What if... Disney teams can draft players from relegated teams?

Good idea, but would let them draft role players, two way contract players only.

Players that earn less than 20 mill for depth issues.

 

I've always wanted to see a relegation system in the NBA. That should take care of tanking. That also might get rid of bad owners.

 

It takes a a minor league to relegate to and the Dleague isn't that good overall.

 

If they put major league team there, it will become better.

I know it's not going to happen. It would require major structural changes. And the first few years would be ugly.

 

It'd be a cool idea for sure, but there's too many "what-ifs" attached in drafting players from non-playoff teams.

What if someone like KAT (to the Spurs) gets injured throughout the course of the playoffs? Wolves ownership, players, fans would throw a b**** fit, even if it was just a minor injury.

What if someone like KAT carries the Spurs to a title, miraculously? Players would have less of a reason to stay on their current bad teams (Wolves) since they already have an individual ring.

And on top of the asterisk that is this season / title, there would be even more of an asterisk. If the Spurs didn't have KAT, they wouldn't have won it all, etc etc.

 

Yeah, no way owners would go for it. It's a really cool system though and would give a lot of small towns interest in the league. Fort Wayne could have an NBA team if they win the chip...

But not only would the owners not go for it, the league either, because it means the Knicks would have been relegated years ago lol.

It would immediately make the league better though. Completely eliminate tanking in one fell swoop. Could be fun too if there is like a tournament between the bottom 8 in the summer or something.

Only the players would go for it. It would get a lot of players paid as teams on the fringe would overpay for vets to keep competitive. CP3 for instance would have been a lot easier to trade because some fringe team would be desperate to make enough of a move to stay in the main league. Guys like Derozan and LMA suddenly become valuable, they aren't going to win your team a ring, but they keep your team in the NBA.

But yeah, never happening, at least not anytime soon, but the NBA has flirted with the idea of MORE teams and expansion and at that point, they have to ask themselves if relegation is an option.

 

No one actually expects this to happen, bruh. It's just a fun thing to fantasize about and speculate on. It's like when car people ask each other what cars they would buy if they won the lottery.

 

Well if that happened, maybe it would force Dolan to consider selling the team and the Knick might become good again.

That's why I said it might get rid of some bad owners, because in that system, you can't keep on making money by being bad.

 

I'd buy the new prius and start saving money on gas

 

Didn't they gift barrels of oil not recently ago?

 

@Jontro would no doubt try to buy an oil refinery if he won the superlottery.

 

We all know he buys pornhub and all collection of Alexi Texas.

 

the players either. you think some good (or even mediocre) player is gonna go play D-league guys for a year? immediate trade requests, fake injuries, etc.

the fans either. the hypothetical generic fan of the league might not care, but fans of relegated teams immediately disappear. would you watch the rockets play non-nba games? i wouldn't.

it might make tanking teams slightly better (some teams just suck) as they seek the type of short-term fixes that probably got them in their situation in the first place. it would make good teams worse as obviously talent is a zero-sum game and the talent they accumulate from tanking teams would not be there. marquee matchups are what the league sells. those matchups become worse. league has less to sell.

money is split 50/50 between players and owners. any extra money given to one player just comes out of another player's pockets.

i don't know how soccer handles relegation, but american sports are very much not setup for relegation. the minor leagues obviously can't compete so where would relegated teams go? relegation feels like a solution in search of a problem.

 

People will watch if the lower leagues are competitive. You are imagining it with the current minor leagues. Relegation system is totally different from the American minor league systems.

Think about this. The Euroleague basketball is nowhere near the NBA level. But people watch it. The teams make good money. They pay good players good money. Many of their star players jump to the NBA. But some stay. Some fringe NBA players go there and make better money than they can here.

Like I said, it won't happen because it takes too much of structural changes to make it work. The potential benefit is not worth the risk. But it's not like it's a trash idea. Many top soccer countries have been doing it for decades and it works fine.

 

Nah, the Players would just get traded or loaned to other teams, like European soccer, if they want to.

If you're a player that is on a bad team, so bad that your team is worst in the league, then maybe you're not that good of a player anyways? I mean you'd have to be the worst team of the year to get relegated.

I think the players go for it because more players will get more money. A lot of vet players are devalued because teams want to develop young players and tank. This puts a premium on vet players because they can keep your team in the main league.

Making worse teams better should be the goal here. A lot of teams suck, not because of short term fixes though, because teams are willing to literally tank for years in hopes they get the next Lebron. I mean for years teams put their fans through tanking, playing young players, putting out a trash product.

I also don't think the good teams get worse by much but anything that makes teams more competitive for even decent roleplayers means the players would love it.

The league has more to sell, if you watch European soccer, it makes even games between bad teams have actual meaning and impact. All of a sudden that game of the Hawks v Cavs means something.

The only argument against relegation is that the NBA isn't setup for it. Otherwise, it is probably a preferable system for team sports. I think it makes every game mean something and it increases competition.

Also, it's going to help a lot of cities and small towns have something else to do. Rio Grande Valley can suddenly have an NBA team and it would give people a reason to watch those games and give those teams something to compete for other than a championship that just says you're the best among the worst.

 

I think you'd get a lot more fan enthusiasm if there is something to play for yeah. It would take some time for things to balance out for sure as if the cavs were to get relegated this year they would mop the floor with the Gleague and be right back in the NBA the next year. But this is fine, things would balance themselves out as many g-league teams would start to get competitive knowing that a chance to play in the NBA is on the line.

Yeah, it won't happen, not any time soon. I could see Silver doing it though if he's around long enough or at least setting it up for the next commish. He does want to expand the lead with x amount of teams and I just can't see expansion and more expansion without some kind of relegation.

But a lot needs to be done before it even gets close to happening so yeah, likely never happen. They'd have to sell the NBGL teams first as they are owned by the main franchises. I'm sure they could, they'd be a small investment and are you kidding me? If I had billions I'd be throwing money to buy a sports team, seems like a cool hobby to have lol.

The bigger issue is the cap system, they'd have to change it entirely.

Yeah, I think this is why the system is great. It just promotes so much competition and it makes staying in the NBA an accomplishment in itself.