NBA may abolish the draft to prevent tanking

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Have a over the top battle royal with the GM's of the Lottery Teams in the ring. The Winner gets the number 1 pick.

Suddenly Engelland gets promoted from special assistant to GM.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Have a over the top battle royal with the GM's of the Lottery Teams in the ring. The Winner gets the number 1 pick.

Utah might win that.

[Finger Cookin]

Report: NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season

...The proposed new rules include:

• First-round picks can be protected only in the top four or top 14+.
• Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date.
• No longer allowing a team to pick top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
• Teams can’t pick top four the year after making conference finals.
• Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records.
• Lottery extended to include all play-in teams.
• Flattening odds for all lottery teams.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by dino7c

sounds like an Oiler fan take lol

Why? The rule changes got the oilers more first overall picks. Shouldn’t have happened. The complainers won out and then they complained more.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Report: NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season

...The proposed new rules include:

• First-round picks can be protected only in the top four or top 14+.
• Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date.
• No longer allowing a team to pick top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
• Teams can’t pick top four the year after making conference finals.
• Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records.
• Lottery extended to include all play-in teams.
• Flattening odds for all lottery teams.

The bolded are all things the NHL should adopt IMO.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Gold plan is silly IMO because it depends too much on how good the 8 (or now 10) seed is - and how many games they've played. The bottom 10 teams in the East have been garbage in the NBA for a lot of years, so it takes longer for the 15th team in the East to get eliminated than their counterpart in the West.

Easy modification for NBA purposes: after each team has played the first 20 games on its schedule, it gains one point for each win that it earns while that team is in a standings position outside of the top 10. At the end of the season, the team with the most points accumulated that did not earn a place in the playoffs drafts first, followed by the second most points, and so on. Playoff teams draft in the usual order of elimination from the playoffs.

This incentivizes teams to keep trying to make it into the play-in, because it's a win-win scenario: either you win your way into the playoffs through the play-in, or if you lose, you are probably still in line for at least a pretty good draft position.

There is a scenario where a team needs to win to get into the play-in and opts instead to lose because it is in the pole position for the first overall pick, but it would be pretty rare to see that happen.

[Mathgod]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Report: NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season

...The proposed new rules include:

• First-round picks can be protected only in the top four or top 14+.
• Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date.
• No longer allowing a team to pick top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
• Teams can’t pick top four the year after making conference finals.
• Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records.
• Lottery extended to include all play-in teams.
• Flattening odds for all lottery teams.

Decent changes, let's see how it plays out. Will be interesting to see if NHL does something similar.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

Decent changes, let's see how it plays out. Will be interesting to see if NHL does something similar.

I doubt the NHL does anything.
Outside of fan discussion, there has been zero indication that the NHL has a problem to solve, whereas in the NBA there has been a ton of discussion.

The NHL seems relatively happy with how things work today. I don't anticipate any changes, any time soon.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Report: NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season

...The proposed new rules include:

• First-round picks can be protected only in the top four or top 14+.
• Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date.
• No longer allowing a team to pick top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
• Teams can’t pick top four the year after making conference finals.
• Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records.
• Lottery extended to include all play-in teams.
• Flattening odds for all lottery teams.

These are all excellent and reasonable.

Maybe the no-draft thing was just a misdirection to make sure there’s no blowback to this (though I really can’t imagine why there would be)

[SebC]

Originally Posted by transplant99

So it doesnt matter how your team played when you doled out 300 bucks to go to that game...nope....what mattered is who you sat beside.

JFC what an absurd take.

All the most memorable games I've been to were by myself.

[jayswin]

Oh wow, crazy fan fiction about drastic, weird changes to NHL drafting in this thread aside, I suddenly saw something that is actually a great idea in the NBA proposed changes. Draft position is frozen at the trade deadline. Wonderful.

Takes way the need for teams to "tank" all season. Suddenly crappy teams can be crappy and get themselves into a good draft position but can then focus on creating a good culture where the goal is to win for the rest of the season.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Maybe the no-draft thing was just a misdirection to make sure there’s no blowback to this

The original story clearly stated that eliminating the draft was not one of the many things they were considering, but they might reconsider if the other changes don't work.

Then, because headlines are all just clickbait, the headlines all say they're considering eliminating the draft.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Oh wow, crazy fan fiction about drastic, weird changes to NHL drafting in this thread aside, I suddenly saw something that is actually a great idea in the NBA proposed changes. Draft position is frozen at the trade deadline. Wonderful.

Takes way the need for teams to "tank" all season. Suddenly crappy teams can be crappy and get themselves into a good draft position but can then focus on creating a good culture where the goal is to win for the rest of the season.

Flames historically would have loved that, so many late season surges

[FlamesAddiction]

• Teams can’t pick top four the year after making conference finals.
• Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records

I like these two points the best and would love it if the NHL adopted this.

Rewarding otherwise good teams with top picks and a higher chance of a probable franchise player doesn't help the bottom teams. The fact that Florida and Edmonton (if they had not traded their pick) could realistically have lottery picks this year and draft ahead of teams that actually need it, is just dumb.

And defining where a team is in their competitive cycle makes sense over the course of a longer period and not just one season results. In fact, I'd prefer if the used more than just 2 seasons.

[2macinnis2]

Anyone that has done fantasy football seriously knows that auctions are much better than snake drafts. Let's bring that to pro sports.

Maybe a 150-200 player auction (everyone after that becomes UFAs), you allocate an 'auction salary cap' based on how crappy your team is. Finish last, you get the most money, and the most options. But if your option A is to blow all that on one guy, you get no one else in the draft.

Takes far more skill for managers and talent evaluators...

Also, as an aside, makes for far more compelling TV, as your team may potentially be involved in any player nominated up for auction. In the current system, in most cases you can snooze until your team picks.

[stemit14]

So if a team was sitting bottom 3 in the league at the TDL and then went on a crazy run to make the playoffs and win a few rounds, would they still have the 3rd best odds to win the draft lottery?

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by stemit14

So if a team was sitting bottom 3 in the league at the TDL and then went on a crazy run to make the playoffs and win a few rounds, would they still have the 3rd best odds to win the draft lottery?

Has that ever actually happened?

Freezing the odds early is actually a really good idea...helps with the integrity of the stretch drive for not only the tanking teams but the teams trying to get in or battle for positioning. Teams can "play spoiler" and not have it hurt their franchise.

[GranteedEV]

In the NHL, first round draft order could easily just be based on the team that finishes 17th having the best pick.

Why?

Because if doesn't take a stacked roster to build a 17th place team. But a 17th place team + a star rookie

1) Would propel that team up the rankings (Heiskanen with Dallas comes to mind)
2) Would put young rookies in the playoffs (good for ratings, good for the players' developments)
3) Punishes tanking, but gives teams a clear out.


It would not make sense in the NBA though, where one player is the difference between a bottom feeder and a 55 win team.

[Jay Random]

But then the 32nd-place team drafts 16th, presumably, and never gets any advantage from the draft. A bad team could stay bad until it folds from lack of fans.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

But then the 32nd-place team drafts 16th, presumably, and never gets any advantage from the draft. A bad team could stay bad until it folds from lack of fans.

You can put together a roster of 2nd liners and 2nd pair D and still not be 32nd place. See: The 2025-26 Calgary Flames. In fact this actually encourages teams to improve through drafting well, signing free agents, and trading. It would discourage firesales too, improving long term parity.