Had a thought while I was watching the game today:
How can Masai make a move to tank while the team is playing so well?
It's possible he's very frustrated by the success the team has had post-Gay, because it makes it so hard (objectively, from a non-analytic standpoint) to justify blowing it up.
Think about it:
A lot of teams are tanking this year.
As relatively avid fans of basketball, we know this (though it was never publicly announced).
But almost all of them were tanking out of the gate.
They made their moves in the offeseason.
If the Raps were to blow it up, right now, while winning and looking good, it would probably be the most blatant case of tanking ever attempted.
Has a team ever done it?
How many casual fans would understand it?
Will the MLSE allow it?
Folks around here are very interested in basketball.
Most of you know the ins and outs of the game, and the business behind the game.
Most don't.
I didn't, for many years - all I cared about was how good the players on the team were.
That me, that passionate but uninformed fan, would not have been happy about the Raptors shipping out Amir and Lowry and DeRozan for draft picks; would not have been happy about going from exciting and interesting basketball to...what the Knicks are doing.
It's a tough pill to swallow, even if you are told that it's the right path to future success (and how many fans would believe this, without doing all the research that we do?)
It's a real tricky position for the MLSE to be in.
Maintaining integrity while doing what's right for the future.
Tricky.
This may, realistically, be what Masai has to wrestle with more than anything:
Not the business of basketball, but the concessions to business.
How can Masai make a move to tank while the team is playing so well?
It's possible he's very frustrated by the success the team has had post-Gay, because it makes it so hard (objectively, from a non-analytic standpoint) to justify blowing it up.
Think about it:
A lot of teams are tanking this year.
As relatively avid fans of basketball, we know this (though it was never publicly announced).
But almost all of them were tanking out of the gate.
They made their moves in the offeseason.
If the Raps were to blow it up, right now, while winning and looking good, it would probably be the most blatant case of tanking ever attempted.
Has a team ever done it?
How many casual fans would understand it?
Will the MLSE allow it?
Folks around here are very interested in basketball.
Most of you know the ins and outs of the game, and the business behind the game.
Most don't.
I didn't, for many years - all I cared about was how good the players on the team were.
That me, that passionate but uninformed fan, would not have been happy about the Raptors shipping out Amir and Lowry and DeRozan for draft picks; would not have been happy about going from exciting and interesting basketball to...what the Knicks are doing.
It's a tough pill to swallow, even if you are told that it's the right path to future success (and how many fans would believe this, without doing all the research that we do?)
It's a real tricky position for the MLSE to be in.
Maintaining integrity while doing what's right for the future.
Tricky.
This may, realistically, be what Masai has to wrestle with more than anything:
Not the business of basketball, but the concessions to business.
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