NBA may abolish the draft to prevent tanking

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by 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.

That's a really interesting idea. Are there any pro leagues that have tried it? It sounds like it might work, or at least some version of it.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

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.

But how are you going to get those players if you never draft higher than 16th in every round? Remember, you haven't got a base of 2nd-liners or 2nd-pair D to build on in the first place, or you wouldn't have finished 32nd.

This year's Flames are extremely atypical of bad teams, and at that, they are not in 32nd place and are unlikely to fall that low. Think San Jose Sharks from a couple of years back. Where would they be if they were drafting 16th every year instead of picking Celebrini?

[Geeoff]

IMO flat odds for non-playoff teams encourages tanking because all of a sudden more teams could possibly land the next Crosby. A team in a wild card position could decide to sell

Also, if you're the worst team in the league and your own picks are less certain and the only way for a team to get better is through the draft, then the only way to get better is to acquire more picks. And how do you get more picks? By trading away veteran players. And what happens when you trade away your vets? You are icing an AHL team that will lose most of their games.

[Funkhouser]

You just know the NHL will change the rules right when the Flames are primed to finish last.

[N-E-B]

Hot take: If a team wants to tank, let them. I genuinely don't care. It's never a guarantee and if a team feels that their best option is to tank for a high pick who cares?

As long as the players on the ice aren't actively trying to lose I don't care at all. A GM wants to blow up his team and ice AHL players? Have at 'er.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Hot take: If a team wants to tank, let them. I genuinely don't care. It's never a guarantee and if a team feels that their best option is to tank for a high pick who cares?

As long as the players on the ice aren't actively trying to lose I don't care at all. A GM wants to blow up his team and ice AHL players? Have at 'er.

For me the issue isn't about teams that tank, but rather teams that don't tank but also never get the help they need.

In a 32 team league with relative parity, it is too easy to get stuck in no man's land for a long time which leads to a bad product and is bad for fan support. I don't think those teams should get punished for trying to put the best product they can out there without the help of decent draft choices year after year.

So while teams tanking is related to that, that's not the part that I think is unfair, at least not directly. There should be no reason to actually want to tank in the first place, but I don't blame teams that do it because that is the system currently giving you the best chance.

[2macinnis2]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

That's a really interesting idea. Are there any pro leagues that have tried it? It sounds like it might work, or at least some version of it.

Not that I’m aware of, and who knows maybe logistics would be too complex. But it would be super fun and definitely require more skill than a classic draft.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by 2macinnis2

Not that I’m aware of, and who knows maybe logistics would be too complex. But it would be super fun and definitely require more skill than a classic draft.

The media would hate it, because a lot of sports reporters are allergic to math. Those particular guys already have enough trouble trying to understand the cap.

Can you imagine someone like Spector trying to cover a draft auction?

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Hot take: If a team wants to tank, let them. I genuinely don't care. It's never a guarantee and if a team feels that their best option is to tank for a high pick who cares?

As long as the players on the ice aren't actively trying to lose I don't care at all. A GM wants to blow up his team and ice AHL players? Have at 'er.

So the teams playing them get free points vs teams that played them earlier

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by dino7c

So the teams playing them get free points vs teams that played them earlier

That kind of thing happens whether anyone is tanking or not. Remember the Covid year and the North Division? The Flames missed the playoffs because they never got to play Ottawa early in the season, when the Senators were giving away points like candy, and Montreal got enough of those points to put them in.

Besides, a team isn't going to be in a position to tank unless they're genuinely bad to begin with. How much difference does it make if you play twice against a team that's bad enough to finish bottom 5, as opposed to the same team after they give up?

[simonsays]

I feel like the Gold Plan would hurt the NHL more than help. Teams that are terrible often trade players with soon to be expiring contracts to help gain assets (mostly picks) for the rebuild. The NHL already has had several years of low trade volume. Not trading players like Andersson because he could help us after we're eliminated would become the norm. Now instead of obvious trades we'll be stuck with the low level change of scenery stuff.


I don't think the NHL has this same problem. But if it did, I would suggest 2 changes.


1) 18 years olds can only be picked in the 1st or 2nd round.
2) re-jiggle the 2nd round draft order according to the same rules as the first round. This only applies to the second round.




And do these changes over 4 years changing the draft date for 18 year olds by 3 months per year.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by simonsays

I feel like the Gold Plan would hurt the NHL more than help. Teams that are terrible often trade players with soon to be expiring contracts to help gain assets (mostly picks) for the rebuild. The NHL already has had several years of low trade volume. Not trading players like Andersson because he could help us after we're eliminated would become the norm. Now instead of obvious trades we'll be stuck with the low level change of scenery stuff.


I don't think the NHL has this same problem. But if it did, I would suggest 2 changes.


1) 18 years olds can only be picked in the 1st or 2nd round.
2) re-jiggle the 2nd round draft order according to the same rules as the first round. This only applies to the second round.




And do these changes over 4 years changing the draft date for 18 year olds by 3 months per year.

I would put the chances of the Players Association agreeing to this as somewhere between 0 and 0.

And the existing contract runs through 2030, so any change isn't coming soon.

I don't really think the players or the owners think the exiting draft is not working.

If teams want to do tear down rebuilds, that's their choice. It's the choice that smart management teams choose to rebuild as quickly as possible into an elite team. It doesn't always work, but it's the best choice.

If teams want to always try and win as many games as possible by hanging on to veterans, that's their choice. It's likely the slowest way to rebuild, because you really don't rebuild until you team hits rock bottom, and the tear down is thrust upon you.

But any system which doesn't give the best chance of the best draft picks to the worse teams will not work.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by dino7c

So the teams playing them get free points vs teams that played them earlier

Maybe they'd have an easier game but is that any different to now?

Is it unfair that some teams had to play the Flames at the start of the year when they still had Andersson and Kadri vs in April when they don't?

I just don't think the tanking issue is really that big a deal in the NHL.

[Locke]

I think tanking is a significant issue in North American sports, largely because of the existence of The Draft, every major NA sport has one.

So...I dont think abolishing The Draft is really the way to go in order to stop that, but putting in some new rules is probably prudent so stop teams from sucking for so long and properly placing the incentive where it should be, which is to win and get better.

[Tiger]

watch and see how the PWHL system works, and then adopt it.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Tiger

watch and see how the PWHL system works, and then adopt it.

The PWHL uses the so-called Gold Plan, but it's a horrible league for that because they don't have enough teams, don't play enough games, and use the 3-point standings system, so teams don't get eliminated until very late in the season.

They have used it for the last two drafts and it had no impact on the draft order in either season because only 2 teams missed the playoffs each season and the second-last team wasn't eliminated until after their final game of the season.

This season, they have added two new expansion teams, doubling the number of non-playoff teams, but the 3-point standings and a 30 game season still means the Gold Plan won't likely come into play until teams only have 1 or 2 games remaining.



The Gold Plan only makes sense in theory for a league where a large number of teams miss the playoffs and they get eliminated with a large number of games remaining in the season.

[Tiger]

Originally Posted by getbak

The PWHL uses the so-called Gold Plan, but it's a horrible league for that because they don't have enough teams, don't play enough games, and use the 3-point standings system, so teams don't get eliminated until very late in the season.

They have used it for the last two drafts and it had no impact on the draft order in either season because only 2 teams missed the playoffs each season and the second-last team wasn't eliminated until after their final game of the season.

This season, they have added two new expansion teams, doubling the number of non-playoff teams, but the 3-point standings and a 30 game season still means the Gold Plan won't likely come into play until teams only have 1 or 2 games remaining.



The Gold Plan only makes sense in theory for a league where a large number of teams miss the playoffs and they get eliminated with a large number of games remaining in the season.

The criticism makes sense. It may have unintended consequences like tanking earlier, or lack of trades, or things I cannot even imagine, but it is a decent system.

https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/pwhl-playoffs-a-too-soon-look-at-the-gold-plan

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Geeoff

IMO flat odds for non-playoff teams encourages tanking because all of a sudden more teams could possibly land the next Crosby. A team in a wild card position could decide to sell

Also, if you're the worst team in the league and your own picks are less certain and the only way for a team to get better is through the draft, then the only way to get better is to acquire more picks. And how do you get more picks? By trading away veteran players. And what happens when you trade away your vets? You are icing an AHL team that will lose most of their games.

I really can't see that happening.
Make your team worse and throw away the playoffs for a 1/16th of a chance? Also, players and coaches would mutiny.

The odds of just making your team worse are just way too big, and playoffs are crucial for fan interest, and ticket sales still really matter for teams financially.