The usual sports season in Cleveland goes as follows: Training camp, followed by exhibition games, the excitement of Opening Day, and then deciding if and when the old home team should go into full tanking mode.
Yes, there are exceptions, such as last year’s Indians, when the season concludes with a post-season berth, but even the Tribe went through a discussion about whether or not the team should start selling off assets.
It seems that anytime a Cleveland professional team reaches the halfway point in the season and are more than three games out of a playoff spot, the knee jerk reaction of many people is that the team should look toward next season.
Even in the NBA, it is beneficial to make the playoffs, especially if you have a young team whose future is ahead of them.
There are several things at play in determining whether or not a team should throw in the towel, and the relative age of the squad is first and foremost among them.
The only thing worse than being a bad team is being a bad, old team.
While we all know the Indians made it to the wild card playoff game last season, but in late July, Terry Francona’s team was sitting at 52-48 and had just the eighth best record in the American League.
The July 31st trade deadline was coming up, and there were plenty of fans and people in the media who felt GM Chris Antonetti should think about dealing Asdrubal Cabrera and others for more prospects.
Obviously, they were wrong.
Now, you have people longing for the Cavaliers to get back in the draft lottery even though they were five games out of the playoff spot. That was a week ago. After four straight wins, they are 3-1/2 games out.
Yes, this is a good draft, but there doesn’t appear to be a LeBron James type player. So, you might get a player who will be an all-star one day, but he likely won’t be at that level for a few years.
Moreover, the Cavs are already a very young team. Does it make sense to add yet another young player? Or would they be better off getting some valuable playoff experience?
Since making the playoffs would be a step forward for the franchise, they should go for it. If they were stuck in a quagmire of first round losses over a three or four-year span, then they might be better off getting into the lottery.
So we come to the rules for when to tank and when not to. In football, since there are only 16 games, and virtually no trades are made, you can’t really tank. However, you can decide to play young players and hope they get better for the future.
In baseball, when it is clear you are out of the race, let’s say you are 15 games out of a playoff spot at the All-Star break, then you should trade older veterans and potential free agents for prospects to help with the club’s future.
If you are within five or six games of the last spot, why not try to improve the team and take a shot at getting in the post-season? Once you are in the playoffs, you have a decent shot at winning. That’s the way the sport is. Heck, the Cardinals won 83 games in the regular season a few years ago and won the World Series.
In basketball, again, if a team is clearly out of the playoff race, then they should try to get in the draft lottery. If there is a franchise player available and you probably can’t advance if the post-season, then you should tank.
However, if you are a young team on the way up and there’s no elite player in the draft, why not take a chance and try to make the playoffs.
We realize that younger fans lean more toward looking at next season, while older fans want to win now.
However, if you have a chance to make the post-season, you should take it. There are times to blow everything up and there are times to push forward.
In Cleveland, the reflex action too often is to tank a season.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 