They could have tried that live during the course of a year and decided whether it was something that could work long term without any concern.
For example, last season we read about New England trying to sandwich an outside-zone-style running game into their scheme during training camp to disastrous results. In hindsight the answer is obvious, but given how the last few years have transpired, I wonder whether the Patriots could have applied their winning-edge formula to a period of tanking and made the best of it. They won seven games, which put them in a middle-round draft slot, far removed from Lawrence (or any of the other two quarterbacks, Trey Lance and Zach Wilson, who were believed to be a tier below). The Patriots were coming off an obvious breaking point following the departure of Tom Brady in 2020 and chose to ride the roster out with a still-useful-but-obviously-limited Cam Newton. While the hypothetical pairing of Belichick and, say, Trevor Lawrence is not directly analogous to Popovich and Wembanyama, there are enough similarities to conduct the thought experiment. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports (Belichick) Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union/USA TODAY Network (Lawrence) While the NBA lottery system theoretically disincentivizes tanking better than the NFL format of going strictly by record, the Spurs, following the dispensing of their incredible core, allowed themselves to be better suited to accumulate talent instead of scraping for a low-end playoff spot.Īs a football obsessive, it brings one question to mind: What might have happened if the NFL’s version of Popovich, Bill Belichick, had made the same decision following the breakup of his own dynasty? The one who got away? Of course, the part we’ll talk less about is the fact that Popovich was willing to lose for a few seasons to put himself in a position to get Wembanyama. The combination of Gregg Popovich and Victor Wembanyama has predictably made us salivate and wonder what it might be like to see someone with a skill set we can’t quite fathom in the hands of someone who built a modern dynasty that yielded five championships and 22 straight trips to the playoffs.
One of the greatest coaches and overall team-builders in NBA history is going to draft one of the best prospects in modern NBA history No.
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