Ending Tanking: Enter the Wheel

[Sizzle]

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...o-to-the-wheel



I thought this idea is really quite interesting actually. Gets rid of any incentive to lose games for draft positioning. It would also be a very interesting exercise in asset management, knowing exactly where you're going to be picking and when in the future. It may help a team adjust and identify opportunity to know what its true rebuilding cycle is. It definitely punishes teams for not drafting well when they have a high pick, but at the same time, once every six years you should be landing a top 5 pick. How much would the Stock and Malone teams have benefitted from adding good, young talent in the mid-90s? Imagine Shaq co-existing with Karl and John.

It would speak against expansion though, as I'm not sure how you'd be able to add in a new team over the 30 year cycle fairly (which that may not be the worst thing ever).

I thought it was at the very least something interesting and worth discussing.

[smokymountainrain]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not as worried about or down on "tanking" as many seem to be. "Tanking" is an interesting strategy that, more often than not, simply doesn't pay off. IOW, in most cases, teams are only hurting themselves by "tanking". I put tanking in quotes because I think true tanking would be players and coaches actually trying to lose games in order to get better draft positioning, and I don't think that happens. And that is where I, as a NBA fan, would have a problem.

The tanking we're seeing is tanking at the FO level and it's just strategy, very risky strategy that for most teams won't work out in the end. If front offices are willing to screw themselves in such a way, why force them to stop?

[cougjunkie]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not as worried about or down on "tanking" as many seem to be. "Tanking" is an interesting strategy that, more often than not, simply doesn't pay off. IOW, in most cases, teams are only hurting themselves by "tanking". I put tanking in quotes because I think true tanking would be players and coaches actually trying to lose games in order to get better draft positioning, and I don't think that happens. And that is where I, as a NBA fan, would have a problem.

The tanking we're seeing is tanking at the FO level and it's just strategy, very risky strategy that for most teams won't work out in the end. If front offices are willing to screw themselves in such a way, why force them to stop?

I agree and I think changing things up is really dumb. The draft lottery was put in place to add some parity as well as discourage tanking. If you want to discourage tanking go back to the original draft lottery where all teams had an equal chance at the top pick.

[smokymountainrain]

I agree and I think changing things up is really dumb. The draft lottery was put in place to add some parity as well as discourage tanking. If you want to discourage tanking go back to the original draft lottery where all teams had an equal chance at the top pick.

Yep, even as one who doesn't think we need a fix, I'd be fine with that too.

[MartyFunkhouser]

The idea is interesting, but it is a bad idea.

[Jacob]

I agree and I think changing things up is really dumb. The draft lottery was put in place to add some parity as well as discourage tanking. If you want to discourage tanking go back to the original draft lottery where all teams had an equal chance at the top pick.

That's a terrible idea. Why would you favor such a lottery over a rotating system?

The wheel is a good idea, but turns bad when you realize that it would take about 10 years to implement and then another 30 to go through a single cycle. 40 years. Things will be different by then.

[smokymountainrain]

That's a terrible idea. Why would you favor such a lottery over a rotating system?

The wheel is a good idea, but turns bad when you realize that it would take about 10 years to implement and then another 30 to go through a single cycle. 40 years. Things will be different by then.

I think you may have answered the question for him in your ensuing comments.

[clackamascoug]

I'm going to put some thought into "what I would do" if I was in charge, and report back.