My Redo of How NBA Does the Lottery

[blackham9258]

The new CBA will go a long way to creating a greater competitive balance. The Draft should be next. Here is what I would do:

I will not be proposing a system that allows for a Charlotte to fall to #14, but I also want to prevent the tanking that happens by teams in an effort to get more ping pong balls. Another goal of mine is to make the lottery more interesting and beneficial to teams that are stuck in the 11-14 rut that perpetuates mediocrity. Their is currently roughly a 5% total chance of them to move up into the top 3 and nothing else.

My Solution:

1) All draft slots should be up for grabs to every team at much more even odds. I would keep in place the rule that no team with one of the worst 3 records can fall more than 3 slots down. Then, teams 4-14 can't fall more than 5 spots. This way the worst 3 teams worst case scenario is to drop to 4, 5, and 6. The worst case scenario for the 4th worst record is to fall to 9th.

2) Considering the statement above the following should be the percentage chance each team has of winning the initial 3 picks. (But again 4-14 will continue to pull balls for teams higher in the lottery to still move up, whereas the current rule allows for no one to move out of their slotted position once they miss out on jumping into the top 3.)
1- 10%
2- 9%
3- 9%
4- 9%
5- 8%
6- 8%
7- 8%
8- 7%
9- 7%
10- 7%
11- 5%
12- 5%
13- 4%
14- 4%

3- How it works: You put 100 Balls in the hopper with each team getting their allotted number. You pull them one at a time and start placing team placards on the BIG BOARD in the order of selection.

The one issue that has to be addressed is before you pull a ball for the 4th slot and onward, you need to make sure teams haven't dropped more than their 3 - 5 slot worst case scenarios.

So if the 4th worst record team still hasn't seen their ball pulled when it is time to slot the 9ths position in the draft.... No ball needs to be pulled and their placard goes up on the BIG BOARD in the 9th slot.

This raises the excitement of the draft. More importantly teams play to win every game all year and we stop the tanking.

When you look at the standings right now Detroit is in the 9th position in the draft with just 23 wins. But they only have 2 more wins than the 3rd worst team #3 Washington and 2 fewer wins than #11 Toronto.

Its time to make the last 30 games of the season mean something and give all teams a proper shot at improving their franchise. I mean really, if the season ended today should the Pistons or Raptors really be penalized because they won 2-4 more games than Washington and thus miss out on a really good player?

Lets make the Lottery an event to watch... and YES the ball and hopper thing should be shown live.

[QuantumMacgyver]

Just enforce that the worst team in the league drops to #4 automatically. I guarantee you'd see teams fighting at the end of the year.

[pickIBL]

I would be in favor of closer percentages. Jazz fans have been throwing around tank a lot lately and I even wonder if they know what it really means. It means friggin lose on purpose.

By basically giving the tankers less of an edge it would probably eliminate the concept and the term all together which would be good for basketball.

My only other beefs are that there should be a 3rd round, HS seniors should be eligible, and NBA teams should have a 16th and 17th roster spot allowed for players 22 and under in the D-League.

That would also take some of the money out of college ball to help fund their minor league system. Fans much rather triple A baseball and beer to college ball... I would expect the same in basketball over time. It is high time the NBA get out of bed with the NCAA and the free labor they take advantage of with guys that should be paid millions.

We are probably talking about the top 20 HSers a year... everyone else can go to college.

[babyjax13]

How about do a coin flip system?

14th coin flips with 13th for the fourteenth spot
winner coin flips with 12 for the thirteenth spot

and so on.

Maybe they could just do it for the ping-pong ball odds as well, that way even if a pick falls or rises in their odds, it doesn't mean that 1st can ONLY drop to second.

[DelaneyRudd]

Ping pong balls is not a worthy tank reason. The odds are too close to matter. Keeping your pick after protecting it up to a certain point though is a major reason for tanking.

[StocktonShorts]

Ping pong balls is not a worthy tank reason. The odds are too close to matter. Keeping your pick after protecting it up to a certain point though is a major reason for tanking.

wot he said

[CAE15]

You would get teams taking towards the end of the season. Rather than get smashed in the playoffs they would try to miss it to secure a better draft pick.

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[RussellandFlow]

It's silly to enforce the worst team drop to the 4th spot automatically. Do you really believe the Bobcats are tanking? They're just that bad.