ATLANTA — The Braves rebuilt and won the World Series. The Hawks rebuilt and drew within two games of the NBA Finals. The Falcons remain reluctant to utter "rebuild," but you don’t trade a franchise quarterback for a Round 3 pick if you’re in Super-Bowl-or-bust mode.
We around here shouldn’t fear the rebuild. If anything, we’ve learned a thing or two about what rebuilding requires. For the Braves, it was pitching. For the Hawks, it was a point guard. For the Falcons, it will be a quarterback. For every NFL team, everything hinges on the quarterback.
Of the Braves’ manic aggregation of young pitching, team president John Hart would trot out the baseball maxim: “It takes 10 to get three.” The only inoculation against failure was volume. The more arms you found, the better your odds.
