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The bottom-tier teams in the NBA have more incentive to lose than to win late in the season. Here’s how to change it.
The Sixers and Pelicans played Monday night in a game where both fanbases were justified in hoping for a loss rather than a win. The Raptors and Wizards played under similar circumstances. That’s because the NBA draft lottery incentivizes the league’s bottom-feeders to lose rather than win as disappointing seasons wind down.
Better to increase the odds of landing a potential superstar than worry about “meaningless” games down the stretch, right? Makes total sense in the current system, which is why the current system needs to change.
If you want to make sure that teams keep competing, you must take away any possible reward for losing games.
Here’s a simple plan for how to do just that:
A 30-pick draft lottery where every team who owns a first-round pick has the exact same odds for every pick. If this system were in place for the 2025 draft, the Thunder and Celtics would have the same chances at Cooper Flagg as the Wizards and Jazz.
If a team has multiple first-round picks, it has more chances in that 30-pick lottery.
The picks would be drawn in reverse order, just as the draft lottery works now. So, pick No. 30 would be drawn first, then pick No. 29, etc.
Protected draft picks would convey in the same fashion they do now. If the 30-pick system were in place this year, here’s how the Sixers’ top-6 protected pick would work: It would go to Oklahoma City if the Sixers’ pick landed anywhere between picks No. 7 and 30. If it ended up in the top six, the Sixers would keep it.
Here are some of the benefits of a 30-pick draft lottery:
There is no benefit to losing games. None. You have as much chance at getting the No. 1 pick if you have the best record as you do with the worst record. We’d get more competitive rosters and more competitive games late in seasons because teams won’t have any incentive to lose.
Ending up in the middle of the pack is no longer a franchise death sentence. The whole point of the Sixers’ “Process” was that a…
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Source link : https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nba/philadelphia-76ers/nba-plan-to-stop-tanking-nba-draft-lottery-sixers/656959/?partner=yahoo
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Publish date : 2025-03-26 11:46:00
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