An idea on how to fix the Lottery

[artsncrafts]

Easy, when you win #1 you are ineligible to get a top 4 pick for 2 subsequent years. You shouldn't be encouraging decade long losing like the 76ers. One and done

MLB has this, which is good, although the MLB draft is a crapshoot.

[dagger]

Easy, when you win #1 you are ineligible to get a top 4 pick for 2 subsequent years. You shouldn't be encouraging decade long losing like the 76ers. One and done

MLB has this, which is good, although the MLB draft is a crapshoot.

With MLB, teams can't get a high pick in either two successive seasons, or three, depending on their revenue status. They are re-seeded at least 10th in the draft even if they win the lottery. Were the Blue Jays to have another bad season, I believe they would be seeded 10th in the 2026 draft even if they win the lottery. (They will draft eighth in July 2025).

[tanuki1031]

I would flatten the odds by competitive brackets.

The incentive to lose is far too great and places the emphasis on tanking for 1OA instead of actual team building like drafting non-lottery, development, and trades.

No more draft seeding, you are now in one of three draft brackets.

Playoff teams (16%) - 16 teams - 1% each
- you should be rewarded for winning & being a team constructed to be in this group
- for the teams that don't win the title you should still be afforded a chance to add to your competitiveness through the draft

+ For example +
++this year's Clippers should have a shot at draft help for maintaining a playoff spot despite missing Kawhi and Norm for half the season

Play-in teams (20%) - 4 teams - 5% each
- teams that fought for play-offs but couldn't get in are rewarded for their efforts
-->rewarded with a 4% better chance to add the piece that gets them in next time
-->not punished by a 50% lottery gap for trying to compete while everyone else is trying to lose; now only a 1.4% "penalty"

- teams that didn't want to be here but sucked marginally worse than the peers that tried hard to suck
-->it's about saving face, maybe you tried to win maybe you didn't, but you didn't sell out to lose so the difference between these teams and the teams that (before) truly suck or actively tried to lose, is now a 1.4% "reward" for not being an absolute disgrace

+ For example +
++this year's Nets, Bulls shouldn't be "punished" for winning despite their deeply flawed rosters
++this year's Raptors shouldn't be "punished" for going 16-13 and owning the league's 3rd best D since the A/S break playing mostly development guys

Eliminated teams (64%) - 10 teams - 6.4% each
- teams that competed for the crown of **** are no longer rewarded with the 50% jackpot chance
-->this group is now "penalized" by lottery odds more correlated to their conduct and product
-->historically the fight for a 1-30% lottery edge was for tank positions 1-8; now the disgrace of tanking will only net you a 1.4% edge
-->if you've sucked year in and year out no amount of lottery wins are getting you out of it so no more lottery reliance, find a better team building slant. Can't do it? You probably shouldn't have a team.

+ For example +
++this year's Sixers, Spurs, Blazers shouldn't be allowed to pivot to a full tank with their rosters of recent lottery wins and all-NBA guys
++last year's Raptors did not deserve to get into the lottery by intentionally losing 95% of their final 30 games - GROSS
++Wizards & Hornets shouldn't be lottery regulars for nearly a decade, especially when the plan from game one was to lose

[causal_fan]

if you have all the teams in the lottery having the same odds, then a team that's on the playoff bubble might decide it's better to miss the playoffs and have a shot at the top picks - I propose that of all the teams that are in the lottery, the 2 teams with the best 2nd half record will have an added percentage of the lotto balls - enough to make it worthwhile to win games in the 2nd half.

[YogurtProducer]

Easy, when you win #1 you are ineligible to get a top 4 pick for 2 subsequent years. You shouldn't be encouraging decade long losing like the 76ers. One and done

I hate this for the simple fact all #1 picks are not equal

And, this rule wouldnt stop anyone except WAS or CHO from tanking. UTA still would be. We still would be. PHI would be.

[YogurtProducer]

if you have all the teams in the lottery having the same odds, then a team that's on the playoff bubble might decide it's better to miss the playoffs and have a shot at the top picks - I propose that of all the teams that are in the lottery, the 2 teams with the best 2nd half record will have an added percentage of the lotto balls - enough to make it worthwhile to win games in the 2nd half.

To fix the playoff bubble teams you just give play-in teams the odds to. IMO the 8th seed deserves ping pong balls just as much as the 9th seed does.

Give ping pong balls to every team that A) missed the playoffs or B) made the playoffs, lost in round 1 AND did not have HCA. Who cares if the 6th seed Pistons win the lottery? If anything, this would give "treadmill" teams a chance

[Vampirate]

The biggest issue is teams get stuck in no mans land have 0 way out.

The worst part of a fan is when your team is going nowhere.

If that ever gets addressed you'd have a much different incentive with teams in terms of the lottery.