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If Lottery Rigging Exist, Aren't the Jazz Safe?

I went on record last year re: the Sixers. I'll go on record this year as well. The league has a vested interest in not giving the Thunder another top-10 pick when they're far-and-away the best team in the league and they're already going to receive the Clippers pick in the top 10.
 
Below is what I said last March in this thread --- https://jazzfanz.com/threads/is-the-nba-draft-lottery-rigged.226042/page-2#post-2514648
I just didn't think the league would be so brazen as to send Cooper Flagg to Dallas.
If you're the league, did you want the Thunder to add Derik Queen, Collin Murray-Boyles or Cedric Coward to their young championship team?
Same logic applies this year when the Thunder are already on track to get Karim Lopez, Jayden Quaintance or Koa Peat courtesy of the Clippers.

Ferguson_Mellochill said:
If we're talking about this year's draft, I wouldn't expect that the league cares where Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecombe or Tre Johnson end up. If they care about where a player goes, it will be Cooper Flagg, and it will be either an effort to get him to a big TV market so they can feature him in national game broadcasts, or get him to a franchise where they are confident that he can be successful (or both).

I wouldn't underestimate how significant Flagg is for the league as a TV product. He's the clear-cut #1 prospect, and he's the first white American elite prospect in I don't know how long. If the league thinks he can become "must-watch TV" for the casual fan, I could see them being tempted to tamper with where he goes.

The other thing I'd predict the league would be concerned about is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are positioned to dominate the Western Conference for the next several years. Does the league want the Thunder to get another lottery pick from Philadelphia to add to their arsenal, or will the league make sure that the Sixers, who just had a dreadful season, keep their pick one way or another?

Then I guess the last question would be whether the situation in Dallas is so bad that the league has to give them a top-4 pick to get their fans to rekindle some hope for the future. But I'd kind of doubt that.
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gomretat said:
If you believe the lottery is rigged, my guess is you would have to believe games are rigged. If either of those are true, why would you be a fan?
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I agree. However the answer is easy. We are fans of TV shows and movies and some weirdos are fans of WWE so the answer to your question would be entertainment I guess.
 
gomretat said:
If you believe the lottery is rigged, my guess is you would have to believe games are rigged. If either of those are true, why would you be a fan?
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Your guess is a logical fallacy and is wrong in my case. The draft lottery is controlled by a single machine. Whereas, the outcomes of games have enough different variables that the outcome can only be influenced, rather than set.
 
BENTLEY said:
I believe it’s rigged. Too much smoke, too many improbable odds + head scratching shenanigans/scandals over the decades. And then the draft is done behind closed doors, then a show is presented as if it’s happening live. Nah, cynical me sees corruption everywhere. Gambling is the latest. And in interviews Silver looks opaque & filtered rather than transparent. Conspiracy theories are theories, so I lack the proof necessary to convince anyone who prefers the everything is above board narrative. But too many anomalies over decades betrays my confidence.


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You realize that improbable events happen with regularity. With billions of human interactions and events happening each day, one-in-a-million events occur with regularity. When they happen to us, they seem too improbable and too random, and thus we often seek other explanations, such as conspiracies (or God's hand, but that's another topic).

A friend of mine was killed in a car collision. If she had left home 10 seconds later, or if the person hitting her had, or if thousands of other things had gone just a slight bit differently, she'd still be alive. That she was missing an ingredient to bake her pie, that she'd decide at that moment to run to the store to get it, that she'd be in her car, at that intersection, at the exact time the other vehicle ran a red light and slammed into her was a one in a million chance, but it happened. And low probability events like this happen with regularity. There's no reason behind it. No conspiracy. No greater purpose. Nobody up above pulling the strings. Just dumb, random luck.

Same thing with the NBA draft lottery: dumb random luck where low probability events occasionally happen, along with millions of other low probability events occurring more or less at the same time.

Life is random chance. The NBA lottery is part of life.
 
Max Porter said:
If the lottery is rigged the jazz are never safe the nba wants its biggest stars going to larger markets over Utah.
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The problem with Utah is that the fans support the team no matter how bad the team is. This doesn't create an incentive to boost the Jazz in the lottery. However, this year could be the exception. Like the OP says, it's not about helping the Jazz, it's about not helping the Thunder when the Thunder are already a dynasty.
 
gomretat said:
If you believe the lottery is rigged, my guess is you would have to believe games are rigged. If either of those are true, why would you be a fan?
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I don't understand this premise. You can easily rig the lottery without the games. Much easier, I'd think.
 
Ok, so if we're going to throw out crazy junk:

- Have Ainge pay the refs to throw games in our opponents favor. This way he doesn't have to mess with Hardy and we still lose.
 
gomretat said:
If you believe the lottery is rigged, my guess is you would have to believe games are rigged. If either of those are true, why would you be a fan?
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I know, right? My ego is wedded to the Jazz and it’s sometimes pretty miserable. Like a bad relationship I hope for the fantasy, in spite of reality screaming at me. I’m delusional.


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Tanktastic said:
Why would that be any type of a headache for the NBA?
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See what the ratings in the NBA Finals look like when OKC is a prohibitive favorite for the next 3+ years. See how much interest in the league there is from casual fans if there aren't other superstar players in a position to contend for the Finals.
 
Zombie said:
Sorry, that just doesn’t make any sense. It’s part of the game to have the league rig your team’s ability to acquire talent against it?
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The NBA is a sports entertainment enterprise. They never promised a completely and objectively fair sport. Their job is to make money for the owners and stakeholders, including the media companies that pay billions for the broadcast rights. The name of the game is to win interest from the casual fan. They need big-name superstars they can promote, and they need to keep people's interest in a few key markets.

Look at how the OKC Thunder have beat the system. Look at the Pacers last season. They've earned their success with smart front office moves.
 
This has crossed my mind and given me some hope I admit.

The season has been rough for me because it’s the first time since we blew it up that I’d be perfectly fine with not tanking and just rooting for growth and winning with a young team. But this god damn MF’n pick we owe this already incredible team is just ruining everything.

Yet I can totally see suffering through what for any other reason would be an ideal season. And then jumping from #10 to #2 on lottery night, rigged or not. Until that time I’ll just be dwelling on the percentages and suffering, gotta play my part.
 
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