Stinging the Rebuilding Process

Welcome to the Route 30 Detour! US Route 30 intersects at I-95 in Philadelphia and goes from coast to coast, including passing through Pittsburgh and the home of Drexel University SMT student and blog contributor, Bryan Fyalkowski (@fyalkowski)...




The NBA Draft Lottery is always an exciting event. Not for the entertainment value, mind you, but the fact that opportunity is in the air. On May 30, 2012, just before the Miami Heat would take on the Boston Celtics in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Draft Lottery was held in New York City.

As the competitive NBA teams play towards a championship, the bottom feeders look to receive a high draft pick to build their team for the future. Representatives from the 14 non-playoff NBA teams attend the event, like Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's son, Nick Gilbert, who always looks hip in his nerdy garb.

 Ugh.

One of those bottom feeders was the New Orleans Hornets who, at the time, were owned by the NBA and finished the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season with a 21-45 record, tied for the third-worst in the league. Although the Hornets had only a the fourth-best chance (13.7%) of getting the top pick, the ping pong balls came up in their favor.

Aside from conspiracy theories and other concerns about an NBA-owned team winning the Draft Lottery, it was the beginning of a very busy summer for the Hornets. On June 15, the NBA completed the sale of the Hornets to New Orleans Saints' owner Tom Benson for the price of $338 million, a sale that had been in process for two months.

During the 2012 NBA Draft on June 28, in addition to first-overall pick Anthony Davis, the Hornets drafted Austin Rivers in the tenth slot and Darius Miller in the second round. Rivers was taken with a draft pick the Hornets got in return for Chris Paul, who they traded to the Los Angeles Clippers before the season began.

 Note: That is NOT Darius Miller in the center.

In July, the Hornets completed two trades that drastically improved their front court. Putting out a lineup last season that included Emeka Okafor and Chris Kaman was not getting it done, so the Hornets went out and traded for Ryan Anderson from the Orlando Magic, and Robin Lopez and Hakim Warrick from the Phoenix Suns.

These moves allowed the Hornets to dump Okafor and Kaman, while getting solid depth to take some weight off of the Davis' 19-year-old shoulders. The acquisition of Lopez will allow Davis to play his natural position of power forward when matched up with a over sized center, such as Dwight Howard or Marc Gasol. Meanwhile, Warrick has been a valuable bench player since he has come into the league.

Threes on threes on threes on threes on threes...

Anderson agreed to a four-year, $36-million sign-and-trade to the Hornets, which will allow the 24-year-old breakout star to provide some continuity in the lineup. To add even more stability in the lineup, the Hornets matched a four-year, $59-million maximum offer sheet that the Suns gave to restricted free agent Eric Gordon.

Gordon was the key piece that the Hornets got in return for Paul. He is a 23-year-old star guard, but his career effectiveness on the court has taken a hit due to his continual visits to the IR. Although Gordon said he wanted to go to Phoenix and start anew, matching the offer sheet was absolutely the right thing to do for the Hornets.

 

Unfortunately a very common sight.

With a manageable roster on paper, the Hornets now needed to lock up one of the most promising young coaches in the league. Monty Williams came from the Nate McMillan coaching tree, having served as assistant coach under him for five seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Williams was offered the head coaching job with the Hornets for the 2010-11 season and did not disappoint, leading the team to the seventh seed in the Western Conference with a 46-36 record and an eventual 4-2 loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe absolutely torches the team that originally drafted him.

Even after a disappointing 2011-12 season, in which the Hornets went 21-45, new ownership still has confidence in Williams, and they proved it by locking him up with a four-year extension on August 19, which will run through 2015-16. This was absolutely the right thing to do as Williams has the confidence and coaching ability to lead this group of young players to become a competitive team for years to come.

As Kevin Rossi touched upon in his I-95 article last week, NBA teams who are not the Lakers or the Heat need to find ways to rebuild and become competitive again. While the Magic have just begun the rebuilding process, the Hornets endured one terrible season and come come through the other end of the tunnel.

You got traded, can you shut up now please?

With young talent such as Davis, Rivers, Anderson and Gordon locked up for the next four seasons expect the Hornets to be in the playoff hunt during that time. This team is young, but supremely talented, which is all you can ask for when building the nucleus of a roster.

Sprinkle in some solid role players, such as Miller and Warrick, and some viable bench options, such as Greivis Vasquez and Al-Farouq Aminu, and that builds a legitimate contender. Plus, Williams is only 40-years-old and is likely to emerge as a great coach and leader for many years.

YOU DA MAN!

Things like the draft and the salary cap exist so that teams have a chance to pick themselves up from the dumps and become relevant again. Franchises hurt themselves by not taking full advantage of these things while the team is not championship caliber, and that is why they struggle for many years.

It is always difficult to face the fact of rebuilding as a professional sports franchise, but the Hornets are an excellent example of what can happen if you swallow your pride and accept that things have to get worse in order for them to get better.

Enjoy your trip back to I-95 and I'll see you next week!

Guest Post: Athletes and Trademarks

Anthony Davis is having a great year.  Back in April he led the Kentucky Wildcats to their first National Championship since 1998.  Last Thursday he was selected first overall in the NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets.  But before he was drafted he decided to cash in on one of his features that everyone makes fun of: the unibrow.  Davis trademarked the phrases “Fear the Brow” and “Raise the Brow”.  Since he is able to embrace the unibrow he can now cash in on T-shirts and other merchandise that will be made with those sayings on them.  He was not able to file for intellectual property rights while he was in school because college athletes are not allowed to profit off the trademarking.  Kentucky helped him out by filing for the trademark and sending out multiple cease-and-desist letters to people who were using the phrases. 

This practice of trademarking phrases has been more popular recently but one of the first people to do it was Pat Riley in 1989.  After coaching the Los Angeles Lakers to back to back titles Riley decided to trademark both “3-Peat” and “Three Peat”.  Unfortunately for the Lakers they did not win the title in 1990.  Pat Riley was still able to make money a few years later in 1993.  The Chicago Bulls that year won their third straight title and Pat Riley received royalties on all Bulls’ merchandise that had the phrases he owned on them.  It is estimated that Riley made 300,000 dollars from the Bulls “Three Peat”.  He later received more royalties for the Bulls second “three peat” in 1998, and also the Lakers and Yankees championships in more recent years. 

Another player in the NBA that filed for a trademark this year was Jeremy Lin.  Everyone probably remembers his amazing run for the New York Knicks early in the season.  During his run the term “Linsanity” was created.  Five games into “Linsanity” Lin filed for the trademark along with many other people.  As of last month Lin is the only one remaining who is trying to trademark that term. 

The NBA is not the only league in which athletes try to trademark their slogans.  In 2005 when he was on the Boston Red Sox Manny Ramirez filed for a trademark on “Manny being Manny”.  This trademark has now been abandoned.  Recently Bryce Harper filed for a trademark on his now famous quote “That’s a clown question, bro”.  When this quote was originally said the social media world blew up over it.  It became the number one trending topic on Twitter that day.  Harper filed for the trademark less than 24 hours after he initialed said the quote.  This now gave the up and coming superstar a great slogan to go with his talent.  Under Armour has already begun to print shirts with the quote on it.    

The NFL has had many examples in recent years of players trademarking their slogans.  Derrelle Revis trademarked “Revis Island” after Michael Bloomberg said he was going to rename Manhattan that.  Terrell Owens, when he was on the Cowboys, trademarked “Love Me Some Me” and Michael Strahan trademarked “Stomp You Out”.  A less known trademark comes from the bizarre Jared Allen whose slogan is “Got Strange”. 

Robert Griffin III has not even taken a snap yet but he is already cashing in on his trademarks.  Griffin created his own company called Thr3escompany, LLC and filed for trademarks for RGIII, RG3, Robert Griffin III, and Unbelievably Believable.  Everyone in the Washington DC area from food vendors to people selling custom shirts were cashing in on Griffin’s name.  All the shirts have now been pulled off the market and now Griffin will receiving royalties for the shirt sales. 

The most famous and most annoying trademark to some people has to be from Tim Tebow.  His “Tebowing” had become an international hit with everyone and their mother doing the pose and taking pictures of it.  The first person to file for the trademark was not Tebow but Jared Kleinstein.  Kleinstein ran the website called Tebowing.com and filed for the trademark two months before Tebow.  He was eventually denied because he had no relationship to Tebow at all. 

I am definitely a fan of the trademarking of athletes’ slogans.  It is a smart move to add another revenue stream.  The players are capitalizing on their fame while they have it and by doing so maximizing their earnings.  In the future I see this trend continuing and bringing us more enjoyable and witty slogans.

By: Greg Monforte

After the Brow, Take a Bow

Welcome to the Route 30 Detour! US Route 30 intersects at I-95 in Philadelphia and goes from coast to coast, including passing through Pittsburgh and the home of Drexel University SMT student and blog contributor, Bryan Fyalkowski (@fyalkowski)...




During the 2012 NBA Draft on Thursday, 30 teams will try to nab franchise players and role players, while trying to avoid becoming the 1984 Portland Trail Blazers. However, this year's draft class seems to be lacking a true second star behind Kentucky's Anthony Davis, so it might be pretty difficult for there to be a Sam Bowie-type situation that unfolds.

Am I better than MJ yet?

Although the NBA Draft is only two rounds, it might be the most important in all of the four major sports. In basketball, one player can affect a team more than in any other sport and a good draft pick can single-handedly make a team a contender. With the small rosters and low number of impact players, most teams only need a few additions to their team each season, and the draft goes a long way towards that.

See: LeBron James on the Cavs.

Most importantly, as you may expect, the first round is the most vital to acquiring an impact player in the NBA. In the 2011-12 season, 27 of the top 28 scorers (Monta Ellis), 12 of the top 13 assisters (Jose Calderon) and 16 of the 17 top rebounders (Paul Millsap) were first round picks.

Haters gonna hate.

In the NFL, the only position that is consistently chosen in the first round is the quarterback. Other than that position, a starter in any other position could come from basically any other round. Of course high-round picks are more likely to become stars, which is why people make a big deal about players like Marques Colston, Tom Brady and other successful late-round picks.

For the MLB draft, it will be a few years after until you find out whether or not it has been successful. Because of the difference in sport philosophy, and the multiple tiers of minor league teams, each franchise is usually very protective of its young talent. In the meantime of that talent developing, teams will sign middle-tier free agents to hold starting spots until the young guns show up.

Or just DFA him in five years...

The NHL is the league most similar to the NBA in drafting philosophy and worth. There are usually a few players in each draft that are impact players and can improve the team immediately, but not as many immediate role players that can go on the big league roster. Plus, in hockey it is hard to compete without a goaltender and they are found throughout the draft, not just the first round.

Will the talent in the 2012 NBA Draft be abundant like it was in 2003, with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony? Or will it be more like the disappointing draft of 2001, with Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry among the top four picks?

Here was the third overall pick in 2001. Close one.

Anthony Davis seems to be in a class of his own, a consensus top pick. But following the number one pick, there still seems to be a large second tier of great talent.

Thomas Robinson and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are gritty players who work hard on the defensive end with offensive upside.

Bradley Beal, Dion Waiters and Jeremy Lamb are all underclassmen two-guards who have room to improve to round out their games.

Kendall Marshall and upstart Damian Lillard of Weber State are the top point guards available and Austin Rivers has the ability to play either guard spot.

Two big guys, Andre Drummond and Meyers Leonard are young and raw, but could be capable tall trees in the near future.

Harrison Barnes and Tyler Zeller are can't-miss picks, while Perry Jones III, John Henson and Terrence Jones have had inconsistency issues, but hold greater upside.

And we cannot forget about Jared Sullinger, who might fall due to health issues, but could become the steal of the draft if he lives up to his potential.

Also, look for key role players such as Draymond Green, Royce White, Jeff Taylor and Tyshawn Taylor to come off late in the first round to contenders. Meanwhile, Marquette stars Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder, among others, will serve as great value picks in the second round.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, in the second round we go!

Oh, and get used to hearing the word POTENTIAL, because draft "experts" love that word.

Enjoy your trip back to I-95 and I'll see you next week!

Dollars & Sense - Charlotte Bobcats Season Tickets

The announcement may as well have been, “With the first pick in the 2012 National Basketball Association draft, Anthony Davis will be selected by…”  The Charlotte Bobcats earned themselves a 25% percent chance at the first pick in the draft after an impressively abysmal 7-59 season for the worst winning percentage (or best losing percentage, depending on how you look at things) in NBA history.  Interestingly enough, the Bobcats were not able to secure the top pick because the hand of God (or the hand of David Stern if you believe in the NBA Draft Lottery conspiracy theory) handpicked the New Orleans Hornets. 

Back to those lowly Bobcats.  They ended up with the second pick in the upcoming NBA draft, quite a consolation prize.  With Anthony Davis sure to be off the board, Michael Jordan and the Bobcats will have to “settle” for Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Kansas’s Thomas Robinson (maybe they will go with Drexel standout Samme Givens?  I can dream, right?).  Because they will not be employing the services of the most marketable unibrow since Frida Kahlo, the Bobcats will need to find a different way to push season ticket sales. 

Their decision?  Buy season tickets for the 2012-2013 season and get season tickets free in 2013-2014.  Price packages start around $540, which for two seasons worth of season tickets is a can’t-miss deal. 

This practice is unheard of in professional sports.  Teams never want to devalue their ticket to a point that it would be tough to return.  Even though the Bobcats were, well, the worst team in the history of the entire National Basketball Association, they may have gone too far on this gimmick. 

The Sense

I think this is a terrible idea on the part of the Bobcats.  The objective of the deal is to get butts in the seats for a team that was 25th in attendance in the league because butts in seats for free is better than no butts in seats.  Although the objective is understood, execution is another story.

The gimmick may drive ticket sales in the short term.  Who can pass up buy one get one free tickets to see an NBA game, as bad as the team may be?  It remains to be seen how positive of an effect there will be because it’s simply too early.

Issues with the buy one get one free season ticket deal arise in the long run.  Essentially, people will not want to go back to paying the “normal” prices.  Say MKG or Thomas Robinson are good enough to turn the Charlotte franchise around and they become a team that is in the playoff hunt for a few years.  Obviously the team will not want to be running a similar type of season ticket gimmick when they should be driving ticket sales and revenue.  The problem is basic consumer psychology.  Why would they buy tickets for the full price when they have seen the team offer gimmicks like this before?  They will simply wait until the team brings back the customer-friendly deals.  Value of a Bobcats ticket may have already been at an all-time low, but they sure aren’t doing too much to dig their way out.  They may have devalued their own tickets to a point of no return.

So, for the first time in Dollars & Sense history, the dollars make absolutely no sense.  No business, let alone an NBA franchise, should ever sacrifice the long term for short term gains.  That’s business 101 and that's June’s first Dollars & Sense. 

- Data came from CBS Sports.