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My Draft Lottery Thoughts

I still like my idea of a three year weighted average for all nonplayoff teams. No team can have the number 1 pick in back to back years. Very few teams would tank 3 years in a row just to get the number one pick. This helps the teams that are truly bad but also has a little protection against bad franchises losing year after year. I wish the competition committee would propose something like that.

So reward bad GMs who consistently draft busts, sign the wrong players, etc. Nah.....
 
The issues with tanking is overrated.

The key should be to even out the talent in the league not penalize the already struggling bottom. The salary system makes it easier for players to team up thus making the top end teams the clear favorites while all the other tier teams really have no shot to be competitive for a title. The key to fixing tanking is to even out the talent. The way you do that is to end max contracts. The fix is not in wheels or lotteries. This just lessens the chance a bad team becomes remotely talented before that star player bolted to a bigger market. So even if the cream of the crop wanted to play in the mega markets they'll either have to leave an insane payday to team with other talented players which would be forced to make the same sacrifice, or they would take a salary closer to their market value, but be without the top end running mates. The only way to end tanking is to give bad team a far chance at free agents other wise it's best to be bad and take your chance with the lotto. Even if the odds are shifted.
 
That would take Tanking to a new level. If the next Lebron was coming out next year, some team would go 3-79 or something. It would bring out the most blatant tanking (players on the court intentionally not playing well, missing shots, turnovers, etc). Teams would never stoop to that level in a lottery system when at best it's a 25% chance of getting a transcendent player.

Take tanking to a whole new level? Really? I doubt it. No one can tank harder than Utah, Orlando, and especially Philly.

Tanking has hit that level.
 
The cap is pretty firm already. There wouldn't really be a need to make the cap a complete hard cap.

This will change really quickly. When the big tv deal comes in, small market teams will become more profitable. As they become more profitable, large market teams will pay less into the pot to be redistributed to small market teams. This means the cap penalties aren't as bad, because LA can put the 50 million they paid this year to small market teams towards penalties.

Darkwing is correct though.

There is an easy way to get rid of tanking:

No max deals.
A hard cap.
No guaranteed contracts.


That will allow a team to pay LeBron whatever. Good luck getting another superstar to play with you when the hard cap is 100 million, LeBron is making 80, and there is only 20 left for 12 players.

Take away guaranteed contracts and you take away motivation for a player to tank. Win or lose, if they suck, take a night off, or tank, they will be cut and no other team will sign them. See the NFL.
 
That's way too much leeway to the owners. No max only helps the stars. The majority of players will get less money with little leeway for bigger pay days and no guaranteed money.

What would you bargain for to incentivise the players to go for such a system?
 
The issues with tanking is overrated.

The key should be to even out the talent in the league not penalize the already struggling bottom. The salary system makes it easier for players to team up thus making the top end teams the clear favorites while all the other tier teams really have no shot to be competitive for a title. The key to fixing tanking is to even out the talent. The way you do that is to end max contracts. The fix is not in wheels or lotteries. This just lessens the chance a bad team becomes remotely talented before that star player bolted to a bigger market. So even if the cream of the crop wanted to play in the mega markets they'll either have to leave an insane payday to team with other talented players which would be forced to make the same sacrifice, or they would take a salary closer to their market value, but be without the top end running mates. The only way to end tanking is to give bad team a far chance at free agents other wise it's best to be bad and take your chance with the lotto. Even if the odds are shifted.

Unless you have a HARD CAP this is just gonna give more advantage to the likes of the Knicks and the Lakers who can spend well above everyone else.
 
I say keep the current lottery odds intact but calculate seed rankings based on the performance throughout last n-years, maybe 4, not only the last year.
With the current system every L counts. Awkward DNPs, trading solid players to be worse, coin-flips and all. Something has to be done about it. I'm with Adam Silver on this.
 
First, the lottery will never fix tanking. The Wheel route is the only way to stop tanking, but that has its issues as well and we've covered that already.

So, if we know tanking is a part of the game, and we accept that, and we don't want the wheel system, then why have a lottery at all?

Teams will tank, we can't stop them, so why not speed up the process so teams don't stay bad forever. Just do away with the lottery teams tank. Why pretend they don't? If you want to help small market teams, l and they suck, let them get the #1 pick.

It is a very bad assumption you are making, that all tanking is equal. The higher the incentive to tank, the more teams will tank and tanking teams will tank harder. Your idea will lead to tanking on steroids.
 
Draft is yearly. Teams are different yearly. I would think the draft lottery should be determined by that year's results. I don't like the averaging system. My system wouldn't have allowed Cleveland to get the number 1 pick this year either.
 
Yeah I agree. The best example of why it will fail is still the fact that a player coming out of college can wait 1-2 more year before entering the 'lottery' so that he can go to a team of his choosing (i.e., bigger market teams like LA or NY) and the system will allow that to happen.


That favors the bigger market teams big time and that surely goes against what the NBA is trying to do.

And do you think shoe companies would get involved in that scenario?
Wiggins/Parker get bigger contracts from Nike and Adidas for coming out when LA or NY have the top pick vs. Milwaukee or Utah. The wheel system was definitely a system put out there by the "haves" in an attempt to get richer.
 
And do you think shoe companies would get involved in that scenario?
Wiggins/Parker get bigger contracts from Nike and Adidas for coming out when LA or NY have the top pick vs. Milwaukee or Utah. The wheel system was definitely a system put out there by the "haves" in an attempt to get richer.

Funny thing is it was the Celtics' assistant GM, Mike Zarren who proposed the idea.


After striking out big time in the FA and being shunned by Kevin Love on that possible trade with Minny, it's really ironic that the Celtics were the one who came up with the wheel idea in the first place!!!
 
Funny thing is it was the Celtics' assistant GM, Mike Zarren who proposed the idea.


After striking out big time in the FA and being shunned by Kevin Love on that possible trade with Minny, it's really ironic that the Celtics were the one who came up with the wheel idea in the first place!!!
I know 'technically" Boston might be a small market, but it really isn't. They won't have trouble attracting FA's with their rich history and tradition. They just have an unsettled situation right now with a new head coach and uncertainty over Rondo. Once they pull the trigger on a trade and decide to start building to win, they'll be right back contending for home court.
 
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