http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304281004579220100127683722
<header class="print-header"></header><section class="sector one column col10wide"><header class="module articleHeadgroup"> <!-- data-module-name="resp.module.newsReel.Module" --><!--END NewsReel --><!--BEGIN Article Header --><hgroup class="hgroup clearFix">[h=2]NY Sports[/h][h=1]Have New York Sports Ever Been This Bad?[/h][h=2]Our Experts Break Down What's Wrong and How to Fix It[/h]
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<!-- data-module-name="resp.module.article.BylineAuthorConnect" -->Updated Nov. 25, 2013 10:07 p.m. ET
<article id="articleBody" class="module articleBody" itemprop="articleBody">Happy holidays, Greater New York sports fans!
Here's a lump of coal in your eye.
With the Jets and Giants crashing and burning (respectively), the star-laden Knicks and Nets battling for the Atlantic Division cellar, the Mets and Yankees playoff refugees, and the three local hockey teams far from title contention, 2013 feels like the worst year in the history of metropolitan sports.
But rest easy—it's only the worst since 1966, if you take an average of the nine local teams' latest winning percentages.
And that's just what we did, because we felt fairly certain that, since the Mets' arrival in 1962, local fans had never been treated so shabbily by their pro teams as they have been this year. Alas, we'd forgotten about the mid-1960s, and who could blame us? The Mets and Jets were still in diapers, the glorious Yankees were on the decline, the Giants and Knicks were terrible, and the Nets were so bad they didn't even exist yet.
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Scott Pollack
This year's average winning percentage (though it's early in the NBA and NHL seasons) is just over .410. As in 1966, New York seems to lack even a single quality major-league sports franchise these days, and can boast just one winning team.
How did we come to this? And is the light at the end of the tunnel even plugged in? Here's an overview of the local sports landscape as it stands, and some notes on whether we should hold our collective breath for any improvement.
[h=6]Giants (4-7)[/h] On the first play of the Giants' first game this season, Eli Manning dropped back to pass and threw the ball directly to an opposing defender.
With that interception, the tone for a season of ineptitude was established. The Giants went on to start 0-6 and haven't sniffed .500 since.
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Through it all, a team with two Super Bowl triumphs in the past six years has displayed a remarkable propensity for shooting itself in the foot with high-caliber weaponry. The Giants' offense leads the league in turnovers, the defense has been torched by big plays and their special teams are on pace to surrender a record number of return touchdowns.
Even in an abysmal NFC East division, any playoff hopes for the Giants were effectively ended when they lost to Dallas on Sunday.
The outlook for the next few years isn't much brighter. Decorated veterans such as Justin Tuck, Chris Snee and Hakeem Nicks have been injured or ineffective and appear headed for the exit, and coach Tom Coughlin turns 68 next year.
Then there's the trouble with Manning. Stuck behind a makeshift offensive line, the two-time Super Bowl MVP looks lost. His touchdowns are down, his completion percentage has plunged and no one has thrown more picks this season. He's got two years left on a $100 million contract, so the Giants will be banking on a turnaround.
—Jonathan Clegg
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Jets (5-6)[/h] The most infamous play of the Jets' season so far is Geno Smith's behind-the-butt fumble at Tennessee, when he tried to transfer the ball from his right hand to his left—around his rear end—and fumbled into his own end zone.
But that turnover was just one rookie quarterback's gaffe. There must be a play that encapsulates the entire team's buffoonery. Ah, yes. There was Sunday. In the second quarter, center Nick Mangold tried to snap the ball back to Smith. But receiver Greg Salas, in motion, was in the way. The ball bounced off Salas and rolled on the turf. Running back Bilal Powell tried to scoop it up instead of diving on it. Baltimore recovered.
At 5-6, the Jets are still in playoff contention, but let's not kid ourselves. They have the second-worst point differential in the NFL, ahead of only 2-9 Jacksonville. And Smith's deepening struggles could lead to a benching—and another off-season of hand-wringing about the quarterback position.
—Stu Woo
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Knicks (3-9*)[/h] Six months removed from being the Eastern Conference's No. 2 playoff seed, the Knicks don't know what, if anything, their strength is anymore. The offense is stagnant, the defense is porous, and the lineup changes nightly.
Mike Woodson's challenge, which could determine whether he's still coaching this team come next year, is to give the Knicks a sense of stability while defensive anchor Tyson Chandler rehabs from his fractured right leg. That means finding one lineup—preferably one like last season's, which spaces the floor for the oft-double-teamed Carmelo Anthony—and sticking to it.
It also means staying away from bad defensive habits that predictably put the team in a hole, like constantly switching. Or playing Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani simultaneously.
But these are small steps. We're not exactly talking about bringing LeBron James to his knees here.
(*Entering play Monday.)
—Chris Herring
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Nets (3-10)[/h] The most expensive team in NBA history is being guided by the least-experienced coach in NBA history. It is a fascinating experiment, but it has been a disaster for the Nets so far.
This is hardly the first time the Nets have been bad. They started the 2009-10 season with 18 consecutive losses, for instance, but that team didn't cost $189 million between payroll and luxury taxes.
After a 3-10 start under rookie coach Jason Kidd, the Nets would need to go 11-4 to simply match the record that Avery Johnson had when he was fired as coach last December. That seems unlikely now, but it isn't impossible. Three of the Nets' six All-Stars—Deron Williams (ankle), Brook Lopez (ankle) and Andrei Kirilenko (back)—have missed significant time. If they were to get healthy, a turnaround wouldn't be out of the question. Big if, though.
—Alex Raskin
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Yankees (85-77)[/h] A-Rod: The name says it all when explaining why the Yankees are coming down from their two-decade reign of baseball supremacy.
Sure, there are other reasons—the aging and retirement of core players such as Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte—but really, it's Alex Rodriguez and what he represents: bad contracts; Contracts the Yankees signed with both eyes on the present, neither on the future.
Rodriguez is only one of the huge-money, long-term deals hampering the Yankees, but he's the worst, with his constant headaches and declining production costing the Yankees close to $30 million a year through 2017.
Handing out contracts like his 10-year, $275 million deal has blunted the Yankees' greatest weapon—their wallet. But with recent maneuvers, like Saturday's deal to bring on catcher Brian McCann for as many as six years, the Yankees have shown that they're willing to keep mortgaging the future for the present, extending their competitive window now and worrying about repercussions later.
Would the best way to return to dominance be to blow the whole thing up and start over? Maybe. But this is New York, and these are the Yankees, so with rebuilding not an option, they figure to settle in as comfortably above-average—an outcome sure to seem like failure to a spoiled fan base.
—Daniel Barbarisi
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Mets (74-88)[/h] If the Mets have proven anything, it's this: Size doesn't matter. Big payroll, small payroll—what's the difference? The Mets are awful either way.
No franchise has a longer current streak of consecutive losing seasons than the Mets, who have averaged fewer than 75 wins a year since this run of futility began in 2009. They couldn't win with a bloated payroll that approached $150 million back in 2011, and they can't win now with a payroll that is $50 million smaller.
At this point, the Mets still have obvious holes in the outfield, at shortstop, in the starting rotation and in the bullpen. What's worse, they don't appear to have the financial wherewithal to fill them.
Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine the Mets improving much, at least in the near future. Matt Harvey, their best pitcher, will miss all of 2014 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Mets' farm system, while stocked with promising pitching, is nearly devoid of what the Mets need most: position players.
Of course, being a New York team, one would think the Mets could solve that problem from outside the organization. But for now, the Mets have been unwilling to pay for the top free agents.
Ultimately, their patience and commitment to fiscal responsibility might pay off. It just doesn't seem likely to happen soon.
—Jared Diamond
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Rangers (12-12-0)[/h] Before 1994, Rangers haters (especially Islanders fans) loved pointing out that the Rangers' last Stanley Cup had come in 1940. That was a long time to go without a Cup. Then the Rangers won one—but they have yet to win another.
The 20th anniversary of that Game 7 triumph over Vancouver comes June 14, and 20 years is a long time to go without another title. The Rangers—who have recovered from a 3-7 start—have enough talent to win another one soon, but there are questions. One of the big cogs, forward Rick Nash, has suffered two concussions this year. Henrik Lundqvist is hardly as sharp as he can be.
Alain Vigneault, the team's new coach, is much more offensive-minded than his grumbly predecessor, John Tortorella, but retrofitting takes time, and though the Rangers have a fine core of young talent, the players might not turn out to be right for the system.
The Rangers are a step or two behind the top team in their conference, Pittsburgh. Several teams in the West, including the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, have young talent, proven systems and much more speed. The Rangers could have a winning season and win one or two playoff rounds, but they seem to be a little short to win all four rounds. One Cup in 74 seasons is a lousy average.
—Dave Caldwell
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Islanders (8-13-3)[/h] The Islanders really did look like they were headed somewhere last spring, making the playoffs for the first time since 2007. That stirring run is now looking like a cruel tease.
The Islanders can't win on the road, and they can't kill penalties. They need defensemen who can do the simple things—actually checking opponents would be nice—and they don't have an elite goaltender or even a hot young prospect. The fans could put up with general manager Garth Snow and coach Jack Capuano as long as the team was headed in the right direction. But the Islanders are backtracking.
The team is moving to Brooklyn in less than two years, and the signing of center John Tavares to a long-term contract, then naming him captain, was seen as an important bridge between the two eras. But the consensus seems to be that the fans won't come if the Islanders don't become a perennial playoff participant.
It has been 30 years since they won the last of four straight Cups, but what remains of their loyal fan base would be thrilled if the Islanders could just make the playoffs two straight years.
—D.C.
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Devils (9-9-5)[/h] When the NHL lockout ended in January, forward Ilya Kovalchuk reluctantly returned to New Jersey after playing in his native Russia. This turned out to be an enormous problem for the Devils. Kovalchuk played out the NHL season, but about a month after the Devils missed the playoffs, he announced that he was retiring from the NHL…to play in Russia.
The Devils were off the hook on his long and large contract, but on the ice they were stuck. They had acquired Cory Schneider to replace Martin Brodeur in goal, but they had no one who could do everything Kovalchuk did.
The Devils won their last Stanley Cup in 2003, and even though Schneider is good, it could be years until they are again an elite team. With their new owners, the Devils are exceeding expectations this year—they could squeak into the playoffs—but have dropped off dramatically from the team that made the finals just 18 months ago.
Lou Lamoriello, the shrewd architect of the team's success (and sometimes their interim coach), is 71 and headed slowly for the exit. Devils fans don't like to think about it.
—D.C.
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<header class="print-header"></header><section class="sector one column col10wide"><header class="module articleHeadgroup"> <!-- data-module-name="resp.module.newsReel.Module" --><!--END NewsReel --><!--BEGIN Article Header --><hgroup class="hgroup clearFix">[h=2]NY Sports[/h][h=1]Have New York Sports Ever Been This Bad?[/h][h=2]Our Experts Break Down What's Wrong and How to Fix It[/h]
</hgroup>
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<!-- data-module-name="resp.module.article.BylineAuthorConnect" -->Updated Nov. 25, 2013 10:07 p.m. ET
<article id="articleBody" class="module articleBody" itemprop="articleBody">Happy holidays, Greater New York sports fans!
Here's a lump of coal in your eye.
With the Jets and Giants crashing and burning (respectively), the star-laden Knicks and Nets battling for the Atlantic Division cellar, the Mets and Yankees playoff refugees, and the three local hockey teams far from title contention, 2013 feels like the worst year in the history of metropolitan sports.
But rest easy—it's only the worst since 1966, if you take an average of the nine local teams' latest winning percentages.
And that's just what we did, because we felt fairly certain that, since the Mets' arrival in 1962, local fans had never been treated so shabbily by their pro teams as they have been this year. Alas, we'd forgotten about the mid-1960s, and who could blame us? The Mets and Jets were still in diapers, the glorious Yankees were on the decline, the Giants and Knicks were terrible, and the Nets were so bad they didn't even exist yet.
Enlarge Image
Scott Pollack
This year's average winning percentage (though it's early in the NBA and NHL seasons) is just over .410. As in 1966, New York seems to lack even a single quality major-league sports franchise these days, and can boast just one winning team.
How did we come to this? And is the light at the end of the tunnel even plugged in? Here's an overview of the local sports landscape as it stands, and some notes on whether we should hold our collective breath for any improvement.
[h=6]Giants (4-7)[/h] On the first play of the Giants' first game this season, Eli Manning dropped back to pass and threw the ball directly to an opposing defender.
With that interception, the tone for a season of ineptitude was established. The Giants went on to start 0-6 and haven't sniffed .500 since.
Enlarge Image
Through it all, a team with two Super Bowl triumphs in the past six years has displayed a remarkable propensity for shooting itself in the foot with high-caliber weaponry. The Giants' offense leads the league in turnovers, the defense has been torched by big plays and their special teams are on pace to surrender a record number of return touchdowns.
Even in an abysmal NFC East division, any playoff hopes for the Giants were effectively ended when they lost to Dallas on Sunday.
The outlook for the next few years isn't much brighter. Decorated veterans such as Justin Tuck, Chris Snee and Hakeem Nicks have been injured or ineffective and appear headed for the exit, and coach Tom Coughlin turns 68 next year.
Then there's the trouble with Manning. Stuck behind a makeshift offensive line, the two-time Super Bowl MVP looks lost. His touchdowns are down, his completion percentage has plunged and no one has thrown more picks this season. He's got two years left on a $100 million contract, so the Giants will be banking on a turnaround.
—Jonathan Clegg
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Jets (5-6)[/h] The most infamous play of the Jets' season so far is Geno Smith's behind-the-butt fumble at Tennessee, when he tried to transfer the ball from his right hand to his left—around his rear end—and fumbled into his own end zone.
But that turnover was just one rookie quarterback's gaffe. There must be a play that encapsulates the entire team's buffoonery. Ah, yes. There was Sunday. In the second quarter, center Nick Mangold tried to snap the ball back to Smith. But receiver Greg Salas, in motion, was in the way. The ball bounced off Salas and rolled on the turf. Running back Bilal Powell tried to scoop it up instead of diving on it. Baltimore recovered.
At 5-6, the Jets are still in playoff contention, but let's not kid ourselves. They have the second-worst point differential in the NFL, ahead of only 2-9 Jacksonville. And Smith's deepening struggles could lead to a benching—and another off-season of hand-wringing about the quarterback position.
—Stu Woo
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Knicks (3-9*)[/h] Six months removed from being the Eastern Conference's No. 2 playoff seed, the Knicks don't know what, if anything, their strength is anymore. The offense is stagnant, the defense is porous, and the lineup changes nightly.
Mike Woodson's challenge, which could determine whether he's still coaching this team come next year, is to give the Knicks a sense of stability while defensive anchor Tyson Chandler rehabs from his fractured right leg. That means finding one lineup—preferably one like last season's, which spaces the floor for the oft-double-teamed Carmelo Anthony—and sticking to it.
It also means staying away from bad defensive habits that predictably put the team in a hole, like constantly switching. Or playing Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani simultaneously.
But these are small steps. We're not exactly talking about bringing LeBron James to his knees here.
(*Entering play Monday.)
—Chris Herring
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Nets (3-10)[/h] The most expensive team in NBA history is being guided by the least-experienced coach in NBA history. It is a fascinating experiment, but it has been a disaster for the Nets so far.
This is hardly the first time the Nets have been bad. They started the 2009-10 season with 18 consecutive losses, for instance, but that team didn't cost $189 million between payroll and luxury taxes.
After a 3-10 start under rookie coach Jason Kidd, the Nets would need to go 11-4 to simply match the record that Avery Johnson had when he was fired as coach last December. That seems unlikely now, but it isn't impossible. Three of the Nets' six All-Stars—Deron Williams (ankle), Brook Lopez (ankle) and Andrei Kirilenko (back)—have missed significant time. If they were to get healthy, a turnaround wouldn't be out of the question. Big if, though.
—Alex Raskin
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Yankees (85-77)[/h] A-Rod: The name says it all when explaining why the Yankees are coming down from their two-decade reign of baseball supremacy.
Sure, there are other reasons—the aging and retirement of core players such as Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte—but really, it's Alex Rodriguez and what he represents: bad contracts; Contracts the Yankees signed with both eyes on the present, neither on the future.
Rodriguez is only one of the huge-money, long-term deals hampering the Yankees, but he's the worst, with his constant headaches and declining production costing the Yankees close to $30 million a year through 2017.
Handing out contracts like his 10-year, $275 million deal has blunted the Yankees' greatest weapon—their wallet. But with recent maneuvers, like Saturday's deal to bring on catcher Brian McCann for as many as six years, the Yankees have shown that they're willing to keep mortgaging the future for the present, extending their competitive window now and worrying about repercussions later.
Would the best way to return to dominance be to blow the whole thing up and start over? Maybe. But this is New York, and these are the Yankees, so with rebuilding not an option, they figure to settle in as comfortably above-average—an outcome sure to seem like failure to a spoiled fan base.
—Daniel Barbarisi
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Mets (74-88)[/h] If the Mets have proven anything, it's this: Size doesn't matter. Big payroll, small payroll—what's the difference? The Mets are awful either way.
No franchise has a longer current streak of consecutive losing seasons than the Mets, who have averaged fewer than 75 wins a year since this run of futility began in 2009. They couldn't win with a bloated payroll that approached $150 million back in 2011, and they can't win now with a payroll that is $50 million smaller.
At this point, the Mets still have obvious holes in the outfield, at shortstop, in the starting rotation and in the bullpen. What's worse, they don't appear to have the financial wherewithal to fill them.
Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine the Mets improving much, at least in the near future. Matt Harvey, their best pitcher, will miss all of 2014 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Mets' farm system, while stocked with promising pitching, is nearly devoid of what the Mets need most: position players.
Of course, being a New York team, one would think the Mets could solve that problem from outside the organization. But for now, the Mets have been unwilling to pay for the top free agents.
Ultimately, their patience and commitment to fiscal responsibility might pay off. It just doesn't seem likely to happen soon.
—Jared Diamond
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Rangers (12-12-0)[/h] Before 1994, Rangers haters (especially Islanders fans) loved pointing out that the Rangers' last Stanley Cup had come in 1940. That was a long time to go without a Cup. Then the Rangers won one—but they have yet to win another.
The 20th anniversary of that Game 7 triumph over Vancouver comes June 14, and 20 years is a long time to go without another title. The Rangers—who have recovered from a 3-7 start—have enough talent to win another one soon, but there are questions. One of the big cogs, forward Rick Nash, has suffered two concussions this year. Henrik Lundqvist is hardly as sharp as he can be.
Alain Vigneault, the team's new coach, is much more offensive-minded than his grumbly predecessor, John Tortorella, but retrofitting takes time, and though the Rangers have a fine core of young talent, the players might not turn out to be right for the system.
The Rangers are a step or two behind the top team in their conference, Pittsburgh. Several teams in the West, including the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, have young talent, proven systems and much more speed. The Rangers could have a winning season and win one or two playoff rounds, but they seem to be a little short to win all four rounds. One Cup in 74 seasons is a lousy average.
—Dave Caldwell
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Islanders (8-13-3)[/h] The Islanders really did look like they were headed somewhere last spring, making the playoffs for the first time since 2007. That stirring run is now looking like a cruel tease.
The Islanders can't win on the road, and they can't kill penalties. They need defensemen who can do the simple things—actually checking opponents would be nice—and they don't have an elite goaltender or even a hot young prospect. The fans could put up with general manager Garth Snow and coach Jack Capuano as long as the team was headed in the right direction. But the Islanders are backtracking.
The team is moving to Brooklyn in less than two years, and the signing of center John Tavares to a long-term contract, then naming him captain, was seen as an important bridge between the two eras. But the consensus seems to be that the fans won't come if the Islanders don't become a perennial playoff participant.
It has been 30 years since they won the last of four straight Cups, but what remains of their loyal fan base would be thrilled if the Islanders could just make the playoffs two straight years.
—D.C.
[h=6][/h] [h=6]Devils (9-9-5)[/h] When the NHL lockout ended in January, forward Ilya Kovalchuk reluctantly returned to New Jersey after playing in his native Russia. This turned out to be an enormous problem for the Devils. Kovalchuk played out the NHL season, but about a month after the Devils missed the playoffs, he announced that he was retiring from the NHL…to play in Russia.
The Devils were off the hook on his long and large contract, but on the ice they were stuck. They had acquired Cory Schneider to replace Martin Brodeur in goal, but they had no one who could do everything Kovalchuk did.
The Devils won their last Stanley Cup in 2003, and even though Schneider is good, it could be years until they are again an elite team. With their new owners, the Devils are exceeding expectations this year—they could squeak into the playoffs—but have dropped off dramatically from the team that made the finals just 18 months ago.
Lou Lamoriello, the shrewd architect of the team's success (and sometimes their interim coach), is 71 and headed slowly for the exit. Devils fans don't like to think about it.
—D.C.
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