Tuesday List. The Browns and playoff basketball.

There’s not much left to say about the Cleveland Browns. I’m not one believing the fates conspire against Cleveland. It seems more about incompetence aided by a dose of bad luck. Last night’s field goal block and touchdown redefining the Browns-authored dictionary of game-ending losses. I don’t think the Browns front office and coaching staff have what it takes. The player personnel decisions questionable. Game management and simple x’s-and-o’s seem beyond reach. Then I read this article from Kevin Jones in Cleveland Scene Magazine. It all makes sense. The Browns don’t have a plan. Or any idea how to draft a successful one.

The NBA’s playoff seeding process receives legitimate scrutiny. Past seasons have seen Western Conference teams excluded at the expense of a weaker Eastern Conference rivals. Hoops heads toss around proposals, but nothing sticks. But perhaps our neighbors up north have a solution we can make work. It’s called the Crossover Standings and it helps mitigate competitive balance issues. Consider a ninth-seeded team from a conference with a better record than the eighth-seeded team in the other conference. With the crossover approach, the better team would ‘crossover’ and compete in the alternate conference’s playoff bracket. To protect the top-seed in the receiving conference, the crossover team accepts a slot equal to their record but no greater than the fifth-seed.

Effective. Then efficient. In a world filled with shortcuts, optimizations, and life hacks, it’s important to do the right things, the right way. Just don’t make what you’re doing more efficient. It does no good to drive the car into a ditch at high speed.