A crazy way to fix tanking in the NBA

[npiper17]

With the likelihood of another Magic rebuild on the horizon (and even comments and the odd thread popping up already about the 2018 draft), I've been thinking of a way to fix tanking in the NBA.

Whether it's the Magic or other teams, there's no doubt that come the All-Star break teams will turn towards tanking in an effort to secure the best odds in the draft lottery.

So to fix tanking, have teams play more meaningful games for longer, here's my crazy idea to fix the draft lottery.

1. The lottery would be scrapped (I know it's exciting and makes for one half hour of good tv but tough).

2. The regular season finishes a few days early (or the playoffs start a few days late) and there is a week gap between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

3. In that week gap, the 14 non-playoff teams head to a neutral site (Las Vegas would be ideal with its shiny new arena and basketball-hungry fan base) to play a football World Cup-style week long tournament to decide who picks where in the lottery. How does this work?

- The 14 teams are placed randomly into 4 groups - two of groups and two groups of three. Each team plays 2 games within their group (randomly drawn for the groups of 4 as to which 2 teams you play) on days 2 and 3 after the regular season. 2 points are awarded for a win and if there's a tie in points then it goes to point differential.

- The first and second placed teams in each group move onto the next round. The 6 teams that finished either third or fourth in their group enter a random draw to receive picks 9 to 14.

- On day 5 after the regular season finishes (day 4 of the tournament), the semi-finals take place between the winners of each group. Also on this day, the 'second placed' semi-finals take place.*
*Effectively the group winners are playing for picks 1 to 4 and the second placed teams are playing for picks 5 to 8.

- On day 7 the semi-final winners play a one off game for the first pick (loser gets the second pick) and the losing semi-finalists play a one off game for the third pick (loser gets the fourth pick). The same happens for the group second placed teams but for the 5 to 8 picks.

- On day 8, the playoffs begin.

Why might this help avoid tanking?
- Teams have no incentive to get better lottery odds as the lottery is gone.
- Having a winning culture could pay off if maintained through the season and into the tournament.

Potential problems:
- I appreciate there is possibly too much random drawing involved re the initial groups.
- Would the NBA want to wait a week between regular season end and playoffs begin?
- Would a neutral site work?*
*I think it's the only way to do it to avoid unnecessary travel and eliminating the home court advantage that would be too much for a knockout tournament.

So, what does everyone think? Could this end tanking and keep basketball interesting for fans of crappy teams?

[UCFJayBird]

It's an interesting off the wall idea. But if the Bottom 14 Teams are playing for the #1 pick, with the WINNER getting the #1 pick, doesn't that just mean the actual worst teams in the league will wind up in the 9-14 range?

This just lets those who barely missed the playoffs get the best prospects and forces the worst teams to get ok prospects.

This might help fix tanking, but it would probably hurt parity.

[mr2good]

I agree the system needs an overhaul, but this fix proposal really does hurt the worst teams in the league. You could make a strong argument that this system would actually cause teams to "tank" out of the 7th & 8th seed so they have a shot to win the tourney and get the number 1 pick.

I think keeping the lottery and changing the percentage of winning the top pick is the way to go.

The top 1-4 teams have the same odds, 5-9 have the same odds and 10-14 share the same odds with the entire lottery being drawn from 1-14. This would provide a lot more parity in the draft order for every selection range and promote less blatant tanking.

[MagicMadness]

Players are not going to compete hard for the reward of being replaced by a top lottery pick.

Take the Magic, for example. I doubt Payton would've played his heart out for the chance of being replaced by Fultz.

Also, I don't think the Players Association would agree to the injury risks of playing in a meaningless (to them) tournament (especially after an 82-game season), let alone the contract negotiations that would have to be made between players and teams to participate in such an event.

[npiper17]

Players are not going to compete hard for the reward of being replaced by a top lottery pick.

Take the Magic, for example. I doubt Payton would've been playing his heart out for the chance of being replaced by Fultz.

Also, I don't think the Players Association would agree to the injury risks of playing in a meaningless (to them) tournament (especially after an 82-game season), let alone the contract negotiations that would have to be made between players and teams to participate in such an event.

Good point re the Payton example - something I didn't factor in.

[npiper17]

I agree the system needs an overhaul, but this fix proposal really does hurt the worst teams in the league. You could make a strong argument that this system would actually cause teams to "tank" out of the 7th & 8th seed so they have a shot to win the tourney and get the number 1 pick.

I think keeping the lottery and changing the percentage of winning the top pick is the way to go.

The top 1-4 teams have the same odds, 5-9 have the same odds and 10-14 share the same odds with the entire lottery being drawn from 1-14. This would provide a lot more parity in the draft order for every selection range and promote less blatant tanking.

You could adapt the proposal to exclude the best 6 non-playoff teams. Then have a tournament to decide picks 1 through 8.

[OrlandoMagic]

I had several discussions with coworkers in the past about tanking and what to do. We came up with a similar playoff format, and another solution we had was demote either two or four teams to the G-League while promoting the two or four best teams from the G-League. I know this would more than likely never happen but it's fun to throw out some ideas.

[PennytoShaq]

I really like the idea, but fans and GMs care about the draft picks more than players and coaches. It would have to have heavy incentives to motivate players, and that would not happen since the playoffs already use those.

[AshBlackstone]

Just give every team the same chance of winning the top pick. Problem solved.

[Nemesis21]

Screw that, let's tank for real this time.









Michael Porter Jr here we come!

[npiper17]

I really like the idea, but fans and GMs care about the draft picks more than players and coaches. It would have to have heavy incentives to motivate players, and that would not happen since the playoffs already use those.

I guess serious cash would be the only possible incentive.

[UCFJayBird]

Just give every team the same chance of winning the top pick. Problem solved.

That defeats the purpose of the lottery in the 1st place, which is to help the worst teams get better. If everyone has the same odds the worst team in the league could be in the cellars for years, which is awful for that fan base and that organization and will be detrimental to the league in the long run. Sure, it gets rid of tanking, but the result is far worse.

[AshBlackstone]

Just give every team the same chance of winning the top pick. Problem solved.

That defeats the purpose of the lottery in the 1st place, which is to help the worst teams get better. If everyone has the same odds the worst team in the league could be in the cellars for years, which is awful for that fan base and that organization and will be detrimental to the league in the long run. Sure, it gets rid of tanking, but the result is far worse.

We already have teams who have been in the cellar for years. Sacramento. Orlando. Philly. When will Brooklyn be good again? It wouldn't be any worse than what we are doing. The worst team still picks 4th at worst. There just wouldn't be an incentive anymore to lose games.

Teams are bad because they are poorly run.

[Mr Magic Fan]

Not my idea, but my favorite proposal is having all teams pick swap. After free agency teams select whose pick they want to own for the upcoming year.

For example, let's pretend Brooklyn owns their pick. They were the worst team and will get 1st selection of whose pick to own. Now their GM has to project other teams and determine which will be the worst. This continues until all picks are distributed. At the end of it no team owns their own pick. Thus no incentive to tank.

Sent from my SM-G930V using RealGM mobile app

[npiper17]

Just give every team the same chance of winning the top pick. Problem solved.

That defeats the purpose of the lottery in the 1st place, which is to help the worst teams get better. If everyone has the same odds the worst team in the league could be in the cellars for years, which is awful for that fan base and that organization and will be detrimental to the league in the long run. Sure, it gets rid of tanking, but the result is far worse.

We already have teams who have been in the cellar for years. Sacramento. Orlando. Philly. When will Brooklyn be good again? It wouldn't be any worse than what we are doing. The worst team still picks 4th at worst. There just wouldn't be an incentive anymore to lose games.

Teams are bad because they are poorly run

Not always the case - luck plays into things a lot. Many thought the Magic were well run before Dwight left town and look what happened.

Ryan McDonough considered a good GM in Phoenix and they've been languishing since forever.

[Mike1989]

Interesting idea but I think the easiest way to fix tanking is to retain the lottery aspect for the non-play off teams. However, take away the different chances of winning and instead give every team one ball in the pot. So the team that finished 17th in the standings has the same chance as the team that finished 30th in the standings. By having the same chance it would prevent teams from losing on purpose because they can't guarantee a certain pick like the NFL or better odds like the NBA. It makes teams try to win and be competitive like Miami last year.

[AshBlackstone]

That defeats the purpose of the lottery in the 1st place, which is to help the worst teams get better. If everyone has the same odds the worst team in the league could be in the cellars for years, which is awful for that fan base and that organization and will be detrimental to the league in the long run. Sure, it gets rid of tanking, but the result is far worse.

We already have teams who have been in the cellar for years. Sacramento. Orlando. Philly. When will Brooklyn be good again? It wouldn't be any worse than what we are doing. The worst team still picks 4th at worst. There just wouldn't be an incentive anymore to lose games.

Teams are bad because they are poorly run

Not always the case - luck plays into things a lot. Many thought the Magic were well run before Dwight left town and look what happened.

Ryan McDonough considered a good GM in Phoenix and they've been languishing since forever.

Orlando has languished since then because we were poorly run.

[AshBlackstone]

Interesting idea but I think the easiest way to fix tanking is to retain the lottery aspect for the non-play off teams. However, take away the different chances of winning and instead give every team one ball in the pot. So the team that finished 17th in the standings has the same chance as the team that finished 30th in the standings. By having the same chance it would prevent teams from losing on purpose because they can't guarantee a certain pick like the NFL or better odds like the NBA. It makes teams try to win and be competitive like Miami last year.

I pretty just suggested this, but apparently that's not fair.

[Mike1989]

Just give every team the same chance of winning the top pick. Problem solved.

That defeats the purpose of the lottery in the 1st place, which is to help the worst teams get better. If everyone has the same odds the worst team in the league could be in the cellars for years, which is awful for that fan base and that organization and will be detrimental to the league in the long run. Sure, it gets rid of tanking, but the result is far worse.

So the alternative is to get rid of the lottery and adopt the NFL draft system. That way the worst team does get the top pick. I can remember the Bobcats being the worst team in the league by far and due to the lottery they ended up landing the second pick, the Pelicans won and got Anthony Davis, and they got Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The lottery isn't an ideal way for the worst teams to get better if other teams "get lucky" (or as the more cynical fans think, when the league fixes the lottery).

Yes giving every team the same odds could result in the worst team missing out every single year. That would be unfortunate. However, it could incentivise them to find other ways to building their team (trades or free agency) to get better. But at the same time that same team could get screwed over by the current lottery if they kept missing out on the franchise changing talent (e.g. Like us, the years we had high picks the classes were weak like Oladipo, if we had that pick in other years we would have got a franchise changing talent).

No way is perfect. If everyone has the same odds that eliminates tanking, but someone might be unlucky every year and be stuck. If the existing system is retained teams tank and some might even be screwed over by losing in the lottery. And if we went with the NFL system teams would defiantly tank to land a specific pick.

[Mike1989]

Interesting idea but I think the easiest way to fix tanking is to retain the lottery aspect for the non-play off teams. However, take away the different chances of winning and instead give every team one ball in the pot. So the team that finished 17th in the standings has the same chance as the team that finished 30th in the standings. By having the same chance it would prevent teams from losing on purpose because they can't guarantee a certain pick like the NFL or better odds like the NBA. It makes teams try to win and be competitive like Miami last year.

I pretty just suggested this, but apparently that's not fair.

I guess if a team is bad and misses out every year it could be, but they could miss out in current lottery if the chips don't fall their way. I guess it comes down to whether people really want to get rid of tanking or not. If they do, our suggestion is arguably the only way because teams can't secure a certain pick or odds. If they don't mind tanking then leave it as it is because it at least gives every team a chance of winning a high pick or losing a high pick which makes tanking risky.