(NBA.com)
The NBA has done more things correctly than all other American sports leagues I can think of combined. Commissioner Adam Silver has had an outstanding start to his tenure, so much that the American public seems to like him, something that is unheard of for people with his amount of power. The Association is probably the best-run league right now, but there are still are a couple of ways Silver and company can make some of their big events more exciting…
- Add a Draft to the All-Star Game
The NBA All-Star game is still somewhat fun to watch, but I’d like to see different teams. How would the draft work? Fan voting still decides the 24 players who make it, but the 2 players with the most votes in each conference get to be captains of a team, and then there is a draft. The captain’s pick players voted in by the fans to join their team. If this system was implemented for the most recent ASG, one of the teams would be captained by none other than Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant. But it only gets better.. The captains for the opposing team would be Dwyane Wade and his former teammate LeBron James. Tell me (my Twitter is @philliespls) that you wouldn’t watch that. As Grant Napear, voice of the Sacramento Kings would say, “If you don’t like that, you don’t like NBA basketball.”
- Limit Tanking, but Keep ‘The Process’ Alive
Tanking has gone too far. The 76ers that I (unfortunately) root for have ruined it. It’s one thing to build through the draft like the Oklahoma City Thunder did, but deliberately making your team worse to improve your draft position is not how you’re supposed to rebuild. Trading veterans and getting younger and cheaper while accumulating draft picks is fine, just don’t trade anyone who is playing well like Sam Hinkie loved to do. So, what is the solution?
The solution would make the night of the Draft Lottery much more exciting and unpredictable. Here’s how it works: There is a drawing for picks 8-14 and it’s completely random. Then, there is a drawing for picks 1-7. Every bottom 8 team has a 14.28% chance at the #1 pick. If your record is one of the 8 best of lottery teams, you can land any pick in between 8 and 14, if you are in the bottom 8, anywhere from 1 until 7 is possible. Yes, teams not being able to leapfrog from 8-14 into the top 3 is a downside, but every method has a downside somewhere. The lottery would still gain unpredictability.
What events would you want to change? What tweaks would you make to the ideas above? Tell me on Twitter (again, @philliespls), and follow @TheLastTimeout so you know whenever any article goes up.
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