prokhorov had a shared goal, eventually get LeBron James to the state of New York. Wesley, acting as an advisor to James dreaming of the economic boom James would bring to himself and his business if James played for the Knickerbockers and Prokhorov aiming to make the Nets look like a viable franchise entering the move to Brooklyn.

Both parties were spurned when James decided to take his talents to South Beach. They have now set their sights on Anthony, the latest superstar that has placed himself on the market by requesting a trade from his current team.

http://yhoo.it/dGxJpe

With the big-business melodrama (excuse the pun) that is playing out behind the scenes in this rare instance one has to feel for the player. He would seem to be a pawn in a bigger picture that involves men looking out for their own interests bound to come together for mutual benefit.

How will this play out? Who knows…

One thing that should be noted, CAA (Creative Artists Agency) is the group that represents the NBA’s biggest stars including Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The agency also has a huge stake in the entertainment industry including connections with Nets minority owner Jay Z.

The collective bargaining agreement expires July 1. David Stern may have more issues on the agenda then simple salary reduction and hard cap.

- J.Moore

The Death of Parity?

Success Begets Success and Superstars Beget Superstars

In months and years leading to the 2010 offseason, you remember that one right (see James, LeBron and Bosh, Chris), the prevailing wisdom from those in the know and those in the don’t know was that three superstars on the same team, while theoretically possible, was so improbable it prompted immediate and prolonged laughter.

Well it turns out the city of Cleveland was not the only one looking foolish in August 2010, the preverbal egg was all over our collective faces.

Fast-forward only half a season later and now not only has the Miami Heat, pulling-off the major coup that netted (excuse the pun) the big (LeBron), the talented (Wade) and the lanky (Bosh), broken the mold but they have also started the trend.

Followers of the NBA have been bored to death sitting and waiting with not so baited breath for the Carmelo Anthony situation to be resolved. On the surface the situation is typical, another superstar requesting a trade. However, the second layer off the onion reveals a deeper “problem” for the NBA. For the second year in a row, a superstar wants to leave a successful small-market team in pursuit of an opportunity to play with superstar friends, masked with proclamations of championship aspirations.

Chris Paul has also made deliberate overtures to his club that he’d like to be traded to a team like New York that sports Amare Stoudemire and rumored to acquire Carmelo Anothony. Combine those rumors within recent ones involving Dwight Howard and what does this all mean?

The death of parity in the NBA.

What is parity you ask, and why does it matter?

Well since you asked…

Parity is essentially the state or condition of being equal. In sports terms it means that wins and losses can fluctuate from year to year for any team. In any given year, your favourite team has a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

The four major North American sports leagues (NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL) have sought parity over the last two decades by introducing salary restrictions and caps to keep interest and attendance high in markets that cannot compete financially with major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The problem is that any rule that can be made can be broken and in the NBA General Managers have found ways to circumvent salary cap restrictions and build super-teams such as the Lakers, Celtics and now Heat.

If the trend continues and the allocation of assets continues to dissipate the “middle class” of basketball, 20 of the 30 NBA communities will be made irrelevant because teams will be playing for very little.

So is parity or the trend that might produce its death good or bad?

On one hand it will create possible dynasties like in the 60s, 70s and 80s, not to mention uber-competitive matches between a handful of teams.

On the other hand hope and interest will wane for local teams, thus affecting league attendance and theoretically league revenues.

What do you think, is the death of parity good or bad?

- J.Moore

The Perfect Game…

To most Raptors fans, the game last night at the ACC between the not-so Hot-lanta (see weather reports for the Atlanta area) and the local not-so purple Dino’s ended with a heart fluttering miss and a sense that the Raptors missed out on another opportunity.

What fans should have felt was a sigh of relief. Entering the game between one of the Eastern Conferences best teams, the Raptors held the dual role of being one of the conferences worst while still have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.
This dual role is dangerous on numerous fronts but let us just explore a few. The first is obvious; a mini four or five game-winning streak could easily put them in the seventh or eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. A picture that would look pretty grim after being swept by the Bosh-inhabited Miami Heat, even more grim when considering that a rebuilding team sacrificed as many as 10-15 draft slots for a few more wins and “playoff experience”.

Let Craziness Ensue

The other reason is the fragile and sensitive states of psyche basketball fans in Toronto have. So far this season has been met with tempered expectations and bold proclamations from fans have been severely muted. However, if this incarnation of the Raptors has the label of “playoff team” beside it, things could get messy fast going into next season. The last thing this franchise needs is public pressure on a trigger-happy GM to make a quick-fix move that sacrifices future.

The 70-30 Rule

The Toronto Raptors have long been a middle of the pack team. Very seldom, especially in the last decade has the team been in the bottom five, as far as record, in the league. They tend to finish in or around the playoffs, slightly in or slightly out. This is a major problem. The last position you want your team rank to be is in the middle 70% of the league. To have long-term sustainable success the team needs to be in the bottom 15% in the league, get lucky in the draft and then, and only then, can the team make the climb into the top 15%.

The Perfect Game

Back to the game. It was perfect. One of the more entertaining games of the season with plenty of offence, spectacular individual performances from Leandro Barbosa, Jamal Crawford and Andrea Bargnani and plenty of nail biting drama. For a minute I actually thought the Raptors might have won...

The Raptors lost, now fans rejoice!