NBA Postseason Change Ideas

[♪alt13]

That makes it so the teams that are 11th through 20th have a great reason to tank. This idea may make it so a full 2/3rds of the league has incentive to tank.

No it does not. That strategy would work out what once-in-a-decade?(even then the dude might be a bist)The rest of the time that team ends up with the 10th pick. If a team wants the 10th pick that bad they could tank now and get it.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

No it does not. That strategy would work out what once-in-a-decade?(even then the dude might be a bist)The rest of the time that team ends up with the 10th pick. If a team wants the 10th pick that bad they could tank now and get it.

Teams 11-16 or more might still tank. Is only the number 1 pick up for grabs or more lottery spots. Teams on the bubble would pack it in for 10% and positioning in the top ten.

The difference of a spot or two is so huge in some drafts that teams are justified in actively losing.

They could lock in lotto odds mid season or average a year or two in the math. Make it harder to manipulate. Or weight the first half of the year twice as much as the second half of the year.

They have to make it harder for a team to say “we lose these next 20 games and we get X pick” if the math gets to hard to plan around or neuters late attempts to lose the motivation is gone.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Locking in lotto odds earlier or putting much more weight on the first half of the season would seem eliminate a lot of tanking. Atlanta, Chicago, and maybe Phoenix were invested in losing from day one. Phoenix might just be really bad and not intentionally bad.

Stop teams from tearing down their teams at the trade deadline and not playing good players down the stretch or de-activating guys to lose down the stretch.

 

[Jack Strop]

I see nothing wrong with a reset. Teams make bad decisions or finish out a ride with stars, those stars retire and the team needs to rebuild. If you punish teams, you'll see even more trying to trade stars near the ends of their careers. LA, Boston, Utah, Chicago, Detroit...the list goes on for teams that were loyal to their players and then went through losing periods in order to rebuild.

What I think hurts the league are the teams that decide to tank for many years. Or simply refuse to sign FA's to supplement their draft picks (like the process in Philly). Perhaps stipulate a team that has a top-4 pick in one season cannot pick in the top-10 in the next. So even if those teams finish in the lottery again, they would be automatically slotted 11-14.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I see nothing wrong with a reset. Teams make bad decisions or finish out a ride with stars, those stars retire and the team needs to rebuild. If you punish teams, you'll see even more trying to trade stars near the ends of their careers. LA, Boston, Utah, Chicago, Detroit...the list goes on for teams that were loyal to their players and then went through losing periods in order to rebuild.

What I think hurts the league are the teams that decide to tank for many years. Or simply refuse to sign FA's to supplement their draft picks (like the process in Philly). Perhaps stipulate a team that has a top-4 pick in one season cannot pick in the top-10 in the next. So even if those teams finish in the lottery again, they would be automatically slotted 11-14.

Something like that second measure would be good, but that seems a little too harsh. Maybe you can't pick in the top 5 - 3 years in a row... maybe top 7. Maybe something where you can't have the top three pick in consecutive years.

 

[Jack Strop]

Something like that second measure would be good, but that seems a little too harsh. Maybe you can't pick in the top 5 - 3 years in a row... maybe top 7. Maybe something where you can't have the top three pick in consecutive years.

Now that the top-4 will be determined by drawing, perhaps just restrict it to that. No top-4 in consecutive years. But I still like being a bit harsh at some point. Have to incentivize teams to get better. Even Utah didn't need to "tank" for 4 years. Lindsey just didn't spend on free agents, despite Utah being 28th-30th in payroll. But he wanted lottery picks. Jazz weren't tanking by the literal definition. Lindsey just wasn't doing much to provide anything beyond the 4-5 he viewed as the "core" group.

But then again, I see that as a valid strategy. I see what Philadelphia did as a valid strategy. You need stars in the NBA to contend. And if you aren't a Boston, GS, LA, etc. they generally aren't going to come to you as free agents. So "tank", draft 1-2 top prospects and then hope those players will, in turn, put you on the map. That worked for OKC. It's worked for Minny (although they also made the Wiggins/Love trade).

 

[hgb]

Lets use England for example - lower teams get a massive pay day if they can advance in domestic tournaments. If the NBA can hold aside a certain amount of money per season win and per playoff win, teams will try. It will be more advantageous for a team to win for those payouts than lose in the hopes of winning a lottery.

That's not really how it works in European football (soccer to you guys). There's generally a domestic cup tournament (knockout), but the most important tournament, by far, is league play, where you play everyone twice, in England that amounts to 38 games (20 teams in the top division). There's really no significant attempt to level the playing field in terms of money (except the TV deal pays all teams), so wages in the top clubs are significantly higher than the middle-of-the-pack teams.
The big thing that makes games interesting in Europe is relegation. End up bottom three, you play in the next division down next year.

 

[LoPo]

HGB - My idea is taking the futbol league format (home and away) for the season but using an FA Cup type format for the playoffs. In the FA Cup, every team has a shot regardless of size. Sure, there are some early round maulings, but the teams still have a shot. If we want NBA teams competing late into the season, give everybody a shot. Dallas won't upset Houston in a 3 game series, but it would still be intriguing.

I love promotion/relegation, but our owners will never adopt that system.

Sent from my VS995 using JazzFanz mobile app

 

[MDAV28]

I think it for sure should be top 16, but I'd like to find a way to get the top 2 seeds a first-round bye and incorporate a play-in tournament that way.

Maybe 14 teams make the playoffs (with 1 and 2 getting a bye) and the last 2 spots (13 and 14) are decided by a tournament between teams 13-20.

 

[MDAV28]

But then again, I see that as a valid strategy. I see what Philadelphia did as a valid strategy. You need stars in the NBA to contend. And if you aren't a Boston, GS, LA, etc. they generally aren't going to come to you as free agents. So "tank", draft 1-2 top prospects and then hope those players will, in turn, put you on the map. That worked for OKC. It's worked for Minny (although they also made the Wiggins/Love trade).

Of course it's a valid strategy. That's the problem. But I disagree with the notion that FA go to big markets anymore. I think it's been proven FA's are more likely to go to a place with another star or stars more than anything.

I personally think a hard cap and no max contracts kills two birds. The parity and creation of "super teams" and also would help with tanking. I mean you could completely eliminate tanking if rookies just entered a free market and went to the highest bidder, but that would probably create unintended consequences. I understand why the NBPA wouldn't go for a no-max contract system though because it would kill the "middle-class" of NBA players.

 

[Jazzta]

HGB - My idea is taking the futbol league format (home and away) for the season but using an FA Cup type format for the playoffs. In the FA Cup, every team has a shot regardless of size. Sure, there are some early round maulings, but the teams still have a shot. If we want NBA teams competing late into the season, give everybody a shot. Dallas won't upset Houston in a 3 game series, but it would still be intriguing.

I love promotion/relegation, but our owners will never adopt that system.

Sent from my VS995 using JazzFanz mobile app

That's be something else if the Jazz relegated and the Stars promoted lol. The ACB (Spanish League) uses that format of promotion/relegation but I agree I don't see that happening here with the way franchises are structured.

 

[LoPo]

This is just a terrible look for the league (front page on ESPN): http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22573750/how-nba-bottom-dwellers-putting-tanking-clinic-nba

Something has to be done about teams losing on purpose. It's starting to affect us. Since the All Star Break, the Suns have "lost" twice to West teams fighting for the playoffs. The Kings and Bulls have also "lost" similar games. Our early schedule was brutal and now we are paying the price for our competitors getting easy wins.