It's kinda ridiculous now that 76ers is now 0-15 with only benefits and no real consequences. The league is awarding intentional tanking to the max. Where is the competitiveness of the sport? Compete to lose? Here is what I suggest. Use the English Premier League (English Football League)as a model: the worse 3 teams gets relegated to the second tier and the top 3 teams from the second tier (here can be the d-league maybe) gets promoted to the NBA (first tier) with the current lottery odds. The newly promoted teams will be in the lottery as the bottom 3 teams in terms of lottery. This way the teams has to compete for survive until the end even if they are out of the playoffs just to stay in the league. Any takers?
It's a fun idea, but too much money is at stake for owners to agree to something like this, and it would also mean the d-league is no longer a true farm system. Wouldn't things get weird for the Rockets if the Vipers got promoted to the NBA?
I've said this a few time before, and don't see anyone in the media saying this. Maybe because I explained it in too much detail. Maybe this is simpler. The Lottery should be a blind auction. Teams with the most losses merely get more money to spend (instead of lottery balls). But teams with cap room (who are in the lottery) also get more money to spend. It rewards teams with cap room too. The catch is, you can only bid up on one target position, and if you lose and someone bids on your position, then you fall back. Blind auction.
If I'm a Philly fan I would refuse to go to games till I see credible evidence they are putting a legit product .
I think the NBA doesn't advocate tanking through its draft system. The team with the worst record hardly gets the top pick!! The issue is with the sport in general. Basketball is a star driven league, and if ya don't got one you're kinda screwed. That philosophy will ring true as long as the spirt exists, so teams tank even though their odds of landing that once in a generation player is 25% or less. The NBA can't do anything more to impede tanking. Basketball is and always will be a star driven league. Teams will tank despite the fact that the NBA has set up a system where the team with the worst record can get the top pick.
Add to this, the "once in a generation player" does not happen every draft. More like once in a ... uh...a generation? or thereabouts
That's a very roundabout way to just say there's no need for the draft. Just make it a FA market. It will never happen, because American professional sports is built as a collective than a free market.
The owner of the Phillies is losing a crapload of money over this. If he's willing to lose money, that's his prerogative. Also, people forget that before NBA became big time, it was often for owners to make stupid basketball decisions in order to save money or generate extra revenue, without caring for the product on the court. Owners "tanking" has been around for ages. One of those teams? Houston Rockets, 1983 and 1984.
How about giving the top 1 and 2 picks to the 9th seed teams? Serves as a consolation prize for fighting for the playoffs but falling just a bit short. If your team came out at the bottom, you could still draft a decent player at pick number 14 (out of the 14 teams that didn't make the playoffs). A 14th pick player should still be good enough to help the team end up in a better seed the next year (or succeeding years), positioning them to a higher pick, until they become competitive again. The problem, 8th seeded teams might tank towards the end of regular season if they think they have no chance of defeating the number 1 seed. They might try to go down to the 9th seed for the number 1 draft pick. If that is what they wish towards the end of the regular season after fighting so hard throughout the season, then so be it. Or is my idea stupid?
No it's not. If you don't place a bid and no one jumps over your spot, you can't lose your spot. The worst that happens is you move down a spot or two, just like the current system. I guess this "blind bid" system with weighting to worst record and most available cap money (CURRENT on DRAFT DAY) is too hard for ppl who don't gamble in other games and the stock market can understand. It's very simple....INJECT CAP SPACE MONEY...into the math involving rights to improve your draft position. It's very simple
Let me explain this more: The whole idea is to prevent the rich from getting richer...or the over-spenders who suck from getting rewarded. I don't care if the Lakers are the #2 team in the lottery, if they are over the cap, then their bidding power on their own position is limited to a formula which gives them slot #2 max bidding "money", but the math also allows other lottery teams to outbid the Lakers if they have more current cap space that is thrown into the math. And since only one team bidding on slot #2 can actually win, the Lakers would only move down one slot to #3, unless other teams bid on #3, instead of #1 and #2. You can only bid on one slot...all at once...in one big blind auction for all 14 spots.
Wouldn't that guarantee Philly getting the 1st pick since they'll have the most cap space AND the worst record?
short sighted comment that offers nothing to the discussion If they want to bid on it, yes. But maybe they want to bid down because there is no Generation Hero in the draft. Just because you have #1 worst record does not mean you get a Generation Hero. And you make it sound like the worst wins team has the most cap space all the time like Philly has this time, and when they get it, that they are notorious for changing the dynamics of the rings. No, the Spurs tanking to get Duncan in a Robinson injury year is also tanking...and won 5 rings. Or maybe the Lakers or Knicks quitting Which one do you want to prevent the most?
oh, and draft day trades can create more cap space for you...one big single Blind Bid with trades allowed. did I mention that wrench into thinking you are always guaranteed to have top bid. Count on it; in a Blind Bid day/trades included, Morey would bring all assets to bare on his bid target, every year for the spot he wants.
I am ok with Viper being promoted first of all since they deserve that. The goal of this system is to promote competition for the worse teams for survival. The relegated teams can be promoted back again. There are quite a few great teams in the Premier League History that got relegated. It's fair. The other interesting benefits is this allows teams to start up from scratch and compete for a spot in the NBA. For example, someone can apply for a spot in the second tier league like in Seattle and in a few years being promoted to the first tier. That's like rewarding the fans for the their support.