The NBA should abolish the draft.

[poochiecollins]

Too much of a future's team in the sport is based on luck. Part of it are the retarded trade rules, but that's another topic. I understand the economy of scale of sorts that teams get from winning, so I'd propose to abolish the draft coupled with a decent shared revenue plan. Income exchange might partially be based on winning percentage in an inverse relationship, but most of it would go by a formula accounting for overall income and income after taxes and expenses.

What say you guys?

[LLXC]

They have the draft in every sport...

[poochiecollins]

They have the draft in every sport...

If all your friends took a dump on your face, would that make it okay for your mom to do it?

[LLXC]

No, that would be stupid...just like getting rid of the draft.

[ZBOIZ]

Ffff

[WhatAboutMeBitch]

that would be a horrible idea. bad teams would have no chance

[poochiecollins]

No, that would be stupid...just like using ad hominem as my argument against your well-made point about the NBA draft.

Fixed.

[Shortstop]

What the hell is the OP talking about?

[iceminers26]

FAIL

[poochiecollins]

that would be a horrible idea. bad teams would have no chance

Re-read my post. Here, I'll help you out.

Too much of a future's team in the sport is based on luck. Part of it are the retarded trade rules, but that's another topic. I understand the economy of scale of sorts that teams get from winning, so I'd propose to abolish the draft coupled with a decent shared revenue plan. Income exchange might partially be based on winning percentage in an inverse relationship, but most of it would go by a formula accounting for overall income and income after taxes and expenses.

Anyone else who wants to criticize this, please don't if you're not going to come in with something insightful or otherwise intelligent, thanks.

[iceminers26]

I realize and understand your proposal, but part of the team is ownership and they have the opportunity to make good draft picks during the drafts and trades during this timeframe; its part of the game.

[poochiecollins]

What the hell is the OP talking about?

What, are the words too big for you to understand? Jesus. I'm starting to get what jellobiafra was talking about when he said that thought-provoking posts here are rare.

[Shortstop]

So the NBA will simply assign players to different teams.

[LLXC]

I hate the draft because my teams suck at drafting. Therefore, the draft should be eliminated. I am great at arguments.

Fixed.

[Wheell]

The draft has existed in sports to prevent competition among teams for players and therefore control costs. How much do you think Lebron could have signed for as a rookie compared to what he did sign for. Rookies are cheap for 3-4 years. That isn't going to change.

[poochiecollins]

I realize and understand your proposal, but part of the team is ownership and they have the opportunity to make good draft picks during the drafts and trades during this timeframe; its part of the game.

I don't get your point here. You like the current system b/c it's "part of the game"? That's like saying a book is printed in black ink because it's printed in black ink.

A lot of luck is associated with the NBA draft, at least where great players are involved, for the following reasons:
* Salary structure for new/new-ish players. A team can draft and hold one of the best players in the league at a few million per season for several years.
* Strict/communist trade rules that make it normally impossible to get equal value for a great player.
* Individual player salary cap limiting great players from demanding market value, to the benefit of the team they play for.
* Age limit at the draft, which removes some of the unpredictability and scouting skill.

All of the above lowers the business-side and general knowledge skill gap between teams. The winners are bad/low market teams that happen to draft high enough in a year that a great player was available, and because of the other factors I mentioned, it's usually not too difficult to keep that player for years, making a difference of many wins and tens of millions USD in revenue. My idea would merely spread this benefit out among all poor (and possibly wealthy but bad) teams while maximizing front office skill. You want the big market teams winning the most since more people invest in those teams, while allowing low market teams to be at least competitive.

Two instances related to this are the SA Spurs and NY Knicks. The Spurs have a good front office but most of their success relates to drafting Tim Duncan. The NBA would have quite likely made more money if one of the big market teams got him, including the Knicks. Additionally, the Knicks performing poorly has quite likely hurt league revenue and it's taking longer for them to make up for their bad moves because of the reasons mentioned above.

[poochiecollins]

Originally Posted by poochiecollins
I hate the draft because my teams suck at drafting. Therefore, the draft should be eliminated. I am great at arguments.

Fixed.

I have little idea how "my" teams have drafted. That last bit's amusingly ironic, considering you haven't bothered to put up ANY argument yet.

[iceminers26]

The only thing I would change is the draft lotto, I would do away with it. A team should draft in the order of how they finished, last place getting the first pick and so on.

[poochiecollins]

So the NBA will simply assign players to different teams.

Maybe you should have stopped to think why no one else mentioned that this deep into the thread? Maybe it's because even the dumb posters assumed what I thought was too obvious to include: that players would instead be free agents upon entry into the league?

[poochiecollins]

The draft has existed in sports to prevent competition among teams for players and therefore control costs. How much do you think Lebron could have signed for as a rookie compared to what he did sign for. Rookies are cheap for 3-4 years. That isn't going to change.

Why should anyone not be able to sign for their true market value as a free agent? All the current salary structure does is allow older players and owners to make more money. It abuses the fact that prospective players not in the league have no say (although that might be changing with European leagues as a competitor).

"The draft has existed in sports to prevent competition among teams for players [...]" Teams competing with each other is bad? Huh?

[The General]

guy isn't just complaining but has an idea. good to see.

[GiveMeaBJ]

Whats wrong with the draft? Cavs got Lebron and are good now, Nuggets got Melo and are good now, Lakers were good then and are good now. I don't see anything wrong with it. It doesn't hurt the good teams it just helps bad teams and creates parity which is the key to every sport.

[GiveMeaBJ]

Why should anyone not be able to sign for their true market value as a free agent? All the current salary structure does is allow older players and owners to make more money. It abuses the fact that prospective players not in the league have no say (although that might be changing with European leagues as a competitor).

"The draft has existed in sports to prevent competition among teams for players [...]" Teams competing with each other is bad? Huh?

I think it is because if you do that you can put already bad teams in a real bad spot if picks don't pan out. Not to mention a lower market team not being able to sign there rookies. Say Melo could get as much as he wanted, you think he signs in Denver? Denver would be forced to pass on him all together or trade him to a big market team.

Also take Darko for example. Say he is drafted by the Grizzlies. They would overpay him thinking they get a stud and when he turns into busto they are taking on a pretty much untradeable contract and can't spend on any FA's and stuck in the gutter for years to come.

[Dark Horse]

I also would like the NBA to get rid of dribbling and allow tackling. I want to see Lebron going in for a slam dunk get slammed into the tenth row instead. That would make me happy.

[Shortstop]

Maybe you should have stopped to think why no one else mentioned that this deep into the thread? Maybe it's because even the dumb posters assumed what I thought was too obvious to include: that players would instead be free agents upon entry into the league?

You're calling me dumb?

[poochiecollins]

Whats wrong with the draft? Cavs got Lebron and are good now, Nuggets got Melo and are good now, Lakers were good then and are good now. I don't see anything wrong with it. It doesn't hurt the good teams it just helps bad teams and creates parity which is the key to every sport.

Read my long post a little ways up; it covers your points.

[poochiecollins]

The only thing I would change is the draft lotto, I would do away with it. A team should draft in the order of how they finished, last place getting the first pick and so on.

No, I actually agree with the current chance system if there's a draft. Most years, winning as little as one less game could garner millions more in revenue, up to nine figures in revenue in some instances over a span of years. Why should a team be entitled to that just because they got lucky?

[poochiecollins]

I also would like the NBA to get rid of dribbling and allow tackling. I want to see Lebron going in for a slam dunk get slammed into the tenth row instead. That would make me happy.

Clearly the best post in this thread :-p

You're calling me dumb?

So realizing that you have, in fact, missed something stupidly obvious, you play lawyer by diverting attention away from this and including a laughing emoticon aimed at peer-pressuring me into submission? Lol nice try. You still lose. Coming back for more?

[poochiecollins]

I think it is because if you do that you can put already bad teams in a real bad spot if picks don't pan out. Not to mention a lower market team not being able to sign there rookies.

The jist of my reasoning is that the draft (and other communist rules on the business side of the NBA for that matter) be abolished and replaced with a solid revenue sharing program that allows all low market teams to be more competitive instead of a few who were lucky enough to be able to draft franchise players, and increasing the benefit of front office savvy.

[Shortstop]

Bring it poochie.

You're right, drafts should be abolished in professional sports.

[iceminers26]

[iceminers26]

You're calling me dumb?

[Chi_archie]

NBA first round and #1 overall picks I think easily have the most success in their careers over other big sports. (I'm not so sure about NHL). So it would make sense that in the NBA the draft especially first round would determine a team's future success.

The Lottery method has always been a head scratcher to me. Is this to help prevent really bad teams from "tanking" it in the end of the season, to ensure they get a #1 overall pick when some big stud is coming out?

I think the biggest obstacle would be getting the owners to agree to this, as well as the player's union. As a free agent system would created an unbridled bidding war for $ but also for years in the contract. So we'd be seeing the top 19 year olds trying to get 6 or 7 year contracts with huge $ and therefore the Team's would be sinking/risking alot more in $ in aquiring rookies. and be locked into many years of paying a high press tag. Which seems possibly even more risky long term than a draft, where you only have a 2 year contract with a team option on the 3rd year.


so instead of seeing a guy like Blake Griffen get a 3 year 16 million dollar contract. I think we'd see outrageous contracts offered with like 20 million dollar signing bonuses for 5 year 100 million dollar contracts. So what happens then we he goes down with an injury in that first year, or what if he has a career like Oden thus far? or worst of all a Len Bias type situation....that is a higher risk IMO, than the traditional draft/slotting/contract/$ situation and is also partly luck.

The players union would not go for this, as they want to see the majority of team's money go into vets with a # of years of service under their belt and not see unproven rookies getting the lion's share of the $

I think we'd also see blood sucker like agents worse than Scott Boras, and they would secretly be vying for these basketball stars from when they were in 7th grade. Slimmy stuff would be going on behind the scenes far worse than any ncaa recruiting violations.

I know enough to know I don't know enough about this topic.

[Chi_archie]

I'm also not sure that the "luck" involved with the draft can be shown to directly affect the outcome of the success in the league. there is correlation but I don't think it is that high. the most sought after draft pick ever in nba history was most likely for Lebron James. That "lucky" pick has yet to manifest a championship.

last year's NBA champion basically only had one meaningful player that was Drafted by the Lakers and was not aquired via trade or free agency. Andrew Bynum... and he only averaged like 5 points a game in the playoffs.

NBA teams can still win via free agency

[Chi_archie]

The more I think of it the more I feel that the Draft and the "luck" involved with it, has very little immediate impact on a team's success. I can't think of many examples where a top 5 drafted rookie came in and in his first 1-4 years turned a real bad team around and won a championship. After the initial period its really between the team and player if he sticks around longer. So basically very similar to building through free agency.

identifying a player under your control and giving him a contract extension or new contract while he is still under your control, that is attractive enough to keep him from testing the unrestricted free agency waters or matching offers when a player is an unrestricted free agent is all falls under the category of free agency signing type evaluations in my opinion. So yeah, therefore I think it is safe to say almost every NBA championship was predominately built and won by Veterns signed via free agency or drafted players who teams wisely KEPT... which is not about luck.


over ten years ago a 2nd Tim Duncan was the piece that David Robinson needed to take him to promised land.
more recently Dwayne Wade helped Miami to a championship in his 3rd or 4th year? in 04? Otherwise I think most recent championship teams were "led" by Vets over the past 20-30 years. Before that you have to look at guys like Bird or Magic to find 1 single drafted player that turned a team around.

I'd need some more evidence from the OP that suggests that teams drafting high in the draft see such an immediate and unfair/lucky advantage.