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Tim Bontemps
multiple authors
On Thursday night, Indiana Pacers will be in the nation’s capital to face washington wizards And update the NBA’s post-All-Star break schedule.
it’s such a game Needed Be compelling. ivica zubacof indiana recently acquired The starting center has yet to play a game for the club. The same applies to both halls of Washington All-Star Takeoverpoint guard trey young and big man anthony davis. Throw forward in Pacers All-Star appearance pascal siakamAnd between teams with a combined 29 wins, there are plenty of reasons to get into the game.
Instead, Zubac remains Out with ankle injury Pacers coach Rick Carlisle announced this after Indiana made the trade – which did not prevent him from playing in 15 of the first 16 games. LA Clippers Dealt with that. stays young Sidelined with a leg injury Wizards diagnosed it when they got him from last month atlanta hawksAs Davis does with A hand injury He had to suffer before being acquired by dallas mavericks earlier this month.
Meanwhile, later on Thursday utah jazz will visit memphis grizzlies what in would like to go has returned home jaren jackson jr., which was acquired in a amazing deal by the Jazz before the February 5 trade deadline.
Instead, Utah – after playing with Jackson in a few games and receiving Fined $500,000 For its management and lauri markkanenJackson was shut down for the season after playing time in a contest won by Miami knee surgery. Both teams now look only invested in widening the deficit until the end of the season.
Instead of two games with an exciting story for fans, these are nothing. And that’s because these three teams – Indiana, Washington and Utah – all have draft picks The value of which this year depends on how high they land may lottery. And they are not alone either.
That’s why, in two different answers about tanking that appeared in their annual All-Star Weekend News ConferenceNBA Commissioner Adam Silver called for “incentives” five separate times.
“The incentives here don’t necessarily match,” Silver said. “I think there’s this tradition in sports that the worst performing team gets first choice from its partners, when an economist comes and looks at our system, they always point out: There you have the incentives backwards.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
But really, it happens. Because that’s the way the league is Teams promoted in lottery treat.
An Eastern Conference executive said, “Until the league changes the system, teams will keep losing if that’s the best way to bring in players.”
As a result, any discussion about topic of tankingAnd ways to address it must start with the same question: What is the solution that can change those incentives?
Here’s a proposal to fix the NBA’s tanking problem from a longtime league executive.
in a lot discussion on trying fix tankingThe focus has been on trying to emphasize defeat. Each idea – from removing the ability to protect picks in the middle of the draft lottery to eliminating the draft to leveling the odds altogether – all would make it Less It is desirable for teams to lose.
However, none of them inspire him to win. But this is the plan.
Currently, orders for nba draft lottery It is determined by which teams have the most losses at the end of the regular season. But consider: At a certain point in the regular season — say, the All-Star break — things will reverse, and a team’s wins for the remainder of the season will go toward improving its lottery odds.
What will this look like in practice? Let’s use last season’s situation as an example. Here’s how last season’s lottery standings would have changed if this rule had been in place for games after the All-Star break:
Toronto Raptors (Could not overcome even the strongest efforts of the tanks due to the incredibly easy schedule), Chicago Bulls And the Hawks would have been big winners. Toronto would have moved from No. 7 to No. 2, Chicago would have moved from No. 12 to a tie at No. 3 and Atlanta would have moved from a tie at No. 13 to No. 8 in lottery odds.
Conversely, the Jazz and 76ers – who were 4–24 after the All-Star break – would have fallen from No. 1 and No. 5 in the lottery standings to a tie for No. 5 and No. 12, respectively.
Now, since I can’t rewrite history, let’s take a look at what the lottery might have looked like last season if teams had repeated their winning percentages during the final few months of the season before the break:
Utah would have dropped to No. 3 (from No. 1) and Philadelphia would have dropped to No. 7 (from No. 5) and Chicago and Atlanta would have dropped to No. 8 (from No. 12) and No. 10 (from No. 13). But although there was some minor movement in the standings, it did not cause any significant change in the standings.
One argument made against implementing this system is that it would be too influential for the teams at the bottom of the standings. But the fact that a Wizards team that went 9-45 before the All-Star break last season will still be in the top spot with a 5-23 record underscores that this shouldn’t be a significant problem.
And again, the goal should be about creating a need for teams to try to win.
The Western Conference scout said, “Anything that will reasonably encourage teams to win is better for the fans and a better outcome than ‘the team needs a star.’
“The funniest thing at the end of the day is everyone is trying.”
in all When discussing this topic, it’s this last point – trying to create the best possible product – that often gets lost.
Imagine a world in which the Pacers, Wizards and Jazz would all benefit from playing with Zubac, Young, Davis and Jackson Jr. during the season. Wouldn’t those teams be more entertaining, and their fans more engaged?
about what kyrie irvingWhich ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Wednesday ruled out for the seasonBeing given a reason to come back and spend some time on the court with the Mavericks rookie cooper flag In this weather? How about eliminating the awkward discussion that is about to happen? milwaukee bucks supper star giannis antetokounmpowhich has been said repeatedly he wants to come back and play This season, and a franchise that’s far better No Does the best player in franchise history do this?
Then take a young team like this charlotte hornetsA franchise that has been hungry for success for almost two decades. Under the current system, if the Hornets put on a strong effort in the second half and miss the playoffs, they’ll likely get a late lottery selection rather than a solid shot at another difference-making talent.
Under this proposal, teams that reach the finish line like Charlotte would be given a better chance to jump into the draft.
1:14
Adam Silver ‘focusing’ on tanking teams
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addresses the tanking issue in the NBA.
However, right now, the opposite is happening.
By Thursday night, one could reasonably argue that nine teams – the Wizards, Jazz, Bucks, Mavericks, Pacers, Bulls, Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings And Brooklyn Nets -Will probably spend the next two months doing everything possible to lose every possible game. That’s 30% of the league (and it would be even more if the Hawks and New Orleans Pelicans controlled their top picks).
All this creates harmful apathy.
“[This proposal] This would be a very unique way to unite our fan base instead of going this slow until the lottery in May because there’s nothing to it,” said one Eastern Conference scout.
“It’s not just the teams. It’s the community, the bars, the restaurants… there are a lot of people who depend on a recreational product for their livelihood. And I feel for them.”
like with someone The rules change, the details matter.
A fixed date would have to be established – some sources who spoke to ESPN argued for the trade deadline, others for the All-Star break and some simply wanted to tie it to multiple games on the schedule. If it is the All-Star break, the NBA will have to arrange the schedule so that each team plays the same number of games before it.
Over the past week, ESPN spoke to more than 10 NBA coaches, scouts and executives about the idea. Everyone was in favor of implementing it, pointing to the fact that it actually affects the incentives that underlie the way teams operate. However, some people had concerns they would like to address.
The first concern was trying to avoid harsh penalties for the worst teams. To address this, one source suggested changes to the proposal with significant wins and losses; Doing it this way will incentivize teams to win but less talented teams won’t be penalized as much, the source said.
The second concern involved teams with a star player who could suffer a legitimate injury that would derail an otherwise promising season and, under this proposal, result in losing lottery status.
The third concern was that teams, knowing they had less than two months to engage in any tanking plans, would be even More Aggressive in attempting to do so in the early months of the season.
That said, looking at the first few months it With the season over, it’s hard to say whether the competitiveness could get any worse.
“We want fair competition,” Silver said over the weekend. “We want a fair system and want to keep an eye on the fans, the most important thing is that we’re going to offer the best product.”
As the NBA begins to fully assess what to do about tanking over the next several months, and what measures it will take to prevent the issue, it What should be the league’s North Star: How it will leverage its best product.
Every other plan that has been discussed or debated is the opposite. Everyone is focused on how to make the product less bad rather than making it better.
There’s a reason why the idea of demotion – while it would never happen for a million reasons in the NBA, or any other sport in the United States – has been put forward as a way to get rid of this problem. The English Premier League team has no reason to think about defeat. Instead, his sole focus is on winning.
The idea will be revisited at the NBA Board of Governors meeting next month and has some support. However, whether it is enacted or not, and whether the issue is ultimately resolved, remains to be seen.
