Jonno
Years ago
A crazy idea to stop NBA teams tanking for pick 1
After listening to various podcasts over the past weeks, where there was some discussion about tanking and how to make it less attractive and then hearing people like Jeff Van Gundy talk about how everything should relate to and reward winning, i was thinking how can they make the draft reward winning and eliminate tanking, as i like many hate when teams dont try and win at all times, especially when they take seasons off to improve draft position.
So here is what i came up with, is the draft picks should be awarded in order of the regular season standings for the overall league, ie ignoring conferences. ie top team gets the top pick and it works down to the 30th team having the 30th pick, but here is the catch.
The top team gets the top pick, but they have to pay the player $30 mil, 2nd pick pays $29 mil, works down in ladder order to the 30th pick who is paid $1 mil, so therefore to keep the pick they have to either have or create that cap space, or trade picks with another team, or pass on the pick all together.
ie
Team ranked 1 gets Pick 1 $30 mil player
team ranked 2 gets Pick 2 $29 mil player
so on to
team ranked 29 gets pick 29 a $2 mil player
team ranked 30 gets pick 30 a $1 mil player
To explain last season the Spurs, who won the title, finished with the best regular season record, so they get the first pick, but to use it they have to have $30 mil cap space, which in most cases the top team doesnt, so they would either have to break up there awesome team to create the cap space, trade the pick to another team ie the Bucks pick was worth $1 mil, so if the Bucks who had the worst record have the cap space to take on $30 mil they could swap picks (and other assets if they wish) so the Spurs only need $1 mil cap space for example but now pick 30th, or if they cant get a deal done they simply pass on the pick, so the best prospect would fall to the next team, who again would need the required cap space and so on.
To me this would stop tanking as there is no real benefit, as top team gets top pick and the bottom team who is trying to lose gets last pick then has to try and trade with the top team to get the top pick from them.
You can still trade future picks but again there value relates to the position the team they receive it from on the ladder in the relevant season.
For example last season may have gone something like this. The Spurs go we have pick 1, will cost us $30 mil in cap space which we dont have, we are not breaking up our team enough to create that space, so we need to trade it. But say the have $7 mil available to them or create that level of cap space, so they contact say the Lakers who have $30 mil cap space, would love to draft Wiggins no.1 so trade there pick, pick 25 plus say a sign and trade for Pau Gasol for around the $7 mil mark he signed with the Bulls for anyway for Pick 1. (or what ever the teams want to do)
So in the end the Spurs get Pau Gasol and some form of draft pick (as they wouldnt have much/any cap space so would then have to on trade pick 25 for a later/2nd rounder or a future year pick) and the Lakers who didnt tank or finish last get Wiggins on a $30 mil contract for the next few years to re-build there franchise with.
This eliminates any benefit for any teams that manipulated their season to come in the bottom 5, as they would still have to do a deal with another team to get one of the top picks, so just because they may have cap space doesnt guarantee a deal is done.
I know its a bit crazy, will never happen, but it rewards winning which is what competition is all about, trying to win and should eliminate tanking.
What do peole think of this idea??? Does it get rid of tanking?? which is my aim.
