A modest proposal

There are 30 teams in the NBA, 16 make the playoffs, 14 get left behind.  The 14 non-qualifying squads get ping pong balls corresponding to their horrible records put into a hopper and chosen at random (sorta) to determine the order of the upcoming draft.  Frankly, this system is kinda dumb.  Why not let the game on the court determine who gets what position?

I suggest a system that gives awful teams an advantage without handing them the pathway to the finest young talent; a system where the hard working, almost-good-enough teams get an opportunity to move out of their mediocre draft position.  A one-and-done tournament, 13 games in 4 rounds where the lesser teams get home court advantage but must win on the court to maintain or improve their draft position. 

#1 and #2 get a bye (guaranteeing a drop of no more than 4 spots in draft position) and home court advantage throughout the tourney.  #3-#8 match up against #9-14 where the match-ups seek the closest competition rather than the furthest (3-9, 4-10, 5-11, 6-12, 7-13, 8-14).  Conference affiliation is disregarded.  The higher ranked (most losses) teams get home court advantage.  The loser of the game takes on the lower draft position while the higher team now possesses the better draft position and the higher seed.  Round 1 trims 14 teams down to 8 and definitively determines the 9-14 draft picks. 

The tourney now continues with winning teams either re-seeding (to higher seeds) or retaining the higher seeds they already possessed.  We introduce the #1 and #2 seeds and resume with the higher seeds retaining home court advantage.  8 teams turns to 4 in round 2; 4 teams to 2 in round 3; the #1 and #2 draft picks being determined by the final game.  (Optional: the final round could go to 3 games with the seeds being reversed: the team with the #1 pick gets the first game at home while the #2 seed gets the last two (if necessary) home games.  The winner of the series gets the #1 pick, the loser gets the #2 pick)

Make any sense?  Let’s illustrate using the end of year standings. 

Rankings:

1 Bucks                      8 Pistons

2 Sixers                      9 Cavs

3 Magic                      10 Pelicans

4 Celtics*                   11 Knicks

5 Jazz                         12 Nuggets

6 Lakers                     13 T-Wolves

7 Kings**                   14 Suns

            *(Celtics and Jazz tied in the standings and split in 2 head-to-head meetings.  How to break the tie?  I suggest overall points scored to determine the ‘better’ team.  The Jazz outscored the Celtics by 2 points thus I’d make the Celtics #4 and the Jazz #5)

            ** (Kings and Pistons tied in the standings but the Pistons swept both games against the Kings, thus the Kings get #7, the Pistons get #8)

Round 1

9 Cavs @ 3 Magic

10 Pelicans @ 4 Celtics

11 Knicks @ 5 Jazz

12 Nuggets @ 6 Lakers

13 T-Wolves @ 7 Kings

14 Suns @ 8 Pistons

            The loser of each of these games gets the higher position in the draft order while the winner takes the lower seeding and moves forward in the tournament. 

            Let’s just play it out:

Winners                     Draft Picks

3 Magic                      9^th pick -- Cavs                    

4 Celtics                     10^th pick -- Pelicans

11 Knicks                  11^th pick -- Jazz

6 Lakers                     12^th pick -- Nuggets

13 T-Wolves             13^th pick -- Kings

14 Suns                      14^th pick – Pistons

            Re-seed and continue.

Round 2 (Quarters)

5 Knicks @ 1 Bucks           

6 Lakers @ 2 Sixers

7 T-Wolves @ 3 Magic

8 Suns @ 4 Celtics

Winners                     Draft Picks

5 Knicks                    5^th pick -- Bucks

2 Sixers                      6^th pick -- Lakers

7 T-Wolves               7^th pick -- Magic

8 Suns                        8^th pick -- Celtics

            Re-seed and continue.

Round 3 (Semis)

3 T-Wolves @ 1 Knicks

4 Suns @ 2 Sixers

           

Winners                     Draft Picks

3 T-Wolves               3rd Pick -- Knicks

4 Suns                      4^th Pick -- Sixers

            Flip the seeding for home court in the Final. (In the Final you should reward the team that won the most games instead of lost the most)

Round 4 (Final)

1 T-Wolves @ 2 Suns

*(Or for a 3-game final)

(Game 1: 1 T-Wolves @ 2 Suns)

(Game 2: 2 Suns @ T-Wolves)

(Game 3: 2 Suns @ T-Wolves)

Stagger these game days in with the Championship playoffs and as the good teams play on, the lesser teams claim their tickets for the draft and look toward next year.  The lesser teams will produce exciting games, interesting match-ups and everyone will still be playing their stars, so the level of competition should be good.  Look, the Milwaukee Bucks were uniquely horrible this year but at home against a mediocre team, they’ve still got a decent shot in a single game.  By the end of the year some teams are shot and just cannot keep going.  That’ll happen.  But some teams will catch a second wind, get hot, benefit their futures and create some energy.   

The upside of this tourney is the awful teams get at least one extra home game with some post-season intensity that some major league cities rarely see, they still have a good shot at a good pick and the players get to keep playing. 

The middle teams that aren’t awful but just aren’t good enough to compete with the best get a chance to play their way up in the draft; they have to go on the road to do so but the reward is pretty good and theoretically they are the superior teams in this tournament so let them endure the hardship of success by making them go on the road to earn their prize. 

Best of all you remove the impetus to tank games and rest players because every team makes the post-season and every single game determines seeding.   Since every team would get a post-season, every team would properly prepare for it making sure their stars are playing through the finish line.  (A match-up like Pelicans at Celtics becomes Anthony Davis against Rajon Rondo where there’s something meaningful to play for; otherwise at this late date in the season those guys would be wearing suits on the bench rather than playing a meaningless game)

The downside is sometimes the current personnel of a franchise is not really that interested in the future of the franchise.  The lame duck coach and the unsigned free agents don’t get much out of this except 1-3 more games in a town they were already ready to leave.  And the last teams into the Championship playoffs are now the ones that get squished on both sides: little chance at a Championship and no chance at better access to the talent pool.  Also the #3 and #4 seeds are the real booby prizes: they have to defend what little they’ve got with little chance of moving higher in the draft. 

The current system rewards random.  It doesn’t seek to heal the infirmed, nor aide the healthy.  It just wants to dole out random rewards and punishments.  I don’t get it.  I’d rather reward skill.  To my mind this tourney is squeezing the last toothpaste out of the tube, it’s just an extra 13 games but if everyone knew they were there, they’d prepare for them and the fans get an extra handful of juicy contests on the way to baseball season.