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The Fixup: Death to the Lottery

May 20, 2009, 4:10 PM UTC

â†µThe Fixup is an erratic series dedicated to the principle that broke or not, you should fix it anyway. Herein you’ll find The Sporting Blog’s stern suggestions to improve sports on the field and off. The goofier the better. The more equitable the better. The more complicated the better. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe way the NBA draft is structured is one of the great evils in sport, and of this there can be no greater proof than the Clippers being rewarded by fate despite not actually being bad enough to deserve the top pick by normal means. I mean, this is the lead on the AP article: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) -- Those longtime losers from Los Angeles were big winners Tuesday night. â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥The Clippers came across the country for what’s practically an annual spring vacation and are going home with a nice souvenir: the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft. â†µâ‡¥

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â†µâ†µThis is downright un-American. â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd a similar outrage happens every year: a perfectly healthy but still white-suit-clad Dwyane Wade looking smooth on the bench, watching his horrible Heat teammates gack away the season so they can net more pingpong balls. Memphis ditching Pau Gasol for pennies on the dollar in pursuit of the same. Shaquille O’Neal landing in Orlando for no particular reason. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe lottery was instituted to prevent NBA teams from shamelessly tanking in an effort to secure the league’s next superstar; it has utterly failed in this task. That’s no surprise. Since team’s percentages of acquiring a top three pick rise in an orderly, linear fashion the motivation remains the same: lose. â†µ

â†µâ†µNo more of this. No more random chance or frozen envelopes or whatever. It’s time for that most American of solutions: a postseason tournament. â†µ

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â†µTHE SETUP â†µ

â†µâ†µThere are 30 NBA teams, 16 of which make the playoffs. They don’t get to play, for obvious reasons. The four teams that missed the playoffs most narrowly are also out, as they’ve got motivation to play their way into the postseason. Also out are the two worst teams. â†µ

â†µâ†µWe’ve got eight teams left now: the NBA NIT. When the NBA playoffs get down to the conference finals these teams spring into action, playing best-of-three series and providing doubleheaders throughout the conference finals. During the NBA Finals they play on off days. Worst record gets home court. Top four picks go to the top four finishers, with the worse semifinalist getting the third pick. Worst teams in the league get #5 and #6. â†µ

â†µâ†µTo prevent tanking further, there will be some sort of complicated system that prevents players who were “injured” over the last 30 games from playing in the NBA NIT. â†µ

â†µâ†µWHY DO IT â†µ

â†µâ†µMore money for the NBA, which would get a dozen games of huge import to televise and take gates from. Tanking might not be entirely a thing of the past but it would be greatly reduced, especially at the very bottom of the league. Like association football (ie: club soccer), certain late-season games featuring clubs at the bottom of the league scrapping to get out of the last spots would become must-watch affairs. The really dire teams get punished for being boringly hopeless, not rewarded. â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd no more random chance: you play for it. â†µ

â†µâ†µWHY NOT DO IT â†µ

â†µâ†µSuperstar players would be more likely to fall into the clutches of the 10th-worst team than the worst. This year the NBA NIT favorites would probably be Milwaukee, New Jersey, and Golden State. But is this even a bad thing? You put a top pick on one of these teams and they become interesting, instead of the Clippers with Blake Griffin. Bill Simmons has harped on this point time and again. â†µ

â†µâ†µAlso you might get some extremely sketchy tanking from teams that have a shot at making the playoffs but decide they’d rather have a good shot at the first pick in the draft than a first-round exit. â†µ

â†µâ†µFINAL VERDICT â†µ

â†µâ†µIf you don’t like this idea, you are a communist. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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