Official BKN Pick Watch Thread 2016 Season [3.0]

[165bows]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/geoff_calkins/status/724641100573585408[/tweet]Uh-oh. Is it too early to include MEM in the thread title? Knicks and Nets could both go after Conley, but I imagine he'd want to join a winning or up-and-coming team. Bucks maybe?

Dallas should come out of the thread title, really, as that debt is settled. Maybe just have a "Brooklen and future picks" title for now, a little gauche to throw Memphis in the title this early.

[Turgon]

The fact that it is not done live leaves me with tons of doubt. PERIOD.

From the video linked above of the 2015 lotto:

On top of reps of the 14 teams physically present, sitting feet away,

Overseeing and verifying the entire process today is Denise Pelli form the accounting firm of Ernst & Young. When the drawing is finished, she will place the team logo cards into the envelope, seal them, and deliver them to NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum.

Lastly we have 12 members of the media joining us, as well as a video crew from NBA entertainment, to document the proceeding. The video of the drawing will be posted on NBA.com and the gametime app immediately after the results are publicly revealed.

If the lack of live televising gives you doubt, then you are implicitly implicating all of those people. If there's something going on there that they don't want us to see and need a little time to doctor out of the footage, but are okay with all 14 team reps, 12 media members, and the E&Y rep seeing, your conspiracy just got much, much larger.



EDIT:

this is the last post I'll make on the subject of lottery conspiracies

Sorry - unreliable narrator'd.

It's definitely not fixed, I just thing it's superfluous to have an E&Y rep there. Get an independent engineer if people are concerned. Better yet, just pick the Celtics.

Having an E&Y representative in there doesn't mean anything. He is probably just checking that all the procedures are done according to whatever has been previously stipulated.

As for the amount of people involved, let me tell you something. In my country, the biggest provider of software for restaurants (and bars, and coffee shops and the like) had a secret function integrated in the program that would allow the manager to issue a fake invoice that would not be included in the tax statements. This went on for years, with thousands of clients using it without the tax authorities being able to find anything. And the software house was tax certified and had accountants, auditors, engineers and lawyers all (probably) in the know. But when it was finally discovered, only a couple of people were indicted.

I'm not saying the lottery is fixed. But I won't say it isn't either. It certainly would be a lot easier than many people seem to think.

[chrisab123]

In my opinion they have fixed the lotto from time to time. The NO lotto was one of the most sketchy outcomes ever. I think Silver has been above the board with a lot of things but let's see what happens.

[Avalanche]

If the lottery was fixed... wouldn't the Celtics and Lakers getting 1 & 2 this season be the best possible outcome for the league?

[lon3lytoaster]

If the lottery was fixed... wouldn't the Celtics and Lakers getting 1 & 2 this season be the best possible outcome for the league?

Well I don't know what generates revenue more than rebuilding the Celtics/Lakers dynamic and I don't think Silver hates us near as bad as Stern, so I'm all for there being a conspiracy

[chakdaddy]

If the lottery was fixed... wouldn't the Celtics and Lakers getting 1 & 2 this season be the best possible outcome for the league?

Well I don't know what generates revenue more than rebuilding the Celtics/Lakers dynamic and I don't think Silver hates us near as bad as Stern, so I'm all for there being a conspiracy

We'll see if it's different with Silver...but signs of conspiracy have never been kind to us in the past. Typically pro LA, Chicago, and for some reason San Antonio...not us.

[Slartibartfast]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/geoff_calkins/status/724641100573585408[/tweet]Uh-oh. Is it too early to include MEM in the thread title? Knicks and Nets could both go after Conley, but I imagine he'd want to join a winning or up-and-coming team. Bucks maybe?

Dallas should come out of the thread title, really, as that debt is settled. Maybe just have a "Brooklen and future picks" title for now, a little gauche to throw Memphis in the title this early.

It's in our best interests for them to resign Conley. Get that slow and steady decline working until both guys are toast in 5 years and that pick is unprotected.

[fallguy]

I can't believe anyone with critical thinking abilities believes in lottery fixing.

[Fidel Sarcasmo]

I can't believe anyone with critical thinking abilities believes in lottery fixing.

Yeah man. Somehow this thing becomes a runaway train every time we have a chance at a top draft pick. I honestly don't believe anyone believes in it. I just think their pessimism is so strong that they're acting out that way so they don't get their hopes up. As for me. I'm optimistic. I believe fortunate timing is the best luck if all. I believe we've timed this whole thing perfectly. I think luck will pay us a visit this offseason. Credit to DA the master architect.

[lon3lytoaster]

I can't believe anyone with critical thinking abilities believes in lottery fixing.

Yeah man. Somehow this thing becomes a runaway train every time we have a chance at a top draft pick. I honestly don't believe anyone believes in it. I just think their pessimism is so strong that they're acting out that way so they don't get their hopes up. As for me. I'm optimistic. I believe fortunate timing is the best luck if all. I believe we've timed this whole thing perfectly. I think luck will pay us a visit this offseason. Credit to DA the master architect.

I hope so, for just once man. Ben Simmons or Ingram would be huge for this team. We didn't have any luck in the playoffs with seeding or injury, hopefully we can get some rolled over for May 17th.

[BfB]

I'd be stoked to get B Ingrim

[Kalela]

If the Lakers lose their pick this draft then I will believe the lottery is not fixed.

[celtxman]

I can't believe anyone with critical thinking abilities believes in lottery fixing.

I don't think anything has been fixed with the possible exception of the Ewing draft. It was a different time in the NBA then.
If you want to see something cool in terms of fixing ping pong balls, and you don't know about it, Google 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal or find a Youtube video on it. Pretty wild stuff. Other than that situation, I don't know how you make certain balls come up and certainly people would be wise to the possibility

[Andrew McCeltic]

From the video linked above of the 2015 lotto:

On top of reps of the 14 teams physically present, sitting feet away,

If the lack of live televising gives you doubt, then you are implicitly implicating all of those people. If there's something going on there that they don't want us to see and need a little time to doctor out of the footage, but are okay with all 14 team reps, 12 media members, and the E&Y rep seeing, your conspiracy just got much, much larger.



EDIT:

Sorry - unreliable narrator'd.

It's definitely not fixed, I just thing it's superfluous to have an E&Y rep there. Get an independent engineer if people are concerned. Better yet, just pick the Celtics.

Having an E&Y representative in there doesn't mean anything. He is probably just checking that all the procedures are done according to whatever has been previously stipulated.

As for the amount of people involved, let me tell you something. In my country, the biggest provider of software for restaurants (and bars, and coffee shops and the like) had a secret function integrated in the program that would allow the manager to issue a fake invoice that would not be included in the tax statements. This went on for years, with thousands of clients using it without the tax authorities being able to find anything. And the software house was tax certified and had accountants, auditors, engineers and lawyers all (probably) in the know. But when it was finally discovered, only a couple of people were indicted.

I'm not saying the lottery is fixed. But I won't say it isn't either. It certainly would be a lot easier than many people seem to think.

Maybe the greatest conspiracy of all.. is convincing smart people that conspiracies aren't possible. ..............

[SMTBSI]

It's definitely not fixed, I just thing it's superfluous to have an E&Y rep there. Get an independent engineer if people are concerned. Better yet, just pick the Celtics.

Having an E&Y representative in there doesn't mean anything. He is probably just checking that all the procedures are done according to whatever has been previously stipulated.

As for the amount of people involved, let me tell you something. In my country, the biggest provider of software for restaurants (and bars, and coffee shops and the like) had a secret function integrated in the program that would allow the manager to issue a fake invoice that would not be included in the tax statements. This went on for years, with thousands of clients using it without the tax authorities being able to find anything. And the software house was tax certified and had accountants, auditors, engineers and lawyers all (probably) in the know. But when it was finally discovered, only a couple of people were indicted.

I'm not saying the lottery is fixed. But I won't say it isn't either. It certainly would be a lot easier than many people seem to think.

Maybe the greatest conspiracy of all.. is convincing smart people that conspiracies aren't possible. ..............

Of course it's possible. I disagree strongly with the idea I see expressed, quite often, that it would be "simple". So many posters say it would be "simple", but never seem to want to have a substantive discussion on what it would actually take to do it. I believe that this particular conspiracy, in 2016, would required a much larger roster of conspirators than many seem to believe.

Course, I also believe that the risk-reward profile is so bad that, in the current environment, no rational person would choose to attempt it.

But, it's definitely possible.

[Slartibartfast]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/geoff_calkins/status/724641100573585408[/tweet]Uh-oh. Is it too early to include MEM in the thread title? Knicks and Nets could both go after Conley, but I imagine he'd want to join a winning or up-and-coming team. Bucks maybe?

Dallas should come out of the thread title, really, as that debt is settled. Maybe just have a "Brooklen and future picks" title for now, a little gauche to throw Memphis in the title this early.

It's pretty much just Prima Nocta rights re: Brooklyn for 2017.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Having an E&Y representative in there doesn't mean anything. He is probably just checking that all the procedures are done according to whatever has been previously stipulated.

As for the amount of people involved, let me tell you something. In my country, the biggest provider of software for restaurants (and bars, and coffee shops and the like) had a secret function integrated in the program that would allow the manager to issue a fake invoice that would not be included in the tax statements. This went on for years, with thousands of clients using it without the tax authorities being able to find anything. And the software house was tax certified and had accountants, auditors, engineers and lawyers all (probably) in the know. But when it was finally discovered, only a couple of people were indicted.

I'm not saying the lottery is fixed. But I won't say it isn't either. It certainly would be a lot easier than many people seem to think.

Maybe the greatest conspiracy of all.. is convincing smart people that conspiracies aren't possible. ..............

Of course it's possible. I disagree strongly with the idea I see expressed, quite often, that it would be "simple". So many posters say it would be "simple", but never seem to want to have a substantive discussion on what it would actually take to do it. I believe that this particular conspiracy, in 2016, would required a much larger roster of conspirators than many seem to believe.

Course, I also believe that the risk-reward profile is so bad that, in the current environment, no rational person would choose to attempt it.

But, it's definitely possible.

Ok, but the big thing every anti-conspiracy argument leaves out is that it would be in the self-interest of the people involved to keep the conspiracy to themselves. If you're a party to it, and benefiting from it, and/or there are consequences to revealing it, you have major incentives to keep conspiracy-ing.

I'm a skeptic about all of these things, but I do believe the feasibility of conspiracy is much more undecidable than everyone assumes. Conventional wisdom says there are tinfoil people who think the Illuminati killed JFK to prevent an alien takeover of Cuba, and everyone else who knows every conspiracy theory is crazy and highly implausible.

What happens in most cases is that there's some dark spot or ambiguity in our knowledge and people fill it in with their imagination, projecting fears, fantasies, anxieties. But in other cases, people actually do lie, cheat, collude and conspire.

Fixing the NBA lottery? Not hard. It's just sports, hell, the owners are probably pragmatic enough that you could get all 30 in on it.

There are a lot of open secrets, it's also easy to bury things in paperwork, non-disclosure agreements, to make it impossible to get to the bottom of anything. Who gives a damn about the Panama Papers, for example, which were a big story a couple of weeks ago? Who's digging to find out which American politicians are using off-shore tax havens and talking out of both sides of their mouths about it?

Might've said this already, but the identity of Deep Throat (who brought down a conspiracy, ironically) was kept secret for 30+ years- Nora Ephron knew, or thought she knew, and blabbed about it, apparently, but everyone involved just lied when the subject came up.

[PierceFan4ever]

in 1 try......i got the Celtics getting the #1 pick and selecting Ben Simmons on the espn draft simulator

[165bows]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/geoff_calkins/status/724641100573585408[/tweet]Uh-oh. Is it too early to include MEM in the thread title? Knicks and Nets could both go after Conley, but I imagine he'd want to join a winning or up-and-coming team. Bucks maybe?

Dallas should come out of the thread title, really, as that debt is settled. Maybe just have a "Brooklen and future picks" title for now, a little gauche to throw Memphis in the title this early.

It's pretty much just Prima Nocta rights re: Brooklyn for 2017.

It's tempting to make some off-color allusion to favorable fertility chances, but I'm trying to just leave that alone lol.

[The Corey's]

Two more weeks!!!