RealGM

Look, I think there is no good way to do a system for the draft because if it was straight records, teams would tank like crazy or not give 110% effort for the extra one or two picks. On the other hand there cannot be an equal amount of ping-pong balls because it would be to unfair to bad teams, but I really do think the system needs to be changed. It is to unfair that Miami gets a top 4 pick just for being bad. My change would be that Miami still has the 25% of winning the lottery, and second worst 19%, all the way down. But I suggest that it be done for the top 14 teams all the way through. It would allow teams the chance to move up some spots and every team would play to win every game.

i agree, a beasley-marion-wade combo is not fair for the rest of the league....

That system won't cause every team to play to win every game. Teams will still lose for better chances.

I'd like to see a system where teams who finished in the top three of the lottery are automatically removed from the back of the lottery for the next few years. I'd say if you got the first pick, you'd be removed from the lottery (if you missed the playoffs) for the next three years. If you got the 2nd pick, you'd be removed from the lottery for the next two years. 3rd pick, one year. These teams would all pick in a completely randomized order in between the lottery and the playoff teams.

So this year, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta (1, 2, 3 last year), Toronto, Chicago (1, 2 two years ago), and Milwaukee (1 three years ago) would all be removed from the lottery if they missed the playoffs. Today, Toronto would be the only team from that group to make the playoffs. So the lotto would consist of 9 teams, with three moving up to pick 1-2-3 and the remaining 6 drafting in order of record. Then Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, and Milwaukee would draft in a random order, which each team having equal odds. Then the playoff teams would draft in order of record.

At least in this system, we wouldn't see the same teams trying to lose year after year, but it wouldn't prevent what we've seen from Miami this year.

I really dont know if there is a good way to do it. I hate tanking as much as anyone, but I am a Pacers fan. Making the playoffs wouldnt help us, we would just get killed in the first round. We have holes and arent going anywhere. I mean, why wouldnt they tank? You lose a few extra games and get a better shot at a big impact guy like Beasley or Rose. I dont think punishing teams for winning the lottery in previous years is a great answer, but I think some tweaking is needed.

The lotto is far from perfect but recent history has shown tanking teams really haven't been reward.

you cannot punish teams if they cannot get from top three to the playoffs. There are to many teams that would get taken out of the lottery every year then. But I just want a system where teams that try to make the playoffs are not "disadvantaged" for trying to do so with their lottery chances. But I think that good teams should get a decent chance to get a game-breaker because you can argue that Derrick Rose going to Portland for example would make them as much a title contender as Rose going to Seattle and Seattle getting to the playoffs. I think the current systems just lets bad teams get to mediocre and average or good teams be damned. I mean the TWolves with KG is a perfect example. The West was to good for him to get his team in the playoffs, but he was good enough that he took them away from really bad (and possible high lottery picks) to average (and middle lottery picks). If I was Stern, besides keeping the Sonics in Seattle, I would have the worse team in each conference gets five ping pongs balls, fourth four, etc and the last three teams out of the playoffs one and then have a lottery for every pick. That way, any team 9-11 has the same chance in the draft so they can try to make the playoffs and teams that are worse have a BETTER, but not guaranteed chance to get a top 5 pick.

EDIT: Added thoughts on new lottery.

Oh, for f**k's sake. There's nothing wrong with the lottery, and if you believe there is then you don't understand the concept behind a lottery.

Biggest change they should probably make is to give the worst records better chances at winning and distribute accordingly. That's it.

Agreed with PNF.

And quite frankly, I don't care if Minnesota and Miami both try to lose to get a better pick, because they will both most likely lose anyway....

Yeah, but it sucks when teams shut down their star players for the last 20 or so games of the season for trivial (or nonexistant) injuries. Fans pay good money to go to NBA games and they dont want to see a JV squad out there. I dont necessarily think anything is wrong with the system, because it seems as if its the fairest way to do it, but the tanking sucks.

DanTown8587 wrote:Look, I think there is no good way to do a system for the draft because if it was straight records, teams would tank like crazy or not give 110% effort for the extra one or two picks. On the other hand there cannot be an equal amount of ping-pong balls because it would be to unfair to bad teams, but I really do think the system needs to be changed. It is to unfair that Miami gets a top 4 pick just for being bad. My change would be that Miami still has the 25% of winning the lottery, and second worst 19%, all the way down. But I suggest that it be done for the top 14 teams all the way through. It would allow teams the chance to move up some spots and every team would play to win every game.

It is unfair that Miami get s a top 4 pick just because theyre bad? Would it be more fair to give that position to a team who's better? I'm not understanding why it would be unfair if Miami gets the first pick? They are the worst team in the league this year, aren't they?

The lottery is messed up but as PNF said, it needs to work on giving teams with worse records a higher chance of winning the lottery. The system is clearly flawed when the 6th and 7th worst teams win the lottery periodically and really needs to be changed to favor the worst 3 teams in the NBA.

Oden2 wrote:The lottery is messed up but as PNF said, it needs to work on giving teams with worse records a higher chance of winning the lottery. The system is clearly flawed when the 6th and 7th worst teams win the lottery periodically and really needs to be changed to favor the worst 3 teams in the NBA.

How does that make sense? The entire purpose of the lottery is to prevent tanking, yet teams still tank. If you want to prevent tanking give everyone in the lottery an equal shot. If you want to give the worst team the top pick then remove the lottery all together. The lottery really doesn't accomplish anything at this point except adding drama.

Ok here an odd looking... but i think fair way to do it.

Each team gets as many lotto balls as they have wins.

Team A has 26 wins = 26 balls
Team B has 10 wins = 10 balls

Then you have the entire order be set by the lotto starting from highest to lowest pick.

Start with pick 14 and move down to pick number 1

More wins you have the better chance you have of getting a later pick... less wins you have the better chance you have of getting a top pick.

Yet even if you have just 1 win... you could still end up with anywere from pick number 1 to 14

This still gives bad teams a better chance of a good pick, but does take away the reason to tank. If you have a chance of getting the 14th pick why would you tank at all?

This would encourge teams to play to win to put people in the stands and get better.

The problem now is if you have the worst record you get no worse then the 4th pick, which is reason enough to tank. Let alone you have the best odds of getting the picks 1 to 3.

If you tanked and ended up with the 14th pick you would be booed out of the league and this would make owners and gms more accountable. Most fans are accepting of tanking atm because it does net them a top 4 pick.

winning a few extra games only changes your percentages a few and is not as dramatic as it stands now. As it stands now the increase of just 2 wins in a season can move you 10 spots in the draft. So teams that want to tank ever loss is important. They become less so with this system.

Going off of last year there would have been a total of 447 balls in the lotto based on the wins of the teams invovled.

447 total balls

percentage of a team getting the 14th pick would have been as follows

Higest win team to lowest:

8.95%
8.72
7.83
7.83
7.38
7.38
7.38
7.16
7.16
6.94
6.71
6.26
5.37
4.92

On top of this no team would know what percent chance they had untill the last game of the season was played. There for it is unpredicatable, which leads teams not to want to tank.

So you pick the the team to be the 14th pick... then the 13th ... and so on untill you get to pick number one.... and that is the team who has yet to have their name called.

As you can see the worst team has almost a chance of getting the number 14th pick... Yet they have the best chance of that not happening. To stop tanking you need an unpredictable system... which this one gives

Secondly this system dos give the worst teams a better shot at a better pick. The problem with this league atm is its hard for the teams in the middle to get better while the teams that are at the bottem skyrocket past the middle teams oftten. Its not always right away, this is because it sometimes takes 2 to 3 years for the draft pick to become good. Or what also happens is one good team gets an injury to their best play and end up the worst team record wise, but are they really the worst team.

Look at the Heat for example is that team really the worst team in the league?

How about the Spurs when they got the first pick? Mean while borderline playoff teams like the Pacers and the 76ers have no real shot at becomming a contender unless they get a top pick. Should they Tank? No... They should be allowed to try and make the playoffs and get better to help them get Free agents.... But they should not be stuck in the middle they need some hope too.

Philly, that sounds good and well and all, but this will totally lead to tanking by teams and really just be a way that teams that are really bad getting away from the first pick.