Building a New “Wall” in Washington

“Mr. Prokhorov, you can’t tear down this wall”

There is a new era in Washington as the Wizards won the draft lottery for only the second time in franchise history in DC. Even though they had the sixth best chance of earning the top spot, they lucked out over several teams to draft first overall in June 24ths’s draft. The New Jersey Nets had the best chance, who, with new Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov at the helm, were trying to entice Lebron James to come to Brooklyn with the #1 pick and Jay-Z.

The consensus best player in the draft is Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall, followed by Ohio State’s Evan Turner. Luckily this gives the Wizards the perfect opportunity to part ways with Gilbert Arenas and usher in a new era for the franchise. After jettisoning Jamison, Butler and Haywood, Washington can now ship out the gun-toting Arenas and the rest of his $100 million contract to make room for Wall.

Another part of the new era of the franchise is the arrival of new owner Ted Leonsis, taking over for the late Abe Pollin. Hopefully he follows his model with the Capitals, which includes drafting Ovechkin, Backstrom, Green, Semin and Varlamov, and not the Wizards’ formula. The Wizards either draft well, but trade the players before they reach their potential, like Devin Harris, Steve Blake, Richard Hamilton, and Rasheed Wallace, or makes a colossal bust. At least Jordan isn’t around anymore to work out the players before hand and botch the only other time they had a #1 overall pick with Kwame Brown.

This will be the fourth #1 overall pick since 2004 for DC area sports teams, which isn’t surprising for the city with the longest 4-team title drought. While Strasburg has yet to pitch a game, and the Nats have not even drafted their #1 pick this year yet, the Wizards can only hope that Wall will pan out as well as Ovechkin has for the Caps. They could easily trade down and draft more players to fit their many needs, but the Wizards desperately need a new face of the franchise.

Cavs and Caps Epic Playoff Fail

Well that was a disastrous spring. My sweet playoff beard for the Caps and Cavs lasted all of two rounds, barely a month. They both had the best records in the league, Presidents Cup, MVP, all for nothing. Now the future of both teams are cloudy. Obviously Lebron can leave after July 1, but the Cavs need to retool to keep him here. Shaq is too old and slow, Jamison is too soft, Mo Williams is too inconsistent, but there are many promising free agents to be Lebron’s Pippen if he wants to stay. Meanwhile, the Caps need to resign Backstrom, who is the key to the offense, as well as find a shutdown defenseman who is not looking to score first, like Green. At least the Nats are going on a World Series run and have their own savior.

Win the Trophies that Matter

Now that Lebron has won his second MVP trophy, the Cavaliers are now seeking a more important one, a NBA title. However, setting records and getting multiple shiny trophies is obviously secondary to team success. My favorite NBA, NHL, and NFL players are now the two-time reigning MVP’s but have had no team success to show for it at the end of those seasons, with only this year’s Cavs left. After winning his third and forth MVP the past two seasons, Peyton Manning’s Colts failed to claim the Lombardi Trophy. Alex Ovechkin’s MVP seasons ended in first and second round defeats for the Caps. This year even though OV is a finalist for another Hart Trophy, Washington was bounced early from the playoffs yet again. Last year, after winning Cleveland sports’ first MVP since Brian Sipe 30 years ago, the Cavs fell to the Magic before reaching the Finals to meet Kobe and his Lakers. In fact, when Peyton did win his only Super Bowl in 2006, Tomlinson was the MVP. While the most valuable player not winning the title is nothing new, the stats are interesting.

If Lebron doesn’t deliver Cleveland a championship, he’ll be the seventh straight MVP in the NBA to fail to bring home the Larry O’Brien trophy. Tim Duncan was the last to accomplish both, in 2002-03, part of a 37% correlation since 1956. However, of the 20 instances out of 54, 8 were just two players, Jordan and Russell.

In the NFL, only 26% of MVP’s won the title, with Kurt Warner in 1999 being the most recent. Strangely enough, between 1993 and 1999 seasons 5 of 7 MVP’s accomplished the feat as well as 4 straight in from 1959-1962.

Even though the Hart Trophy has been around in the NHL for 82 years, only 15 or 18% of those winners took home the Stanley Cup. Even when the Great One rattled off eight straight MVPs, the Oilers only won three championships. The last instance was Martin St. Louis and the Lightning in 2003-04.

The MLB is a little different since there are two MVP’s and less teams in the playoffs. The correlation that one of the MVP’s wins the World Series is higher than the other sports at 47%. From 1939 to 1948, all ten champion teams had the MVP on their roster. However, only one MVP has won the Commissioners Trophy in the past 25 seasons, and that was Kirk Gibson…on one leg.

When looking at one of the most prestigious individual awards in team sports, the Heisman, there is a small correlation as well at 14%. Even though the Heisman sometimes is just the best player on the best team that season, like this year with Alabama’s Ingram, the numbers for the BCS trophy are still low.

While winning the MVP is by no means a curse, like Madden cover or Sports Illustrated cover, it is no guarantee of team success as well. Here is the sporcle with the full list of MVP and Title winners.

Note: I used the AP Poll for the NCAA Football title, and I’m well aware that my favorite NFL player should be a Cleveland Brown. But come on, how could any of these QB’s, RB’s, or WR’s be a fan favorite? Hopefully Josh Cribbs does not have a letdown after his contract year last year.

Browns and Skins Should Trade Their 1st Round Pick

Now that the NFL draft is upon us, I felt it was appropriate to update the Browns first round futility post I made earlier last fall. After Cleveland traded Braylon Edwards mid-season I thought their first round draft choice track record could not get any worse. I was way wrong, since during the offseason the front office shipped out pretty boy Brady Quinn and fellow first round pick Kamerion Wimbley. That leaves only Joe Thomas and last year’s pick, Alex Mack, remaining on the team. That’s two players out of their eleven first round draft picks since their reincarnation still on the roster. That 18% retention rate is the worst in the league, with the Skins coming in second at 30%. While one of the top offensive tackles (Okung, Bulaga, Williams) would be a good fit in Chris Samuels absence for the Skins, and the Browns need a defensive game changer like Eric Berry, the evidence points to both teams trading down. Hopefully the new Holmgren and Bruce Allen/Shanahan regimes in DC and Cleveland can reverse these trends. The Browns might as well do this. Here is the updated chart.

Go Home Noah

Really? This guy wants to talk trash about Cleveland? He’s from New York. His Mom was a Swedish supermodel, his dad a tennis pro. Shave your pony tail, and stop riding the coattails of better players, like Al Horford, Corey Brewer, and now Derrick Rose. In case you missed it, in three separate interviews, here are Joakim Noah’s words of wisdom:

“Cleveland really sucks”

“I look outside and it’s depressing. I don’t want to leave the hotel room. It’s all factories. ”

"You like it? You think Cleveland's cool? I never heard anybody say 'I'm going to Cleveland on vacation.' What's so good about Cleveland?"

No shit Sherlock. Ground breaking news. Who wouldn’t want to flee to the Cleve?

Maybe next time you should realize that the best player in your sport and your first round opponent plays there, and you might not want to anger him or else this will happen to your teammate.

It's Playoff (Beard) Time!

This week begins the time honored tradition of growing facial hair for your favorite teams in their playoff push. Whether it be full beards or patches of peach fuzz, you gotta support the team, especially since it’s for charity. Unless of course, you’re Crosby, and its just embarrassing.