I'm all-in on Olympics so I had no idea it was ASG today. But it came across my feed that Silver mused about abolishing the draft and making rookies free agents. I actually think this would fix a whole bunch of problems around tanking and silly trades.
The key would be to give bad teams the ability to offer bigger contracts, so rookies will seek immediate money and the best opportunities for playing time. The downside would be that generational talent would probably prioritize market over immediate money if sponsors make up the difference in money. But that's not really a bad thing for the league overall, and it has barely worked out for any small market teams anyways:
ORL - Shaq and Dwight got them a few years of relevance and a finals appearance. Paolo TBD.
SAS - Duncan was a bit of a fluke; maybe they still land him in this system. Wemby is less likely as he'd probably stay east - could see him strongly consider Toronto
NOP - failed to do anything with AD or Zion
HOU - probably loses Yao to the west coast but it's not like they're a small market
PHI - not a small market and the process never fully delivered
ATL/DAL/PHO/WAS/LAC/CHI are not particularly small markets and have a fair number of 1 OAs over the years, and still generally achieved little
TOR and MIL achieved nothing with their 1OAs and have since won titles built around less prominent prospects
UTAH/CHA/MEM/SAC/POR/IND are less desirable markets and haven't had great luck in the lottery and generally failed to capitalize on whatever luck they have had.
Success cases:
SEA/OKC - decent success with their original high picks, but they got over the top built differently.
MIN/DET - less desirable but fair size markets are doing well based around Ant and Cade
CLE - the most generational situation that probably wouldn't have been replicated, but who knows, maybe he would have stayed at home? MIA, CHI, LAC, and TOR were the big market bottom feeders that could have made a strong pitch in 2003. NYK/GSW had 37/38 wins and would have been around then play-in - Knicks had a fairly old roster, Warriors had been an irrelevant franchise for years. Hard to say what a UFA Lebron would have done...I think there's actually a decent chance he would have chosen Cleveland
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