weighted or unweighted lottery?

[ponky]

What do you think about not having a weighted lottery? I agree with Van Gundy, everyone should have a chance.

________________________________________________
from the Houston Chronicle:

In the Houston Chronicle, Jonathan Feigen reports on Van Gundy's idea to kill the weighted lottery system:

"I think every team should have an equal chance at winning the lottery, from the best team all the way down," Van Gundy said. "I don't want to accuse anyone of anything. I would say to take away any possible conflict of interest, everyone should have an equal chance at the top pick all the way down. That way there would be absolutely no question by anybody about anything.

"If it's better for the game, they should do it. I never quite understood why losing is rewarded, other than (for) parity."

Last week, weeks after Van Gundy's suggestion, Boston coach Doc Rivers did not play Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson in the fourth quarter of a loss and questions immediately arose that he was beginning a late-season dive for lottery position.

"I was not tanking the game," Rivers said after it appeared he was. "I was not throwing the game or anything like that."

But that should not even need to be answered. And with players going out with injuries, fans should not have to ask if players are hurt, or helping their teams lose. The Bucks are loaded with season-ending injuries that some will suggest would not have been season-ending had Milwaukee had reason to win. Ray Allen could be ready to shut it down in Seattle. Pierce has begun talking about calling it a season in Boston.

There will be more incidences to raise suspicions, though few could match the Timberwolves last season having Mark Madsen launching 3-pointers in an effort to improve draft position or stress-test the rims.

Of course, it is easier for Van Gundy to make his proposal with his team having won a weighted lottery, moving up from fifth to first to get Yao Ming. He works in an arena with a pair of championship trophies won a decade after the Rockets successfully tanked to the top pick, Hakeem Olajuwon.

But even if there is something wrong with the rich getting richer, as would happen in the Van Gundy plan, getting rewarded for losing, especially for intentionally losing, is worse.

[Amare_32]

Van Gundy has a good point but the NBA in theory strives for parity. It is kind of unfair lets say if the Suns end up drafting Oden as the 1st pick. Although I would not mind at all a frontcourt of Stoudemire,Marion and Oden.

[Purple & Gold]

No, I like it better like this. Even though it promotes tanking it's better that the worst team has the the best chance to get the first pick. Maybe they could change it up and do lotto balls for all the lottery picks, instead of just the top picks. But keep the odds the way they are.

[Amare_32]

What do you think of letting the NBA champs pick first?

[ponky]

Van Gundy has a good point but the NBA in theory strives for parity. It is kind of unfair lets say if the Suns end up drafting Oden as the 1st pick. Although I would not mind at all a frontcourt of Stoudemire,Marion and Oden.

Nah, it's not unfair if the Suns drafted Oden. It's hard enough as it is for teams as good as the Suns to win it all and why should they not have the opportunity to get someone who could possibly put them over the top and finally get that ring? It's not any less unfair than teams who purposely tank one season to get an incredible guy who will be the face of the franchise for several years (Spurs: Duncan). There's no guarantee that a top draft pick will pan out (Pistons: Milicic) and on the flip side, certain guys like Dirk at ninth pick and Arenas, a second round pick, could've gone much higher had the teams that picked them had a magic ball that looked into the future. Sure, there are some certainties like Duncan, Lebron and Yao but those guys insure several years of good balling to the team that picks them up, not fair to reward those teams that purposely tank with such guys.

[ponky]

What do you think of letting the NBA champs pick first?

even worse...what would be cool though, is to make the nba all-star game into some kind of hca advantage between east and west teams in the playoffs.

[Amare_32]

Nah, it's not unfair if the Suns drafted Oden. It's hard enough as it is for teams as good as the Suns to win it all and why should they not have the opportunity to get someone who could possibly put them over the top and finally get that ring? It's not any less unfair than teams who purposely tank one season to get an incredible guy who will be the face of the franchise for several years (Spurs: Duncan). There's no guarantee that a top draft pick will pan out (Pistons: Milicic) and on the flip side, certain guys like Dirk at ninth pick and Arenas, a second round pick, could've gone much higher had the teams that picked them had a magic ball that looked into the future. Sure, there are some certainties like Duncan, Lebron and Yao but those guys insure several years of good balling to the team that picks them up, not fair to reward those teams that purposely tank with such guys.

But this year's draft is deep so at least the teams will have a chance to draft pretty good players. The Suns have Atlanta's 1st round picks and will get to draft good players(point guard). As for teams tanking it on purpose the NBA should look into ways of punishing those teams like taking away thier draft picks.

[SRJ]

I have a hard time believing this is a discussion. If the good teams, who have most of the best players, have equal access to the top of the new talent pool, then the teams at the top will almost never change.

And that totally sucks for all of those fans whose teams haven't won in a long time. As much as I want the Spurs to stockpile championships, I don't want the process to benefit them unfairly. Luck, bad or good, happens. Ineptitude in ownership/management happens. Some draft years are better than others, that happens.

If you want a sport where the rich get richer, go watch baseball.

[THE SIXTH MAN]

I have a hard time believing this is a discussion. If the good teams, who have most of the best players, have equal access to the top of the new talent pool, then the teams at the top will almost never change.

And that totally sucks for all of those fans whose teams haven't won in a long time. As much as I want the Spurs to stockpile championships, I don't want the process to benefit them unfairly. Luck, bad or good, happens. Ineptitude in ownership/management happens. Some draft years are better than others, that happens.

If you want a sport where the rich get richer, go watch baseball.
WORD!

[THE SIXTH MAN]

Teams can tank all they want but it wont ensure them the top pick. That's why the lotto was put in to place after the rockets did it to get dream. A rookie wont put a contender over the top to win it all. Especially during the years of week drafts. That's the job of a good gm and staff to find the missing pieces for their teams.

[kfedFAN]

Draft Order Should Be Placed Strictly On Regular Season Finishing Records

Best Regular Season Record Gets Last Draft Pic And Vice Versa

Lets Be Fair

Draft Lotto Is Gay As Fuck

[Bruno]

Unweighted lottery only between non-playoffs teams is the best solution to me.

[monosylab1k]

Unweighted lottery only between non-playoffs teams is the best solution to me.

Works for me.

Just imagine how pissed Mavs fans would be if the Spurs won it all this year and THEN got to draft Kevin Durant.

Or how pissed Spurs fans would be if the Mavs won it all and then drafted Greg Oden.

The shit teams deserve first picking in the draft.

[bdictjames]

Sounds lame to me. It's obvious that Van Gundy wants a shot at Durant.

[monosylab1k]

Sounds lame to me. It's obvious that Van Gundy wants a shot at Durant.

He desperately needs somebody that will come thru in the clutch for him in the playoffs. He's staring right down the barrel of another first round exit.

[ponky]

He desperately needs somebody that will come thru in the clutch for him in the playoffs. He's staring right down the barrel of another first round exit.

imo, had they not had to play the mavs in the first round two years ago they might not have been a first round exit. last season they just had bad luck with yao and tmac's health...although, this issue will probably continue to linger

[mardigan]

No dont like it at all. The system is great how it is. And the all star game shouldnt be like baseballs, giving a team with a worse record homecourt would be retarded

[leemajors]

van gundy has inherited two #1 picks, he wants another.

[phyzik]

going to unweighted would suck.... then again, lets say a team gets like 5 amazing players.... how are they going to manage the salary?

It might balance itself out but I'd rather not try.

[Spurminator]

I like where JVG is coming from, but I don't agree with having a completely unweighted system.

I think the system is pretty good as it is, but for the sake of discussion, what about still having a weighted Lottery but including all teams?

- It's still very unlikely that one of the elite teams gets the top pick.
- You'd eliminate conference disparity because a 38-44 Playoff team would get more Lotto balls than a 42-42 non-Playoff team.
- You'd reduce the probability of getting the first pick for EVERY team, so there's less reward for tanking.... it's a little more of a crap-shoot but not totally.

[E20]

Well it would give the new rookies expereince since they'd be playing heavy minutes. Making them better players in the future, rather than Oden being on the Spurs and getting barley any playing time.

[Extra Stout]

Doing it Van Gundy's way promotes dynasties. That's how the Showtime Lakers were assembled -- a good team already with Kareem, Norm Nixon, and Jamaal Wilkes got to draft both Magic Johnson and James Worthy because they made trades that garnered them two #1 overall picks.

That was because Jerry West was brilliant. This would be just out of sheer luck.

While that might have been great for the NBA then because it was the Lakers, if, say, the Spurs got Kevin Durant, the NBA's next TV deal might be $200 a year from the Travel Channel.