[TrueHoop] Rockets punished for playoff push

Commodore · 03-01-2011, 03:26 PM

http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/pos...ay-bullets-216

Quote:

Some Houston fans are hoping their team will tank. Kevin Martin, meanwhile, says he's glad those fans aren't on the active roster, 'cause he's part of a group of 15 guys working hard to make the playoffs. It has been written many times before, but the draft system would seem to be a little messed up, when a team is busting its tail against long odds, and that leaves some of the smartest fans a little miffed. The NBA should reward what the Rockets have been doing lately.

As Morey said, the NBA heavily incentivizes poor performance with the greatest rewards. I wonder if the new CBA will address this at all. Not sure what the solution is.

JMAD21 · 03-01-2011, 03:28 PM

This is just another reason that fans that want to tank don't know anything about basketball! And aren't real fans!

GlenRice · 03-01-2011, 03:31 PM

It's too late to tank now, playoff push ftw

BleedRocketsRed · 03-01-2011, 03:36 PM

Yeah if Houston and Phoenix take the 7th and 8th seeds, I will be happy.

emjohn · 03-01-2011, 03:37 PM

IMO, you deter tanking by making the worst two teams select at #s 3-4, if not #s 4-5.

Run a lottery with more equal probabilities for the remaining 12 teams

I think you'll see a much harder soft cap show up, putting all teams on more equal financial footing.

If I were lord tyrant, I'd bolster the NBDL into a bonafide minor league (give them a hard salary cap 35% of the NBA's to pull one and done talent away from college) and implement relegation: initially send down 4 NBA teams and start a cycle of 2 up/2 down each year.

*To deal with the different salary caps, teams going down have to "leave behind" a group of players whose collective salary equals the difference in the two salary caps. The teams coming up have first dibs on the players left behind. You could keep your max guy....but would have to give up virtually everyone else.

THAT would be a penalty, and a slightly better alternative to contraction (which otherwise needs to happen to 4 squads today). No one would DARE tank.

aicedo · 03-01-2011, 03:38 PM

its not fair that the league punishes the middle of the pack teams who give it there all and should be given the high draft picks to potentially get a star player. Not let the bad teams get the good picks so they can make their team better, those bad teams are bad because they give out big contracts to players who arent worthy of the big contract.

RedDragon01 · 03-01-2011, 03:44 PM

You might fix it by having a lottery for only 8 teams, instead of all 14 non-playoff teams. It seems that with the current system, you either have a chance of winning one of the top 3 picks in the upcoming draft by not making the playoffs or you have no chance and are thrown into a position in which you will likely have little playoff success.

If there are 6 non-playoff teams that have no chance at winning the top picks, then by the middle-end of the season they should be focused on getting into the playoffs.

Of course, this would also incentivize teams to tank earlier in the season, rather than later when they have a chance at getting into the playoffs.

Another solution seems to be one that won't likely be implemented any time soon, relegating the bottom 4 teams to the NBDL and promoting the top 4 NBDL teams to the NBA.

rockets934life · 03-01-2011, 03:47 PM

Always liked the idea of having all the non-playoff teams have an equal shot at the top spots. Draw for the top 3 spots and let the rest be determined by record. It sucks for the teams with the worst records but keeps them honest.

scolandry1 · 03-01-2011, 03:47 PM

how about reverse the lottery order, or perhaps take a page out of euro/spanish league soccer, and demote the timberwolves to the dleague. does that sound rockets biased at all?

JayGoogle · 03-01-2011, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMAD21

This is just another reason that fans that want to tank don't know anything about basketball! And aren't real fans!

This is a lame argument against tanking. If you told me all we had to do was have a bad season in order to get a franchise player like Cousins and my team didn't have any of those I'd do it everytime. One bad season is better than 7 mediocre ones...

Anyways, maybe make it so that the Lottery is really a lottery? Every team in the lottery has equal shot to win it. I mean yeah it would suck if you are the worst team in the NBA and pick 14th but them the breaks.

scolandry1 · 03-01-2011, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockets934life

Always liked the idea of having all the non-playoff teams have an equal shot at the top spots. Draw for the top 3 spots and let the rest be determined by record. It sucks for the teams with the worst records but keeps them honest.

i don't trust anything that deals with drawing, or ping pong balls. i still question david stern's integrity as he continues to manipulate the entire league.

JayGoogle · 03-01-2011, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scolandry1

how about reverse the lottery order, or perhaps take a page out of euro/spanish league soccer, and demote the timberwolves to the dleague. does that sound rockets biased at all?

I actually like this idea. In international soccer there is not one reason to lose any game. This makes each game more important.

The problem here though is that the Dleague team getting promoted will be a small market team, playing in what looks to be a high school gym so...Also what happens if the Rio Grande Vipers get promoted? There goes the Rockets dleague team (although I guess they could just get rid of the affiliations and have the NBA teams loan out their players to whoever.)

But I like the idea, I think it would work better in the long run as it would also bring attention to the NBDL and would bring meaning in a Twolves-Kings game.

Commodore · 03-01-2011, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayGoogle

I actually like this idea. In international soccer there is not one reason to lose any game. This makes each game more important.

The problem here though is that the Dleague team getting promoted will be a small market team, playing in what looks to be a high school gym so...Also what happens if the Rio Grande Vipers get promoted? There goes the Rockets dleague team (although I guess they could just get rid of the affiliations and have the NBA teams loan out their players to whoever.)

Who says you have to promote a D-League team?

Just make it a one year punishment for the worst team, then the next season they get out of the "penalty box" and are replaced by the 29th worst team.

DonnyMost · 03-01-2011, 03:59 PM

The Rockets are being punished for sucking so much the first half of the season.

Deal with it.

Maybe if they had actually won some games before the ASB Martin would see things differently.

HAYJON02 · 03-01-2011, 04:02 PM

We only had a 5% chance at getting the #1 pick in 02. If not for that who knows how long the Francis era would have lasted. We're kind of stuck in purgatory. Which isnt that bad. It's not so great either.

AroundTheWorld · 03-01-2011, 04:03 PM

I totally agree with what the article quoted in the OP says. San Antonio has been near the top for ages now, and the truth is that they got there basically by cheating/tanking. This kind of behavior should be punished. Teams get punished for trying hard, that's just wrong.

H-townhero · 03-01-2011, 04:17 PM

how about the best team who didn't make the playoffs draft first, that team would also have the greatest chance of going into relevancy if they manage to draft a superstar.

aka teams 9-16 pick 1, 2, 3, 4, etc

knote32 · 03-01-2011, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H-townhero

how about the best team who didn't make the playoffs draft first, that team would also have the greatest chance of going into relevancy if they manage to draft a superstar.

aka teams 9-16 pick 1, 2, 3, 4, etc

Problem with this is If one player goes down. What If Kobe's Lakers missed the playoffs back when they were in the 8th seed? Should they get the first pick?

I think you simply make the lottery completely equal among the non-playoff teams, so you aren't guaranteed anything... Either that or you just make the odds a bit more fair.

Worst team has a 10 percent chance at the first pick, instead of a 25% chance, etc...

DonnyMost · 03-01-2011, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld

I totally agree with what the article quoted in the OP says. San Antonio has been near the top for ages now, and the truth is that they got there basically by cheating/tanking. This kind of behavior should be punished. Teams get punished for trying hard, that's just wrong.

San Antonio got there by dumb luck (Duncan) and then hard work (Parker, Manu, and so on).

There are better examples of tanking than them.

Namely, the 1982 Houston Rockets.

ThaShark316_28 · 03-01-2011, 04:22 PM

The 1993 NBA Draft lottery is coming folks again, folks.

Let's see if you like it.