Our fourth edition of the games of the week features matchups that are unexpectedly good this early in the season.
Ben Falk is the creator and operator of Cleaning The Glass. He recently published a piece on being wrong about Archie Goodwin. Falk spent the entire 2013 draft lobbying for Goodwin to anyone who would listen inside the Trail Blazers organization. The title of his article comes from a David Griffin quote about the Cavaliers‘ misfiring on Anthony Bennett with the No. 1 pick in the same draft. Both pieces are more than admittance of missteps in judging a prospect. It’s a front office look at how even the best minds can get it wrong.
I always appreciate respected voices in sports admitting when they messed up. In a field as competitive as sports — the exact reason they exist is competition — taking up space on the outside like in a front office or even writing on FanSided means being right is as important as the ability to shoot a pull-up 3-pointer in transition like Stephen Curry.
But sports are fickle. Only in sports do you clearly see one plus one and expect it to equal two, only to see it equal three, though that’s an oversimplification of the process. The point is we as lovers and viewers and students of sports should embrace the wrong with the right. If the NBA has taught us anything, it’s that it’s hard to succeed even 50 percent of the time.
So, with that in mind, this week we’ll be looking at all the unexpectedly good matchups in this early season. Games between one or two teams who are playing better than anticipated. Who knows, by the end of the season we could be discussing how bad these teams faltered. But for now, they’re unexpectedly good and fun.