How to improve the lottery draft & tanking problem?

[sol537]

It's clear this season more than ever that tanking is a huge problem for the NBA. Who wants to see half a dozen teams not even trying out there? That means there are at least 3-4 games every night that everyone pretty much knows that the tanking teams are going to mail it in. That's just sick and totally mocks the competitive aspect of the game.

I like the idea of helping out the worst teams get the best college players, but if this is how it's going to be done, then something has to change. Maybe every team that misses the playoffs gets an equal chance in the draft lottery? Or if a team misses the playoffs in consecutive seasons, their chances go up a bit, but not by that much. At least this way, teams are not "rewarded" for giving up on their fans and on the game. Coaches and GM's won't hold their stars out for the season with phantom injuries and they won't mail in every game.

Stern, NBA just

[loflin3hree5ive]

I like the idea of teams who miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons get a better chance. I'd hate to see all lottery teams get the same chance at the #1 pick. Imagine Portland picking #1 again this June? Yikes.

[Sarlonus]

If you give every team an equal chance of winning the lottery, it makes tanking worse. The 7th and 8th seeds will now be tanking too because they won't want to make the playoffs. As a result, everybody else will start tanking just so they don't make the playoffs.

I personally think the lottery works just fine. If a remember correctly, the team with the 4th worse record has won the lottery the plurality of the times. It probably has to do with the way they allocate the combinations.

[Flash3]

I like the idea of teams who miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons get a better chance. I'd hate to see all lottery teams get the same chance at the #1 pick. Imagine Portland picking #1 again this June? Yikes.

[Rasheeed!!!]

Tanking doesn't work if teams are aiming for the #1 pick......over the last 10 yrs i think only twice has the team with the worst record gotten the #1 pick (although i could be wrong), either way it just doesn't yield the top pick.

[evilRyu]

I like the idea of teams who miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons get a better chance. I'd hate to see all lottery teams get the same chance at the #1 pick. Imagine Portland picking #1 again this June? Yikes.

Using your idea of giving teams missing consecutive playoffs better chances, Portland would then fall into that category

[jefe]

It's clear this season more than ever that tanking is a huge problem for the NBA. Who wants to see half a dozen teams not even trying out there? That means there are at least 3-4 games every night that everyone pretty much knows that the tanking teams are going to mail it in. That's just sick and totally mocks the competitive aspect of the game.

I like the idea of helping out the worst teams get the best college players, but if this is how it's going to be done, then something has to change. Maybe every team that misses the playoffs gets an equal chance in the draft lottery? Or if a team misses the playoffs in consecutive seasons, their chances go up a bit, but not by that much. At least this way, teams are not "rewarded" for giving up on their fans and on the game. Coaches and GM's won't hold their stars out for the season with phantom injuries and they won't mail in every game.

Stern, NBA just

I think the current system strikes the most realistic balance between discouraging tanking and allocating the best players to the legitimately worst teams. In terms of holding teams accountable for tanking, that has to come from the fans (or lack thereof) at the ticket window IMO.

[Rocky5000]

I think that the ping-pong balls should be distributed on a per loss basis, rather than by positioning. That way if you have two teams that may finish the season with 60, and 61 losses, the odds of each team getting the #1 pick aren't so drastically different. For instance, were the Grizzlies of last year that much worse than the Celtics or Bucks? This year, are the Wolves and Sonics that far off in level of play? So I'd propose a system where each of the lottery teams get a baseline level of ping pong balls, and then for each game under 500, they get another ball. This wouldn't eliminate the tanking problem, but it would remove the majority of the incentive to lose against other lottery teams. Under this system the Grizzlies would have had only 2 more lottery balls than the celtics, and 4 more than the bucks. It doesn't make sense to have such large changes in odds based upon a game or two.

[sol537]

-= original quote snipped =-
I think the current system strikes the most realistic balance between discouraging tanking and allocating the best players to the legitimately worst teams. In terms of holding teams accountable for tanking, that has to come from the fans (or lack thereof) at the ticket window IMO.

yeah but teams sacrifice one or two really lousy seasons (see Miami, Boston, San Antonio) at a chance to get the top pick and get back to contention when their "injured" stars get healthy so they milk those losses to full effect. It's the lack of effort that's most disappointing to see. It ruins the game and is the ultimate disrespect.

[-Ducky-]

Of the teams that missed the playoffs, take a random sample of say 41 games out of 82 games for each team. Distribute the ping pong balls according to the adjusted records based on the sampled games. Offers a bit more uncertainty to winning the lottery.

[nate33]

Ignore the last 20 games of the season when calculating team record for lotto purposes.

[TheKingOfVa360]

Something has to be done because what the Heat franchise is doing is disgusting. I never seen a franchise tank like this.


I guess I have to agree with what Nate said. It's no method to really fix it you just hope the organizations have a little class.

[jefe]

-= original quote snipped =-



yeah but teams sacrifice one or two really lousy seasons (see Miami, Boston, San Antonio) at a chance to get the top pick and get back to contention when their "injured" stars get healthy so they milk those losses to full effect. It's the lack of effort that's most disappointing to see. It ruins the game and is the ultimate disrespect.

Of the three examples you gave, only one paid off directly - so the current system does work to a degree: and like I said, it's up to the fans to impose the real penalty on the organization by not supporting the team at the box office or team merch store.

[Dentor]

How do Heat fans feel about their team tanking?

[Wade2k6]

Something has to be done because what the Heat franchise is doing is disgusting. I never seen a franchise tank like this.


I guess I have to agree with what Nate said. It's no method to really fix it you just hope the organizations have a little class.

It isn't as much the Heat tanking (while I do agree theyre tanking to an extent) as much as there team is just pathetic.

You can't blame Wade, Haslem, Wright and Zo for missing time. Haslem, Wright, and Zo all had surgery, and Wade is rehabing his knee and shoulder so he's 100% for next year.

[Wade2k6]

How do Heat fans feel about their team tanking?

Alright here's my opinion.

What is the point of the Heat making the playoffs? They had absoutely no shot from about within the first 20 games or so. What's the point of being a 7 or 8 seed in the East and getting swept by either Detriot or Boston? There's none. This team is going through a rebuilding phase right now, and there's no better way to hurry that process up then getting the no. 1 overall pick, and returning your best player fully healthy (along with role players)

This team can be a contender in the East next year IMO if theyre fully healthy. If they can get a PG like Udrih and get Beasley in the draft they will be fine. Add a player like Dorsey in the 2nd round for inside depth and a banger, plus a vet min. like PJ Brown or something to play backup C.

PG: Udrih, Banks
SG: Wade, Wright, Cook
SF: Marion, Wright, Beasley
PF: Beasley, Haslem, Dorsey
C: Blount, Dorsey, Barron

Of course the teams still weak at the C position, but the way Riley can pull trades off, I'm not too worried about getting the inside scoring presense as much as getting depth and staying healthy.

[LordBaldric]

Someone on the Bulls board came up with the following idea, which I like. At the all star break all the teams, from last to first, pick a team who's record at the end of the year will determine their pick. They cannot pick their own team. Thus tanking would only help another team get a better pick. Also, rooting against a team who's pick you have is quite fun!

[Nebroc]

I like it when the crappy teams don't care about winning becasue more often then not it means their giving up their stars which means stronger good teams at the top. I thank Memphis and Minny for not giving a damn about winning because they have made this season far more enjoyable for more NBA fans.

[thetennisyao]

make the lottery picks' salary 10 milion/year guaranteed. haha

[sayword]

Ignore the last 20 games of the season when calculating team record for lotto purposes.

this could actually work...