Miami “Heat” currently sit a precarious 1/2 game ahead of Orlando, on 8th Place, the last street in Middletown before the Lottery Project slum. Miami is favored to stay on 8th Place and thus to make the playoffs. In which they will face Milwaukee “Bucks” who will beat them like a drum, likely in four straight games, in five (one Miami win) at most. Miami has NO CHANCE to win that series.
Which prompts the following consideration: Would it not then be better for Miami to not make the playoffs? To start U-Has and R. Anderson, for example, to save wear and tear on the better players (if such a distinction can be made)? To “tank,” in reality? The allure of a tanking strategy is to get a 40% shot at a top four draft pick whereas 8th Place residents have no shot. The likely result is no change in draft position from a team’s reverse order finish in the standings whether that is 7th, 8th or 9th place. Tanking offers the allure of hope to this Miami franchise, which is otherwise locked into Middletown for one more season, of immediate and dramatic improvement from the skirt of Lottery Project and a bypass of Middletown to the Upper Least Side.
Hope is alluring; this hope is alluring; Riley isn’t doing it. Tanking is against everything “Heat Culture” means if it means anything at all. Tanking is corruption. You’re trying to lose. It is against the competitive spirit of sport which makes sport so compelling to follow. The “Heat” will not tank, which moots the consideration from reality based discourse. The consideration, “Should Miami tank tank” is left to the classes in metaphysics and ethics offered on sports talk radio. “Manny from Hialeah, you’re on the air.”
Which prompts the following consideration: Would it not then be better for Miami to not make the playoffs? To start U-Has and R. Anderson, for example, to save wear and tear on the better players (if such a distinction can be made)? To “tank,” in reality? The allure of a tanking strategy is to get a 40% shot at a top four draft pick whereas 8th Place residents have no shot. The likely result is no change in draft position from a team’s reverse order finish in the standings whether that is 7th, 8th or 9th place. Tanking offers the allure of hope to this Miami franchise, which is otherwise locked into Middletown for one more season, of immediate and dramatic improvement from the skirt of Lottery Project and a bypass of Middletown to the Upper Least Side.
Hope is alluring; this hope is alluring; Riley isn’t doing it. Tanking is against everything “Heat Culture” means if it means anything at all. Tanking is corruption. You’re trying to lose. It is against the competitive spirit of sport which makes sport so compelling to follow. The “Heat” will not tank, which moots the consideration from reality based discourse. The consideration, “Should Miami tank tank” is left to the classes in metaphysics and ethics offered on sports talk radio. “Manny from Hialeah, you’re on the air.”
