In sports nothing is worse than mediocrity.  Obviously everyone strives to win as many games as possible and their sports respective championship at the end of every year, but only one team is going to pull that off.  There will then be a number of teams that fall just short, and more that are a move or two away.  At the very bottom there are teams that are a reasonable kind of hopeless.  No, they know they aren’t winning the title that year, but they see something in their core players that can be built on.

The upside to being a bad team is typically that said team is playing younger players and hoping they’ll get better.  Ideally, one of those players has an especially bright future and could potentially be a franchise cornerstone if everything goes right over the next two or three years.  That is the blueprint on a successful rebuilding job.  After two or three years of bad then mediocre then finally near playoff level play, the team hopes to add a veteran role player or if they’re lucky enough, a star to complete the puzzle.  THIS is how winning teams get built. (more…)