Dean Brown on throwing games:The integrity of your manager, coaches and players is at stake when people believe you are no longer trying to win. That is worth far more than a lost season or a chance at the #1 pick. That can lose you a generation of ticket buyers who would always wonder.The problem is, thought, that it isn't just a season that is at risk. Ask our favorite whipping boys, the Toronto Maple Leafs, just how well this being lousy enough to miss the playoffs but not being lousy enough to get a shot at the #1 pick is doing.
The only conclusion we can draw from this is that you can't have players or coaches tank a season -- it has to be done from management, by trading away present assets and loading the team with liabilities so that you can end up with a chance to draft a new center of the team.
...hmmm, wasn't there a movie like that?
Realistically, Ottawa has a core of players who are good enough to not be the worst, no matter who's backing them up. Right now we stand a real chance of continuing mediocrity... and this city isn't as tolerant of mediocrity as some other markets.
