Tank Deterrent: Team Stakes

[reapaman]

I like the current system, people just like to cry about everything. There a lot less tanking than people want to believe and no rigging of the lottery at all by the nba otherwise the clippers would never get the #1 pick.

As for this suggestion, it creative but has a huge flaw. Take 07/08 season for example. The Miami heat were #4 in the east the previous season and many penciled them in to at least make the playoffs again in the 07/08 season. What happended, they ended up with the leagues worst record. So theoretically, the Cavs probably were in the position to get the heats pick that year and they wouldve been able to draft derrick rose.

Things like this happen every year, Washington the last couple of years looked like at least a boardline playoff team to a lot of people, but ended up bottom 5 in the league. Utah this year is bottom 10. I know every once in a while, some top team gets to pick high in the lottery due to draft pick they trade for, but this idea would make that happen virtually every year.

BTW, there hasn't been many chris quinn like citings because most of the bottom teams are builted for tanking. For example, have you seen the raptors roster?

[BubbaTee]

Don't really need an anti-tanking system with the lottery already in place. The worst team rarely gets the #1 pick.

[wicked_crossova]

Easiest way to get rid of true tanking: Make like the fifth worst record have the best chance to win the lotto.

[Tupik]

It would surely be complicated for all the reasons already cites, but I absolutely love the idea, it would be extremely fun

[DiscoLives4ever]

Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it be easier to just have the GMs vote-in the order each year? Or maybe head coaches or some such. Just make it against the rules to vote for your own team and have them rank the others 1-29 to decide draft order

[SaveOurBullets]

That's crazyenough where it just might work. Seriously. Not only does it completely eliminate tanking (like, completely). It adds some drama, too.

Still, I'd prefer going back to the old system where every qualifying team has equal odds of winning the lottery.

[DiscoLives4ever]

Problem is you still have tanking on the borderline playoff teams that are a guaranteed first-round elimination AND you increase the likelihood of a good-team going through injuries getting another great player

[FullCapacity]

Thanks for everything

[mup]

So a team like the Cavs would be screwed this year since they had the best record last year, and the worst this year. That means that they would suck for 2 years?? What would cavs fans have to look forward to?

I think the OP's idea is actually really good.

And I'm a Cavs fan but I don't have a problem with the Cavs getting screwed this year as this guy puts it. After all, the Cavs made the 2d round of the playoffs 5 years in a row, so is anybody really going to cry for them if they have 2 bad years in a row and get screwed on the back-end of a great run?

And, anyway, the Cavs would have had an even better run on the front end. They were tied for the worst record in 2002-03. They draft Lebron 1st in the 2003 draft. Then, that summer, they would have had the first pick at stakes for the 2004 draft under this guy's system. So, even though the Cavs ended up improving in 2003-04, they would have had a very high draft pick (based on some other team's stake) and would have ended up with Dwight Howard or a number of other players better than Luke Jackson. So, the Cavs would never have been screwed at all under this guy's system.

The trading of draft picks wouldn't be a problem either. For something like this to go through, all the teams would have to agree to it, so they could simply just agree to remove the protection on all draft picks (which is a dumb concept anyway, IMO). Instead of trading a draft pick, the team would be trading its opportunity to pick a stake, so there would not be an issue of a team screwing another team by picking the Lakers' stake or anything like that--- because the traded-to team would be making the pick.

And to the guy who pointed out that teams like the Kings and Wolves would end up having two great picks in a row even though they were actually kind of decent in the second year..... I think that's the point. Under the current system, teams like the Kings and Wolves have no real chance to re-build. I'd love to see a system that gives bad teams an advantage. And that's coming from a Cavs fan who realizes that the Cavs would be screwed here because they had been good for so long.

I opened this thread expecting a horrible idea. I was wrong. Very good idea, I think.

In this system Miami could have tanked last year, added Lebron and Bosh to Wade while ending up with a top 3 pick?

Well, Miami had to trade that pick to land Lebron and Bosh. So, no.

Toronto, on the other hand, would have gotten that hypithetical Top 3 pick from Miami instead of getting stuck with Miami's 28th pick. So, this is a good thing.

[mup]

It's definitely interesting. I enjoy "out of the box" thinking. It's a message board, IMHO, these kind of ideas are why these boards exist in the first place. I'd rather hear more potential solutions, even if they don't end up working, than more "U Mad" images and the same chucklehead homers advocating their local teams at all costs.

I do think trades and lottery protection, as stated before, throws a major wrench into it. I also think it can backfire in terms of marketing.

My solution was sort of like Bill Simmons, which is a tournament for the last playoff slot. With a wrinkle

- Tournament for the last playoff spot. The team that gets it also gets an extra draft pick, at the end of the first round but before the beginning of the second

- After that, the remaining non playoff teams have another tournament for the right to the first pick in the draft. Where you end up in the tournament rankings determines your draft slot.

- Each team in the tournament who do not win the playoff slot nor win the first pick, all get an extra 2nd round pick, all taken at the end of the traditional 2nd round.

- While this is going on, all playoff teams have a tournament, to determine a sliding scale for the mid level exception for the following season. The playoff team that wins gets the highest MLE slot to offer.

- Also playoff teams who are eliminated before the final four surviving playoff teams play in a single elimination game tournament ( to be played in the off days for current playoff series) to determine the order of picks post lottery but before the final four picks in the first round.

- The teams that come in dead last in both tournaments are required to give season ticket holders 8 percent back in the following season. Players on those teams are required to do 250 hours of community service in the offseason on top of their regular team mandated charity work.

My contention is if you want a better pick, win it. The bonus sandwich pick for the last playoff slot winner is to acknowledge that fringe playoff teams are in a poor position to get better.

The problem with the tournament is that the players don't really care where the team drafts next year since half of those guys won't be back. If you're a borderline player on a bad team, are you really going to bust you *ss in a game after the season ended? Especially when you know the point of the game is to put your team in a better position to get a guy who can replace you? For that matter, if you're a good player on a bad team, are you really going to care enough to play in this extra game? These dudes want to clean out their lockers; they don't care about this game. There's a reason the NCAA scrapped the 3d place game years ago.

Simmons is a journalist--- his ideas are not real ideas, but just pieces of journalism.

[God MC]

There is a very easy way to stop tanking in the league.

The team with the best record who didn't make the playoffs gets the top pick and it goes in that order by record. This way teams continue to play their hardest every night. If you know that out of all the teams who didnt make the playoffs that if you have the worst pick in the lottery u will continue to play hard and compete.

[mup]

There is a very easy way to stop tanking in the league.

The team with the best record who didn't make the playoffs gets the top pick and it goes in that order by record. This way teams continue to play their hardest every night. If you know that out of all the teams who didnt make the playoffs that if you have the worst pick in the lottery u will continue to play hard and compete.

But what do you do with a team that is just legitimately really bad? They'll end up picking 14th every year and never get out of the rut. And have no hope to get out of it.

I'd rather watch teams tank than have that system.

[SaveOurBullets]

There is a very easy way to stop tanking in the league.

The team with the best record who didn't make the playoffs gets the top pick and it goes in that order by record. This way teams continue to play their hardest every night. If you know that out of all the teams who didnt make the playoffs that if you have the worst pick in the lottery u will continue to play hard and compete.

Except teams will start tanking their way out of the playoffs...and that's worse.