NBA discussion creating a tourney for bad teams to avoid tanking & determine draft order

Wouldn't the tournament of losers end up with the best loser winning the first pick? Imagine the Bucks winning this tournament because Giannis carries them.

Isn't the best solution fining the crap out of the owners? I like the funky solutions mentioned above, too. Anything that doesn't hurt the fans or the players who aren't making these decisions.

 

I wish it could be a fair lottery draft system to reset the NBA draft process...for example:
2026 NBA Draft each team receives 1 ping pong ball.
The first ping pong ball pick gets the 1st pick. The catch is if you get the number 1 pick, the next season you'll draft at #30.
The 2nd ping ball pick gets the 2nd pick therefore the following season you'll draft the number 1 pick.
The draft order continues to follow that pattern so teams who lucks up and get a ping pong ball in the first 10 draws will be in a good position to draft top talent for quite sometime.
I like this idea because each team will know their draft position and they can still make strategic trades to move up draft spots if they want to draft specific players or trade to gain future draft picks.
This will eliminate the need for tanking to try to get a high draft pick

 

How about a lottery of lotteries. We make out 10 different lottery formats, each reward different kind of teams. Then each year there's a lottery to determine which system is used for that year.

 

I feel like having some mystery deadline when the draft odds are locked in will only fuel complaints about the whole process being rigged.

 

Be honest honest - Are fans really "that" upset at tanking teams?

Or is it just something to feel sanctimonious about?

Like the Wizards, do I feel any kind of way that they've been bad for years? No not really.

Does effort & care matter? Yes it does. Its that somebody is gonna be worst in the league no matter what. And everyone tends to know early who those teams are

 

It is a tough problem to solve because tanking teams and bad teams look the same in the record books.

An unweighted lottery would penalize the bad teams. A tournament would actually help the tanking teams, sit your players in the season and then bring them back to win the tournament.

My thought would be to weight it over multiple years records. Example worst record over past 2 or 3 seasons. Keep the lottery only to teams that do not make the playoffs. If you make a loss worth less, it will not be so desirable.

Also would give bonus point for each game won after they had been mathematically eliminated. Prevent the ludicrousness of two teams playing each other who are trying to lose.

 

Why would any player try or care about playing for ping pong balls? Such an idiotic idea

 

I thought about this

the best way to address parity in strength and tanking is having a coin flip every year to see if odds for draft pick are by record or everyone has an equal chance. That way the worst teams will still have an opportunity to compete for top picks and still won’t be incentivized to tank

 

Something like this could have prevented Duncan from going to the Spurms after they decided to tank when Robinson went down early in the season... man, that was such BS

 

should get rid of the draft and go the european soccer route. have academies instead and teams can sign promising youngsters as young as 15 years old to a professional contract.

 

The best team should get the #1 pick every year. That way everyone has to get good or be stuck with the Jabaris of the draft...

 

I have suggested to use at least 3 years of records to determine draft order. So you are really bad or you have to intentionally tank several years before you reap the result. And if a team gets a top 3 pick, they are eligible for another top 3 pick in the next 3 years.

That will also prevent a good team that have their their franchise player out for the season to get a high pick.

 

Huh, hadn't thought of that before. Makes more sense than any other proposal I've heard.