How Has the Draft Lottery Shaped the NBA

[cdubbz]

Maybe the lottery should only be for the worst 3teams instead of the bottom 14.

[og15]

Nah people would throw too many games.

Who cares? If a team wants to throw games, and lose millions of dollars in ticket sales doing so, they should be able to.

Also, it's not like it isn't happening anyway. The term "tanking for draft picks" exists in the current NBA for a reason.

Then imagine how much worse it would be if teams knew they could guarantee themselves the next once in a generation prospect. It's an affront to the integrity of the game.

You mean you don't want to see unnecessary DNP's?

Nah people would throw too many games.

Who cares? If a team wants to throw games, and lose millions of dollars in ticket sales doing so, they should be able to.

Also, it's not like it isn't happening anyway. The term "tanking for draft picks" exists in the current NBA for a reason.

They won't loose enough that they can't make back when they get the first pick the next season. And being bad as opposed to very bad won't likely have much impact on their ticket sales and attendance

[RIPskaterdude]

Maybe the lottery should only be for the worst 3teams instead of the bottom 14.

Make it a lottery for top 5, imo.

[og15]

Maybe the lottery should only be for the worst 3teams instead of the bottom 14.

Make it a lottery for top 5, imo.

Of course now you just have a battle of teams trying to get into top 5 worst records, not sure that is a solution.

How about make it random between 5 and 14 every year, so teams never know exactly how many of them will be in the lottery, though you still know that at least 5th would get you in

[pross]

Charlotte getting MKG instead of Davis is the worst to my memory. The fact that a team with the worst winning percentage in NBA HISTORY gets the #2 pick is beyond me. Not to mention their window just got pushed back even further because MKG is obviously not as good as Davis.

Personally, the lottery sucks and needs to go away.

I would probably rate Vancouver moving from 1 to 4 in 1997 (and losing Tim Duncan) and Minnesota moving from 1 to 3 in 1992 (and losing Shaquille O'Neal) as being worse. Both Duncan and O'Neal were considered to be among the best talents of their generation when they were drafted (and both turned into Hall of Fame players).

I agree for the simple fact that the Grizz would probably still be in Vancouver now had Duncan been drafted there.

[statsman]

Can someone who can be bothered to figure it out post the odds of getting 4th from 1st? Surely the chance of dropping 3 spots in less than 25%?

The #1 seeded team in the lottery has a 35.7% chance of ending up with the #4 pick.