I'm a Philadelphia sports fan. Through the good seasons, and the bad, I'm always cheering on the Philly teams. For the Phillies and Eagles, times have been great. Phillies are competitive and are playoff contenders. The Eagles just won the Super Bowl. For the Flyers and 76ers on the other hand...

For the 4 major US sports, there's a draft every year with the worst teams drafting first (or near first). The NFL and MLB both have the draft order set with the team with the worst record the season before drafting first, and the champion drafting last. The NHL and NBA on the other hand hold a draft lottery where the worse your record, the better the chance of getting the first overall pick. Finishing in last place in the NHL or NBA doesn't guarantee you the top pick, but gives you the best chance of landing it. Either way though, you're getting a high draft pick.

This leaves teams in a rather strange predicament. For some teams, finishing with the worst record possible is a viable strategy. The 76ers for example did it for several seasons during the whole Trust the Process phase several years ago and came away with 2 top picks in Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid (you can clearly make the argument that it didn't matter much as they still haven't even made it to the Eastern Conference Finals). Losing more games than you win can help teams get the higher draft picks that will hopefully help catapult them up the standings in future seasons.

As a fan, I really don't know how to feel. On one hand, I hate to "cheer" for my team to lose. On the other hand, I want to see my teams go out and compete, be competitive, and win. Part of it all of course comes down to how general managers manage teams. But in many cases, the real game changers, the top stars of the sports end up signing contract extensions with their teams, leaving the other teams unable to sign the big names in free agency. That leaves the draft.

The hope is always that your team is going to be able to land and use the draft pick to get the next Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Connor McDavid or Sydney Crosby. But in order to get the "sure things", you need the top draft picks. That means you have the perverse incentive to lose.

I look a my Philadelphia Flyers. They've missed the playoffs for the last several seasons. From competitive perspective, they're in the worst possible situation. They've generally played just well enough to be in the playoff hunt, but not good enough to actually make the playoffs. This means that they aren't in position to win the draft lottery, which means they're going to get a middle draft pick. The players available here are often very often future NHLers, but more often than not they're not the game changers needed to build a true Stanley Cup contender. Part of this is also the Flyers past management giving out some bad contracts that have challenged their ability to build the team within the salary cap, but not all of it.

I don't really think it's in the different leagues' best interest to have team management decide to field teams that couldn't win a high school game. I don't think that's right. Sports are most fun to watch when you have two teams of similar capabilities facing off against each other.

To be clear, all the players are athletes and I'm sure they're all out there doing their best to win and play at the top of their game. But when the team's general manager doesn't try to field a competitive team, individual players can only do so much.

I muse about this because right now, the Flyers and 76ers are both putting some sad teams out there, losing far more than they are winning. The 76ers can chalk some of it to injury, but both teams are basically sucking it up on a nightly basis. I want to see them get better and improve. I want to enjoy watching their games again. I also want to see them legitimately become consistent playoff contenders, which might require their outlook to become darker before it gets brighter.

I can't root for the Philly teams' opponents, but is hoping for losses to help get them in better position to improve future seasons rooting against them?