Rumors, Random Thoughts, etc Version 20/20 We all got everything right...

[Jojothewhale]

The simplest explanation is a grand conspiracy either involving 32 owners and the league office or the office itself going rogue? Yep, we've got takes today.

If the league is fixing things, they should probably send the refs out to eliminate the Thunder early every year so they get a bigger tv deal. Oklahoma City is a tiny market. And reverse time to send Wemby to Chicago or Houston.

You raise the top end by inflating lakers selling price.
You make every team attractive by showing even a small market team can win the league.
You then move to expand the nba draft to 3 rounds and roster limit to 15 full and 5 two way contract.

Just need to find multiple Presti for the plan to work.

Of course. And every year you hire Kubrick to film a lookalike lottery in case it goes poorly.

While we're here, that last point is the complete opposite of what the league would want. They want to pay out less contracts, not more.

[Devilanche]

The simplest explanation is a grand conspiracy either involving 32 owners and the league office or the office itself going rogue? Yep, we've got takes today.

If the league is fixing things, they should probably send the refs out to eliminate the Thunder early every year so they get a bigger tv deal. Oklahoma City is a tiny market. And reverse time to send Wemby to Chicago or Houston.

You raise the top end by inflating lakers selling price.
You make every team attractive by showing even a small market team can win the league.
You then move to expand the nba draft to 3 rounds and roster limit to 15 full and 5 two way contract.

Just need to find multiple Presti for the plan to work.

Of course. And every year you hire Kubrick to film a lookalike lottery in case it goes poorly.

While we're here, that last point is the complete opposite of what the league would want. They want to pay out less contracts, not more.

Add 2 more contracts that cheap cause of all the injuries that the league is having.

[SkyHook]

I think that the reason why the conspiracy theories continue to have legs is because of Stern. My guess would be that a majority of people who have followed the league for decades are persuaded that the first lottery in '85 was rigged (frozen card, bent corner, etc), so in the eyes of many the willingness of the league to manipulate the system has been established. Has the league put its thumb on the scale in other ways as well? The current lottery is far harder to rig by multiple orders of magnitude — and I have no theories as to how it might be done — but I'm sure that there are lots of smart people out there who have given it some thought should the powers that be become sufficiently motivated.

[zimpy27]

The simplest explanation is a grand conspiracy either involving 32 owners and the league office or the office itself going rogue? Yep, we've got takes today.

If the league is fixing things, they should probably send the refs out to eliminate the Thunder early every year so they get a bigger tv deal. Oklahoma City is a tiny market. And reverse time to send Wemby to Chicago or Houston.

I'm just saying that is the simplest explanation if it is a conspiracy. The owners all financially benefited from the Luka trade. It's an unusual situation that happened.

Still, I think the explanation is that Nico messed up. Was too focused on a quiet transaction than getting best value.