SuperRaptor wrote:
View Post
But I'll also play the bad guy here and say that every year before training camp opens, optimism springs eternal. It was the same thing last year, a number of people on these forums thought the Raps could make the playoffs, and look how that ended up. Obviously there are always factors like injuries, etc that contribute, but it's so much easier to be positive about the immediate future when games aren't being played.
Potential takes time and a LOT of games/experience to develop, and for some reason people forget that at the start of the season, instead basing their predictions on how the season would play out if that potential were realized immediately, or on the idea that the players will grasp a coach's system immediately and begin playing lockdown D from game 1, etc. These things take time, and in a 66-game season you simply don't have it.
The advantage in a shortened season is with the veteran teams, the teams with continuity and superior talent, who can win by virtue of those things alone. And as others have said, spending a year giving as much playing time as possible to the younger guys so you can get an idea of what the team has and what it needs going forward is by no means a wasted season. I would instead argue it's the wisest course of action and the best way to position the team for long-term and sustained success.
Comment