Or that whole, minor league, major league soccer idea? Instead of a developmental league, add a few more teams. Good teams are moved up a division, bad teams are moved down?
How about keep it simple. Give every team that misses the playoffs the exact same chance in the final lottery order. Teams like the Lakers, 76ers, Suns and Nets would have no incentive to lose games jockying for lotto balls because their draft position would be completely random.
Promotion/Relegation.... tie it to TV money and you'll see every team twist every rule in the book to get better. I've said it a number of times on here.
Well, it sure was nice being a Blazer fan until the team disbanded after Roy/Aldridge's rookie season...
I was obviously being facetious, but I think there needs to be some punishment; bad teams are bad for the league, but there's a big disparity between the best and worst talent, and the best/worst coaches.
Instead of a lottery, we have a poker tournament, and instead of money, they get chips based on their records. So even if you just barely missed the playoffs, if you're a good player you could still win the tournament.
It's kind of off the wall, but I like the YTW plan to fix the NBA draft: . OK, since everyone is playing for someone else's draft pick, it removes the incentive to intentionally lose games. That's a step in the right direction. I'd take it three steps further. Ever since the last realignment, and with teams like Vancouver moving to Memphis and Seattle moving to the middle of a cow pasture, it seems like the NBA lacks real rivalries, specificly of the geographic nature. Temporary rivalries seem to come and go, usually based on meeting in consecutive years in the playoffs, but how many CLE fan are going to travel to Oakland to watch a regular season game against the Warriors. So, we need another realignment that helps foster geographic rivalries. The NBA would also like to expand. Perfect, add two more teams (Seattle and Las Vegas) at the same time you realign the divisions. That gets us to 32 teams and now everything is in powers of two. That gives us four divisions of eight teams each. The top four teams in each division make the playoffs, the bottom four teams in each division have a Happy Summer. In order to encourage geographic rivalries, the YTW would be done on a division by division basis. The YTW choosing order would still be based on the previous seasons records, but you can only pick a YTW team from within your division. And to up the ante even further, all teams would play all other teams in their division 4 times per season (2 home and 2 away), and all other non-division teams twice a year (1 home and 1 away). That reduces the season to 76 games and would make it easy to eliminate all back-to-back games - which further reduces the need to "rest" players. So, think about it, not only are you fighting your division rivals for the top four spots to make the playoffs, everyone would be playing their YTW team four times a year with the added incentive that beating them improves your own draft position. Summary: 1) YTW draft methodology 2) Expand the league to 32 teams 3) Realign to 4 divisions of 8 teams each 4) Top 4 teams in each division make the playoffs 4) Play your division rivals 4 times a year, everyone else twice a year 5) Reduce the schedule to 76 games and eliminate all back-to-back games Removes the incentive to lose on purpose. Removes reasons to rest players. Fosters geographic rivalries that will make regular season games more exciting and intense as there's more at stake. All teams in the division are battling to be in the top 4 to make the playoffs and trying to beat their YTW choice to improve their draft position. BNM
Love it. Winner. There is a potential for collusion (Suns and Lakers pick each other as their YTW teams and tank together), but it would be a major risk, so it'd be pretty unlikely.
Thanks. It fixes so many problems and makes regular season games, even once teams clinch their playoff spots, more important, and therefore more exciting for the fans. BNM
So in that scenario, if you're a shit team AND the team that you pick ends up playing better than expected (like the Blazers last year), then your fans have literally nothing to get excited about. Sounds pretty awesome to me.
Which causes you to fire your shit GM even sooner. But, you're not 100% right. If your YTW choice is exceeding your expectations, at least you have four chances to beat them and improve your draft position. I would think your fans would get up for those games, or at least watch them with greater interest than your typical late season tank fest. BNM
You would still have a draft pick, just not as good as you hoped, and you would have an opportunity to make a better YTW pick the next time.
It also occurs to me that with your divisional restrictions, teams in stronger divisions could end up screwed. For instance the Pacific division you'd create (4 CA teams, 2 NW teams, LV & PHX) would have plenty of suckitude, but the other half of the west (which presumably would include DEN, UT, OKC, 3 TX teams, NO, & MEM) wouldn't have anyone worse than the Mavericks. Even if they were legitimately the worst team in the league, the best pick they'd be able to come up with would be New Orleans' #10 pick.
