What's new

The NBA and its stakeholders have started talks on finding new solutions to prevent tanking

I've got no issues with any of these changes. I would implore the league to go further and make lottery odds the product of multiple seasons. Multiple seasons helps the teams that need it the most (the point of draft order) while also limiting the ability to acutely tank.

I also think the league needs to do a better job of incentivizing winning rather than just focusing on the benefits of losing (tanking).
 
Agreed on the no top 4 picks 2 years in a row.

They should just completely eliminate protections on picks. You trade a pick or you dont. No protections possible.

Locking in positions after March 1st seems tricky to me. So what if you have a really front or back loaded schedule? Are we getting an accurate representation of who is bad/good? Seems like a bandaid solution to improve Post-March basketball, but it's just going to make early season have harder tanking.
 
I've got no issues with any of these changes. I would implore the league to go further and make lottery odds the product of multiple seasons. Multiple seasons helps the teams that need it the most (the point of draft order) while also limiting the ability to acutely tank.

I also think the league needs to do a better job of incentivizing winning rather than just focusing on the benefits of losing (tanking).
A two or three year rolling average for draft position would solve a lot of their concerns. I think that and no moving up two years in a row is about as good as you get with a simple solution.
 
One funny wrinkle: Have mandatory playoff (and play in) money bonuses for players. May make it tougher for coaches/FO's to sit guys if they are directly ****ing with people's money?
Players get playoff bonuses already. They could increase the amount but there is already money involved.
 
A two or three year rolling average for draft position would solve a lot of their concerns. I think that and no moving up two years in a row is about as good as you get with a simple solution.

I don't really see the downside to it either. Am I missing something? You could get really unlucky and "win" the lottery in a bad year, but that randomness exists anyways.

Agreed on the no top 4 picks 2 years in a row.

They should just completely eliminate protections on picks. You trade a pick or you dont. No protections possible.

Locking in positions after March 1st seems tricky to me. So what if you have a really front or back loaded schedule? Are we getting an accurate representation of who is bad/good? Seems like a bandaid solution to improve Post-March basketball, but it's just going to make early season have harder tanking.

I don't love the position locking on March 1st the more I think about it. All it really means is more incentive to tank in other games. For example, a team like the Jazz would be more incentivized to tank right now because each L counts more. All this does is rob Peter to pay Paul. You need to remove the power of making an acute decision to tank. Spreading it out over years reduces that quick decision and incentive to tank. Shrinking the tank window increases the power and incentive.

The NBA needs to implement some incentives to win, that is a real solution to keep the basketball competitive throughout the year. I would not be opposed to some % of NBA contracts being tied to position, cup performance, or anything related to winning. You could also incentivize the franchises themselves. Teambuilding rewards such as increased exceptions, apron relief....whatever.
 
I've got no issues with any of these changes. I would implore the league to go further and make lottery odds the product of multiple seasons. Multiple seasons helps the teams that need it the most (the point of draft order) while also limiting the ability to acutely tank.

I also think the league needs to do a better job of incentivizing winning rather than just focusing on the benefits of losing (tanking).
This has been my desired solution for a while. It obviously eases the pain point of an unlucky draw after a bad season, and I think if the rolling odds last over multiple seasons, it could make a middling season or two much more palatable since at least you're still building up some lottery odds for later. It's only "downside" is that it doesn't really solve the problem completely. And I suppose it is a little opaque for the casual fan: but that's already the case with the current system.
 
I don't really see the downside to it either. Am I missing something? You could get really unlucky and "win" the lottery in a bad year, but that randomness exists anyways.



I don't love the position locking on March 1st the more I think about it. All it really means is more incentive to tank in other games. For example, a team like the Jazz would be more incentivized to tank right now because each L counts more. All this does is rob Peter to pay Paul. You need to remove the power of making an acute decision to tank. Spreading it out over years reduces that quick decision and incentive to tank. Shrinking the tank window increases the power and incentive.

The NBA needs to implement some incentives to win, that is a real solution to keep the basketball competitive throughout the year. I would not be opposed to some % of NBA contracts being tied to position, cup performance, or anything related to winning. You could also incentivize the franchises themselves. Teambuilding rewards such as increased exceptions, apron relief....whatever.
I actually think you could have the option to "opt-out" of the lotto if you didn't like the draft and are planning on a multiyear tank. I bet most teams will stay in but you remove the ability to complain if you give them an opt out. If like the top 5 teams opt out the other 9 are likely like "hell yeah".

The downside on a moving average would be teams that do a tear down the front end of the rebuild will be slower (absent huge luck). The tail will be nicer though as you'd have banked a bad year or two.
 
Should be a great news for us. Sixers, Spurs and Mavs absolutely tanked the last few months of the season to ensure they stay in the lottery, as opposed to teams like us who were just terrible all year round.
 
I actually think you could have the option to "opt-out" of the lotto if you didn't like the draft and are planning on a multiyear tank. I bet most teams will stay in but you remove the ability to complain if you give them an opt out. If like the top 5 teams opt out the other 9 are likely like "hell yeah".

The downside on a moving average would be teams that do a tear down the front end of the rebuild will be slower (absent huge luck). The tail will be nicer though as you'd have banked a bad year or two.

Maybe the “opt out” can just be trading out of the pick if you’ve won the lotto. I’m also just ok with saying beggars can’t be choosers.

I’m also ok with “tear down” being a less legitimate/effective strategy.
 
Locking in positions after March 1st seems tricky to me. So what if you have a really front or back loaded schedule? Are we getting an accurate representation of who is bad/good? Seems like a bandaid solution to improve Post-March basketball, but it's just going to make early season have harder tanking.
This is to prevent teams like sixers/Mavs/Spurs that were intentionally tanking the last two months of the season to make sure they stay in the lottery. Yeah it’s still flawed but it absolutely needs to be done. Intentionally shutting down your stars for the year when they were actually available to return is the very definition of tanking. You shouldn't get to “test the water” to see if you can make the playoffs in the beginning of the season and then when things went south, shut down everyone and tank the **** out for the ultimate price. We can't let that 2025 lottery ******** happen again and the league knows that. Bad teams are bad consistently throughout the year. Tanking teams are not.
 
This is to prevent teams like sixers/Mavs/Spurs that were intentionally tanking the last two months of the season to make sure they stay in the lottery. Yeah it’s still flawed but it absolutely needs to be done. Intentionally shutting down your stars for the year when they were actually available to return is the very definition of tanking. You shouldn't get to “test the water” to see if you can make the playoffs in the beginning of the season and then when things went south, shut down everyone and tank the **** out for the ultimate price. We can't let that 2025 lottery ******** happen again and the league knows that.
So they just sit their stars in January/February and play them in March....
 
Yeah I'm sure there are workarounds but the league still get a more exciting product out of it. Like an actual competitive race for the playoffs in the last couple of weeks of the season, instead of watching half of the teams bringing out their scrubs.
I guess that is a good point. March/April should be basketball's time to shine since Football is over and MLB doesnt start til late March, but it is the worst basketball of the season.

But like what if a team has the 10th seed for draft position when March starts, then they make the playoffs? I guess whoever got bounced out of the playoffs would just move into the draft and everyone above that team would get bumped up a slot? So you would still have teams tank to not make the playoffs in the scenario they have a lottery protected pick (which would be solved by removing all pick protections).
 
The league should just consult Jazzfanz:

 
I don't like the March idea, as others have stated it would just change when tanking happens. I do like the limiting how frequently high picks can happen, but that only reduces tanking by a few teams. It also is problematic due to drafts not being equal. Removing protections could be good, but would only reduce tanking by a few teams. It would be difficult to remove protections entirely because of the value of an unprotected pick. I guess you might combine enough ideas to limit tanking to just a few teams and then it might be fine at that point.

I've stated this before, but I think you have to provide alternative ways for small market teams to build a team in any effort to reduce building through the draft.
 
Maybe the “opt out” can just be trading out of the pick if you’ve won the lotto. I’m also just ok with saying beggars can’t be choosers.

I’m also ok with “tear down” being a less legitimate/effective strategy.
I think the tear down looking less immediate will prevent some teams from tanking (which could be good or bad) but that's kind of what they want... right?

I think allowing teams to opt out of eligibility for a certain pick, say its a 1 or 2 player draft, is fine. I also think almost no one would opt out. Also, fine with saying tough ****.

The draft is basically NBA socialism. If its going to be socialist it should consider other factors than just a 6 month period. If you got big benefits before (San Antonio) or won 50 games last year (indiana and LA) then maybe your "net worth" prevents you from getting benefits.
 
Back
Top