i say give every team that doesn't make the playoffs an equal amount of ping pong balls in the draft lottery... that will prevent teams from trying to tank to get a better pick while also not rewarding teams for being terrible.

stinks i can't erase a poll, especially when i messed it up...

plus the choices are wordy as all hell...hard to write some of them briefly.

yeah, that one is hard to explain (i came up with it today, actually)....makes sense for the nba since it takes a lawyer to understand most of what goes on..lol...

essentially, it works like an opposite lottery for one of the worst teams to get kicked out of the top 3 or 5, while helping one of the teams 6-12 get a better spot.

so what happens is all of the non-playoff teams who don't have the worst 3 or maybe worst 5 records compete in a pre-lottery where all have the same number of chances to get a guaranteed spot in the top 3 (or maybe top 5) in the draft.

so, one of the bottom 3-5 w-l teams is always going to get pushed out of the top 3 or 5, and one of the teams 6-12 always get in.

the idea is to stop the worst teams from tanking, and give non-playoff teams that try to win a better chance at getting a top pick.

[Edited by - PresIke on 05-18-2009 9:46 PM]

[Edited by - PresIke on 05-18-2009 9:46 PM]

[Edited by - PresIke on 05-18-2009 9:47 PM]

yeah, folks here definitely know i have strong feelings for getting a real minor league system.

i just think they could do a better job of stopping tanking, and how ridiculous it is for fans of bad teams to actually root against their own team later in the year.

plus, we keep seeing the same teams with the worst records who according to a lot of experts are not really interested in trying to build winning teams unless they get lucky with top 5 picks. while the knicks may be a constant lotto team over the past decade, it at least wasn't done with a lack of interest in trying to win.

compare that with teams like memphis, minnesota, and the clippers, who often wind up in the lotto or top 5. it keeps the best incoming players on crap teams, and then we have to wait or hope for maybe 5 years before those teams might get good...and often it doesn't last long.

to incentivize bad owners who don't even care much about doing what it takes to win it seems pretty unfair.

i have the perfect solution:

there are 30 teams and 16 make it, so 14 don't

what you do is you have a one game playoffs for the non-playoff teams, the worst 7 have home court. the winner of the playoff gets the first pick. perfect...think of the possibilities.

Knickerblogger offered the idea of freezing the draft order after the all-star break, and i actually voted for that one (although I also like the one with no draft but using cap room + some money allocated by the league every year to sign incoming players).

although i like my idea, it's confusing as all hell, and has some flaws. his idea seems quite sensible, and should at least prevent us from having the ritual of "a real fan roots for the team to lose because a top 5 pick is the only way to get a superstar" vs. "real fans never root against their team" debate.

even the knicks had a shot at the playoffs in january, as he pointed out.

then teams might actually try to win still, which is normal for COMPETITIVE sports, i think, and far more ethical to fans who shell out money and time for the product.

[Edited by - PresIke on 05-18-2009 9:56 PM]

[Edited by - PresIke on 05-18-2009 9:57 PM]

yeah, basically, the need to stop tanking is the key.

it's beyond ridiculous because it's not like the nfl where you only have 16 games, and where 1 player is not going to usually suddenly turn your team around.

the lotto was supposed to prevent tanking, but it's not good enough because of the power of individual players in a game where 1 player can make a HUGE difference.

Posted by VDesai:

The lottery is fine, but they should go to 3 rounds in the draft IMO and build out a minors system for player development.

Agreed but not 3 rounds. NBDL needs to be expanded into something very similar to the MLB minor league system.

Posted by GKFv2:

Posted by VDesai:

The lottery is fine, but they should go to 3 rounds in the draft IMO and build out a minors system for player development.

Agreed but not 3 rounds. NBDL needs to be expanded into something very similar to the MLB minor league system.

If you have a minor league system with a full squad for 3 teams it only makes sense to have more rounds. The draft is deeper these days anyway because of the international pool.