Teams Guaranteed to Turn Things Around in 2017
A plethora of sports teams are likely thankful 2016 is coming to an end.
The Cleveland Browns are currently four losses away from being remembered as literally one of the worst teams in the history of the National Football League. Fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves probably expected the club to play better this fall than what we've seen from the team since October. Premier League champions Leicester City find themselves in a real relegation fight this holiday season.
Each of those teams, along with others that struggled throughout 2016, could and maybe even should turn things around in 2017.
Both the Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars can build on young talent that is signed at least through the end of next season. The New York Mets will be seen as playoff contenders if the injury woes that plagued the club last season disappear. We may soon see the Los Angeles Lakers as the team of the future in the Western Conference.
Things change quickly in the world of sports. Contenders become pretenders in a single season, and lackluster sides find winning ways seemingly out of nowhere every now and again. Each of the teams showcased in this piece can quickly erase 2016 from the memories of supporters and of those working for those clubs.
The new year brings a clean slate for all of these sides.
Los Angeles Lakers
1 of 10
The Los Angeles Lakers haven't been this much fun in years.
Kobe Bryant retiring and riding off into the sunset allowed what was the worst team in the Western Conference last season to build around younger potential stars and also a new scheme. Shooting guard Nick Young is thriving in the club's current offense, and power forward Julius Randle along with D'Angelo Russell look to be mainstays of what could become a playoff contender when the two are healthy and able to take the court.
Head coach Luke Walton may, all things considered, be the top reason to believe the Lakers can turn things around starting in the fall of 2017. As Shahan Ahmed of NBC Los Angeles wrote in early December, the 36-year-old deserves to be an early candidate to win Coach of the Year honors for what he achieved in the first couple of months of the current season.
The Lakers won't win the title in 2017, and the club may not even qualify for the postseason next spring. That's alright, though, as Walton and company can and should focus on building for a future that really begins at the start of the 2017-18 season.
Carolina Panthers
2 of 10
The fall of the Carolina Panthers remains one of the biggest stories of the 2016 NFL season. A Carolina side that played in the Super Bowl in February won't even make the playoffs this year, and the 4-8 Panthers may tumble further down the overall NFL standings before 2016 comes to an end.
Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus wrote about Carolina's struggles a couple of months before the team's playoff goals evaporated. As Monson explained, the team's defense, its strongest asset in 2015, is a shell of the unit that helped the Panthers emerge as the NFC's best team last January. It seems Carolina allowing cornerback Josh Norman to sign with the Washington Redskins in the offseason was a massive mistake.
Quarterback Cam Newton doesn't look like the same offensive weapon who won MVP last season. Per the numbers offered by Pro-Football-Reference.com, Newton is on pace to post similar stats he notched in 2014 when the Panthers won only seven regular season games.
Via Pro-Football-Reference.com, teams that lose Super Bowl contests rarely make immediate returns to the title game these days. The New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks are recent examples. Remember that, and also remember MVP QBs in the primes of their careers don't magically lose talent without suffering a physical setback.
The Panthers can turn things around in 2017 if the team makes the right transactions during the upcoming offseason.
New York Yankees
3 of 10
Who out there is ready for the next New York Yankees dynasty? You may not have to wait long to see its early days play out on baseball diamonds around North America.
New York embraced a youth movement beginning in the summer of 2016, as Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira are now both retired and out of the lineup. The Yankees traded closer Aroldis Chapman, reliever Andrew Miller and outfielder Carlos Beltran before the summer's trade deadline, and the team recently moved on from Brian McCann. New York may look to soon deal veteran starting pitcher CC Sabathia, among others, as Joe Giglio of NJ.com explained near the end of November.
The team's future may be brighter than expected ahead of time.
Catcher Gary Sanchez became one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the final two months of the season after he became a lineup mainstay, and Sanchez finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting even though he only played in 53 games, per George A. King III of the New York Post. First baseman Greg Bird, outfielder Aaron Judge and outfielder Clint Frazier are three other young players who should see significant amounts of playing time in the Bronx next year.
Perhaps the biggest reason to believe the Yankees can turn things around and compete for a playoff spot next year involves the future of the previously mentioned Chapman. As ESPN's Andrew Marchand wrote, the Yankees want to bring the flame-throwing reliever back to the club, but New York may not be willing to break the bank for his services.
Logic suggests the young Yankees are at least a season away from playing meaningful October baseball, but New York signing Chapman would indicate those running the club are ready to win in 2017.
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Philadelphia 76ers
4 of 10
The Philadelphia 76ers aren't a season away from winning or even competing for an NBA championship.
A rebuilding Philadelphia squad won only four of the team's first 17 regular-season games of 2016-17. While the Sixers are already on their way to improving upon their 10-72 record from the 2015-16 campaign, no optimist out there could realistically believe Philadelphia can soon overtake middle-of-the-road teams, let alone the Cleveland Cavaliers in a playoff series.
Philadelphia is going in the right direction, however, which is why you should expect to see signs of the team turning things around in 2017.
Center Joel Embiid, sidelined for what should've been the first two years of his NBA career, looks like the real deal two months into his pro playing career. “The Process” is, as AJ Neuharth-Keusch of USA Today recently wrote, the leading candidate to win Rookie of the Year honors, to the point the race may be decided before the end of March as long as Embiid continues to excel.
Embiid is only one exciting piece to a puzzle seemingly coming together. No. 1 pick Ben Simmons can feature at power forward or point guard when he returns from a broken foot, as CBS Sports' James Herbert touched upon, and the 76ers could acquire more talent if or when the club trades Jahlil Okafor and/or Nerlens Noel.
There are signs this rebuilding process is working, and the 76ers will continue to make strides toward turning things around in 2017 so long as injury calamities don't sink the club's plans.
Tottenham Hotspur
5 of 10
Along with the defending Premier League champions (more on Leicester City later), Tottenham Hotspur have to be considered one of the biggest disappointments of the first half of the 2016-17 campaign.
A young and talented Spurs squad entered summer with high expectations after competing for last season's league title through the first week of May 2016. Tottenham ultimately fell to third in the table at the end of the last Sunday of the campaign, but that didn't erase the fact Spurs earned a return to Champions League football.
That return lasted all of five contests before Tottenham were bounced from Europe's top club competition last month.
As ESPN's Dan Kilpatrick wrote in early December, manager Mauricio Pochettino challenged his players to “see the bigger picture” after they enjoyed a full week off before playing Swansea City on December 3. Tottenham responded by crushing Swansea 5-0 in a performance that sparked memories of the Spurs team that played fluid attacking football throughout the 2015-16 season.
It's worth noting Tottenham haven't been poor as much as they've failed to impress in league play. Their only Premier League loss, to date, occurred away to Chelsea, the club currently atop the league table, and the Tottenham squad will receive boosts once defender Toby Alderweireld and midfielder Erik Lamela can return from injuries.
It also may prove to be a blessing in disguise Tottenham don't have to worry about Champions League matches in early 2017.
Jacksonville Jaguars
6 of 10
The Jacksonville Jaguars are an absolute mess following the first Sunday of December.
It's easy to blame the club's woes on third-year quarterback Blake Bortles. As Frank Schwab from Yahoo Sports explained, Bortles has more pick-sixes (11) than wins (10) during his NFL career. The 24-year-old appears to have lost mechanics that made him an intriguing prospect in the spring of 2014. Things are so bad the Jaguars may need to consider moving on from Bortles next fall if he shows no signs of improvement at that time.
Bortles' poor play may, however, be a symptom of a bigger problem looming over the club. The perception exists that head coach Gus Bradley is on borrowed time as it pertains to his tenure with the Jaguars. CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora recently reported the Jaguars have former head coach Tom Coughlin on the team's radar, signaling Bradley's fate is already sealed.
The possibility Bortles will receive better coaching in 2017 is only one reason to hope the Jaguars can turn things around next season. Running back T.J. Yeldon and young wide receivers Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns and Marqise Lee could make for cornerstones of a dangerous offense with the right quarterback guiding that unit onto the field.
Either making Bortles that QB or finding a better option at the position should be the top goal of the Jaguars in the first eight months of 2017.
New York Mets
7 of 10
One could not blame fans of the New York Mets for believing a curse hovered over the club last season.
The Mets won the National League pennant in 2015, and the club seemed capable of making a return to the playoffs and even the World Series at the start of 2016. Those hopes vanished in the summer, however, once injury woes affected multiple aspects of the roster.
Starting pitcher Zack Wheeler never made a full return after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015. Third baseman David Wright and starter Matt Harvey became spectators before August. Injuries slowed Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard.
Fox Sports offered a full list of the team's injury history for 2016.
Nobody can say what the future holds, but the hope, moving forward, is that New York's rotation will again be whole before next spring ends. As James Wagner of the New York Times recently pointed out, the potential aces on the staff remain signed at bargain prices. It also can't be ignored that slugger Yoenis Cespedes put pen to paper on a new four-year contract with the club, as Mike Puma of the New York Post explained.
The Mets will turn things around in 2017 and compete with the likes of the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals for a pennant as long as injuries don't again haunt the club.
Minnesota Timberwolves
8 of 10
The Minnesota Timberwolves will improve in 2017 one way or another.
Minnesota is currently responsible for one of the most-promising young lineups in the NBA this fall. Karl-Anthony Towns is a special and unique talent, a big man who can handle the ball underneath the rim and also at the top of the key. Forward Andrew Wiggins, who is in the early days of his third NBA season, remains a talented offensive prospect who is still improving. Guard Zach LaVine is only 21 years old.
These players are still maturing physically and as professional athletes, and it's not a stretch to say we can only guess what their ceilings will be by the time they enter their primes.
Patience is a virtue, so teaches the famous saying, and Minnesota head coach and team president Tom Thibodeau may be running out of patience after the Timberwolves won only six of their first 20 games of the season. Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher reported in the middle of November Thibodeau may be interested in dealing a young future star for a proven product if the current Minnesota squad continues to consistently fail to earn wins.
The Timberwolves seem likely to turn things around in 2017 via whichever route Thibodeau chooses. Whether or not that turnaround will occur in the spring or at the start of the 2017-18 campaign is yet to be determined.
Leicester City
9 of 10
Leicester City's honeymoon is over.
Jon Moody of the Mirror and Aaron West of Fox Sports are two observers who called Leicester the worst defending Premier League champions in history following the team's horrible start to the 2016-17 campaign, and such critiques are understandable. Leicester won only three of the club's first 14 league contests of the season, and the Foxes enter the second full weekend of December in a true relegation battle and only a few points away from the drop zone.
Leicester aren't as bad as they've played in league contests. That's not an optimistic take. The club qualified for the knockout rounds of the Champions League, as ESPN's Nick Miller explained, meaning Leicester produced quality results on the biggest stage in European club football more than once this fall.
Leicester are missing the contributions of box-to-box midfielder N'Golo Kante, who made the move to Chelsea this past summer, and it cannot be ignored that both Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez are misfiring in the attacking end of the pitch. That squad nevertheless remains too talented to not, at the very worst, trip and somehow fall into winning ways at some point in the opening half of 2017.
Don't forget what Leicester accomplished in the spring of 2015. As Liam Corless of the Mirror wrote, Leicester earned 19 of a possible 24 points to avoid what seemed to be sure relegation en route to beginning arguably the greatest run in the history of the English top-flight.
Don't go sending Leicester into the Championship in versions of FIFA 17 quite yet.
Cleveland Browns
10 of 10
The Cleveland Browns are awful.
There's no point in dancing around the issue. Cleveland begins December at 0-12, and things are so bad, as Scott Patsko of Cleveland.com explained, some fans are actually planning a parade to recognize the Browns going 0-16.
Give Cleveland fans credit for possessing a sense a humor.
Browns fans can enjoy a laugh as Christmas approaches, in part, because the team has multiple potential future stars on both sides of the football. Former quarterback and current wide receiver Terrelle Pryor has impressed in his first full season at his new position. Rookie WR Corey Coleman has flashed moments of brilliance when healthy. The Browns could retain All-Pro linebacker Jamie Collins past 2016. Rookie cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun is now a lineup mainstay.
It's not just that the Browns can't get any worse. Cleveland will begin to turn things around and win more than a few games in 2017 as long as those running the franchise select the right quarterback in next year's draft. Rebuilding what is an awful offensive line in the first several months of 2017 is also a must for the Browns.
Even the Browns will eventually get things right. This team will be headed in the right direction 12 months from now.
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