5 on 5 with…Brian Spencer of EmptyTheBench.com

In a continuation of our “5 on 5 with…” series, we exchanged emails with blogger Brian Spencer of EmptyTheBench.com.

Launched in February 2007, Empty the Bench offers daily analysis and insightful commentary on everything NBA. Brian Spencer is one of its two principal founders and writers; the other is Andrew Thell. Currently residing in Bangkok, Thailand, by way of Brooklyn, Brian is a full-time travel editor, freelance writer, and devout runner in addition to his duties at ETB. He’s also a lifelong Detroit Pistons fan, which only occasionally influences his work and clouds his view of the rest of the league.

1. I read your piece on who Deandre Jordan is and if he can possibly become the Clippers future star. In my lifetime, will my hometown Clips ever win an NBA Championship? What changes do you see on the horizon for the lowly Clips?

Perhaps I published that piece too soon, eh? Since Marcus Camby and Zach Randolph returned to the lineup, Jordan has, as I (unfortunately) predicted, been once again relegated to fill-in minutes and garbage time, failing to score or rebound in double digits in over 2 weeks.

And therein lies the inherent problem with this franchise and its management. I’m not naïve enough to think that in a big market like Los Angeles that the Clippers aren’t going to put their best players on the floor when they’re healthy; nor am I advocating it. At 12-39, however, the Clippers are going absolutely nowhere this season except to first in line for lottery ping-pong balls. So why take an admittedly raw, very-much-in-development prospect like Jordan and essentially put him back at the end of the bench, only to be heard from when short-term fill-ins like Camby and Randolph get hurt or in foul trouble?

This accomplishes nothing more than a few more random wins and less blowout losses. I’m admittedly a Clippers outsider, but from my view the Clippers have more to gain from, say, 22+ minutes a night from Jordan than 36+ from Randolph or Camby. This team has three potential building blocks for the future on the roster: Eric Gordon, Al Thornton, and maybe Jordan. That’s a big maybe, but it’s a maybe in which there’s no time like the present to experiment with. This team is simply not going to win a championship with Camby, Randolph, Chris Kaman, and Baron Davis as its principal players, so there should be a better focus on the longer-term future.

Will they win a title within our lifetimes? That’s sort of like asking a Detroit Lions fan if they’ll ever win a Super Bowl (heck, even a playoff game!). I will say that you can never count out the ability of a big-market team like the Clippers to turn things around and attract the right free agents, but I’ll also say that you can never underestimate the ability of owner Donald Sterling to make all the wrong decisions. They won’t win a title as long as he’s at the top.

I’d like to see the Clippers find trade partners for Randolph-he’s never proven to be more than a me-first scorer and rebounder (albeit a good one) who’s happy as long as he’s putting up personal stats-Davis, and Camby while they still can; at this point Chris Kaman seems nearly impossible to deal. In other words, it’s time to rebuild again in Clipper Town.

2. So far in the first quarter of this year, we have seen over 60,000 jobs lost here in the U.S. alone. The economy is for sure going into the tank and in the midst of a recession. It seems that all industries are not immune to the economic downturn including sports. What is your view on how the economy will affect the NBA?

We’ve all seen the dismal attendance reports so far this season, and that’s obviously having a huge impact on everyone but the players’ bottom line… and that could change if/when it gets so bad that the salary cap and rules are restructured. Poor attendance obviously has a trickle-down effect on related cash cows, including merchandise sold at the arena, food vendors, etc.

The measurable monetary impact is obviously one that’s on the minds of owners and NBA executives, but the sidebar is that with so many people finding themselves with more important things to worry about and follow on a day-to-day basis, the league is in danger of losing that all-important demographic David Stern has all too often focused his efforts on catering to: the casual fan.

Think about it-most everything in today’s NBA is not geared towards hardcore followers like you and me. The league markets itself with an eye towards mass appeal-and honestly, I know why-but the danger of putting so many eggs in that basket is that the conversion rate of casual fan to dedicated fan is already a tenuous one at best, nevermind during a weak economy.

I guess what I’m blathering on about is that the NBA stands to potentially lose a chunk of the demographic they’ve spent so much time, effort, and money trying to lure, which will limit growth and result in even emptier stands and less people tuning into national broadcasts, which will potentially jeopardize ad deals and sponsorships, which will…

And if that happens, it’ll be a shame. I’ve said for awhile now that the quality of today’s NBA product is the highest it’s been in quite some time.

3. All-Star weekend is approaching. Do you find the festivities for the NBA all-star weekend more entertaining today or in the 80s or 90s? Who is your pick to take the dunk contest?

Anyone who grew up watching the dunk contests in the ‘80s and ‘90s certainly has fond memories of them. Beyond the raw star power provided by guys like Jordan and Dominique, the whole concept of a dunk contest featuring wildly popular players at their most creative when it comes to throwing it down was still a relatively new one. We saw a lot of dunks that had never been seen before, and that was a very beautiful thing. The Dunk Contest has always been the most exciting of the periphery All-Star weekend events, though I’d argue that the Rookie Challenge has recently replaced it in terms of sheer entertainment value.

Once the mid-90s rolled around, though, it felt like All-Star Weekend sort of lost some steam (which I suppose may have had something to do with the league as a whole experiencing a temporary dip in popularity). Improvements have been made in recent years, though I still find the Skills Challenge and Shooting Stars events a bit dull and feel the Three-Point Shooting Contest has only limited appeal. Love this year’s addition of H-O-R-S-E (I refuse to call it by the official sponsor name), obviously a huge fan of the Rookie-Sophomore game, and am happy that the D-League is getting a much-welcomed (and needed) spotlight with an All-Star game of their own.

All in all, given the resurgence in dunk creativity in recent years (save for the ongoing and semi-mysterious fascination with Nate Robinson), the addition of the Rookie Challenge, and the league’s increased awareness of how big it can be to offer a top-notch weekend of events, I’m going to give the overall edge to the All-Star Weekend of recent years over that of previous decades.

As far as my pick to win the dunk contest, that’s a tough one. My colleague over at Empty the Bench, Andrew Thell, summed up our collective sentiments on this topic rather well last week in this piece: “This Dunk Contest is Going to Suck.” I think it’s a pretty weak field this year, and since people are still talking about his Superman dunk last year-and judges will likely be thinking about it too-I think Dwight Howard will repeat.

4. This maybe somewhat of strange questions. Of the playoff contenders today, who do you see not making the playoffs next year? In other words, which teams do you think have peaked this year or in the past few years and are destined for lottery-ville over the next few years?

There are quite a few candidates given the decline we’ve seen so far this season in perennial contenders and the emergence of young teams who will only get better as soon as next season. Speaking strictly of playoff contenders-not championship contenders-I think you have to count the Mavericks, Pistons, Suns, and Nets in this category, each for various reasons.

The one team in that group that has the “best” chance of missing out on the playoffs not only this season, but next (and who knows how much longer beyond that) is the Dallas Mavericks. The trade for Jason Kidd has long since revealed itself as ill-advised with Devin Harris flourishing in Jersey and Kidd and his massive expiring contract rumored to be on the trading block. Josh Howard seems to have worn out his welcome and no longer carries excellent trade value, and Dirk is growing increasingly frustrated with his team’s outlook as he moves towards the latter half of his prime playing days.

What’s worse, this team has stubbornly refused to nurture any sort of youth movement whatsoever for quite some time now; their top prospects right now are Jose Juan Barea and Gerald Green. Help won’t automatically be on the way, either, after sending those first-round draft picks to Jersey in the Kidd deal. Right now, the outlook for this franchise is not a good one.

5. EmptyTheBench.com is one of the premier NBA blogs on the web and gets referenced countless times throughout the blogging community. How did the site come about and do you have any future plans for the site?

You’re much too kind, but thanks for saying so all the same. My cohort Andrew Thell and I launched Empty the Bench back in February of ‘07, with the intention of finding a more visible, permanent outlet for the random thoughts about the NBA, NFL, and fantasy sports we regularly exchanged over email, in-game text messages, and chats during work.

We felt there was some value in our perspectives, and wanted our voices to be heard alongside our peers that we both respect as well those we do not. In other words, we were both writers looking for an outlet, and starting up our own operation allowed us to find that outlet immediately as well as exercise complete control of the presentation, tone, and style of our work.

A quick look back at our archives from the first few months compared to the last few month’s reveals how different our initial approach was; that is, we had a lot more straight humor posts (think Pacman Jones getting arrested again, and again… and again), more NFL analysis, and more commentary on other people’s work and opinion. After awhile we sort of realized that there were plenty of websites out there with the “sports humor” market somewhat cornered, and that we were probably better served by moving in a different direction… which isn’t to say we have become humorless. Quite the opposite, or at least we’d like to think so.

We’ve now almost exclusively shifted our focus to the NBA and take great pride in the quality of original analysis and commentary we offer our readers as best we can with just the two of us running the show. We like to keep the brand pretty close, but are considering the possibility of bringing in a contributor or two down the road; Andrew’s brother, Christopher, has been in the mix as an occasional guest writer (amongst other work he did an amazing “Postcards from LA” series during the Lakers’ playoff run last year). We still posted weekly fantasy football rankings during the most recent season, but that’s about it as far as the NFL goes these days; it’s just not our bag and we’re actually very happy about that realization.

ETB became an affiliate of Fantasy Sports Ventures over a year ago now, and it’s a little wild to realize we’re already celebrating the site’s two-year anniversary this month. We continue to look at new ways and offers that could potentially get our name (and content) out there to a bigger audience. To that end, we owe a great debt of gratitude to all of our loyal readers and longtime supporters in the sports blogosphere, a list which includes but is certainly not limited to J.E. Skeets at Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie, Ryan McNeill at Hoops Addict, Henry Abbott at ESPN’s TrueHoop, and the guys at Deadspin and The Big Lead.

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