What if instead of letting teams who lose lots of games have their pick of the best amateur players in the world, the NBA let said amateurs become free agents when entering the league?
The Clippers went full CLIPPERS this weekend
Good morning. We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
What if teams weren’t rewarded for losing? What if they had to convince even rookies to join their teams?
That’s the idea I presented in my Sunday piece on ending the NBA draft. My proposal would give teams a rookie salary cap exception every year, and allow teams with cap space to sign young prospects above that number. The key feature is that all of this would happen simultaneously with actual free agency, forcing teams to prioritize among varying levels of experience.
I’m not the only person thinking reform here: Amin Elhassan presented a similar plan in 2015. The odds are extraordinarily low this could ever happen — small-market owners rallied against even lottery reform as the Sixers executed a brazen multi-season tank job — but it is a legitimate alternative to the NBA’s status quo.
I am convinced that eventually the level of intentional losing that happens at the end of seasons will need to be dealt with. Twenty percent of the league is straight up embarrassing right now. Doesn’t that matter?
Scores Galore ...
PHX 106, CHA 120
BKN 107, ATL 92
SAC 98, LAC 97
CHI 109, MIL 94
OKC 125, HOU 137
PHI 94, IND 107
MIA 108, BOS 112
MEM 94, GSW 106
NOP 115, DEN 90
POR 97, LAL 81
... And Plenty More
Devin Booker scored 70 points on Friday. Seventy. The Suns still lost, but who cares? What were you doing at age 20? Tim Cato has nine amazing stats from the performance.
A few hours after Booker did that, Woj broke the news that Joakim Noah had been suspended 20 games for testing positive for PEDs. Welp.
The Boston Celtics are essentially tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the No. 1 seed in the East. The Cavs got picked apart by John Wall and the Wizards on Saturday — their defense is a mess. The East is getting interesting, y’all.
Not interesting: the Atlanta Hawks, who have quietly lost seven in a row and are suddenly in some danger of falling out of the playoff picture.
The Nuggets conceded the No. 8 seed in the West to the Blazers (for now) on Sunday by getting trucked by the visiting Pelicans.
Oh Clippers! L.A. beat Utah to clinch a terribly important tiebreaker and move within a half-game of the No. 4 seed on Saturday ... and then on Sunday gave up an 18-point lead with five minutes to go (!) to lose to the Kings.
The Jazz have their own problems after Rudy Gobert called out “some” unnamed teammates for only caring about scoring.
Twelve stats that show why this is the best MVP race of all time. Meanwhile, the Rockets are not treating the Brodie with much respect with this shade-tossing parody of a Drake album cover.
That’s alright, though, because Kendrick Lamar rapped about Russell Westbrook, which might be better than an MVP.
Kobe’s retirement project is ... family-friendly basketball analysis with puppets.
You can’t focus on one game in these matters, but NBA scouts definitely watched De’Aaron Fox roast up Lonzo Ball in the Sweet 16 on Friday.
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