I hear ya... the disparity for smaller markets is evident, but that just means they have to strategize better... 1) draft better - a top 5 pick could land you a Harden or DWade etc... or you take the dumb as a brick 7 footer.... I guarantee you, if you gave DM back to back lottery picks he'd get some longterm bang for his buck.... and if 2nd rd picks are done well - you got cheap contracts that will afford the team the opportunity to overpay. Additionally, if u don't like the draft options - trade the pick. 2) free agents... they aren't gonna get a D12, but there are enough solid players looking for a payday... not to go off on a tangent, but if the NBA truly wanted to create parity, it would require only 2 things... eliminate max contracts and a hard cap - end of story...
people say a hard cap like the NFL would create parity, but that's only part of the story. NFL has parity because there are only 16 games in the season, and a single elimination Playoffs. If you just took any random 16 game stretch of the NBA season and made standings, I am 100% sure you'd have a ton of parity year over year. So no, it wouldn't be "end or story"
Never will have parity with so many NBA teams. They sold so many teams to the newly rich dot com billionaires. Not enough talent to stock them all with the best.
Intersting tidbits by Henry Abbott, arguing that front office incompetence is often the true cause of a team mired in sub .500 year after year, and the current lotto handouts don't really give fan bases hope: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/62650/tank-week-reflections
Morey is the smartest guy in the room. Therefore, he excels, regardless. If ownership is strong, ownership hires strong management, and let's management do its job. Lousy ownership begets lousy management, which begets lousy teams. Sorry, no matter what system is devised, teams with excellent ownership/management will succeed, and teams with lousy ownership/management will lose. And if a lousy teams is lucky enough to draft a superstar, they're going to eventually screw it up (e.g., Lebron, Garnett).
This is a dumb idea because who is really going to bid on the 22nd pick in the draft to waste a draft credit, AND it doesn't solve tanking. I don't get it.
I like these ideas, but they lack the wisdom of real world dynamic and business acumen that the NBA has built itself on. These ideas completely circumvent the league's draft rigging process which has been a staple of NBA basketball for a long as most of us have been alive, and therefore will never be implemented. A truly fair drafting process will never exist in the NBA. Because the league's financial future depends on ensuring that big markets are always stocked with marketable players. As Rockets fans, we shouldn't complain much. The league has been kinder to us than most other teams over the years. Who cares if Sacramento or Milwaukee ever wins a title? Most of America could care less.
Lol Rockets fans can hardly complain as we have a great history at tanking and building a team. In fact the lottery was implemented because we had gotten the number 1 pick two years in a row.