NBA, too-often unwatchable, needs to go beyond lottery tweaks to a "Suck Tax" based on PPG diffs

I actually like the lottery format, more so than other draft formats. It can still be tweaked like you said. There could be a weighted system or a limit #1, top #5, and top #10. For instance, imposing a two #1 pick limit within a 3-6 year period, or a three top 5 pick in a span of 3-7 years. Maybe a limit of 5 top-10 draft picks within a 5-10 year span, you'd be moved further back into the draft behind teams who haven't yet, met any of those criteria.

Suck Tax, probably will not happen. Owners are not going to impose that on themselves.

 

you might be onto something

 

Oh no, I wasn't making any comments about that.

 

I actually like this proposal. But it has two problems, 1 which has been pointed out: Owners have to vote on anything like this. Secondly, we fans who value parity can just watch NFL/NHL/MLB - it seems like modern NBA fans are totally OK with watching 3-4 players have success and following them from team to team.

Historically, the NBA has had the lowest parity by every measure, and they have never seemed concerned with fixing that. In fact, tanking is sometimes the only option bottom dwellers have to ever join the arms race since NBA free agents tend to prefer already stacked teams or glamor destinations. If you're Memphis, Charlotte, Milwaukee the draft is your only option to compete with the LAs and Miamis. If you cut off bad teams from using the draft you're just feeding the cycle of top-heavy competition in a different way.

Imagine if the Rockets had no shot at Cade right now and had to go out and beg for B and C tier free agents to join so we could go 30-50 next year and repeat the cycle. It's a tough problem to solve which is why I agree with others that the NBA needs to fix the buyout problem of ring-chasers going to top teams and of players forcing their way out of places they don't want to be, but trying to use their contract to have their cake and eat it too.

 

I agree that the product is getting worse but I think you've got it all backwards. The problem isn't that teams suck. It's that other teams are too good by comparison.

Because of the max contract there's too much incentive for players to just team up and play in the most fun cities. Just get rid of the max contract and LeBron would have never left Cleveland and there would be more parity. More teams would have a great player and the teams that currently suck would have incentive to improve even without the lottery picks.

Right now the only play small market teams have is to hope they draft a Giannis or Luka and win a championship before they realize they'd rather live in a city with better weather and night life. If you don't have one of these guys everything else is pointless. As much as Harden wanted to play in Brooklyn he would have stayed if we could have signed him to $55MM/yr.

 

except we offered him a 50 mil/yr extension, and he said no

Harden wanted to win, and he clearly wasn’t gonna do that here...he’s already made hundreds of millions

 

Wrong

 

most of these bad teams have horrible ownership or front offices...that’s what really needs to get fixed...all this other stuff is just window dressing

the Kings could’ve drafted Doncic to save their franchise, but instead took Bagley...even if they did take Doncic, with that owner, they probably would’ve fcked up building around him anyways

the Hornets whiffed on top picks for years before finally getting it right with LaMelo

the Knicks had Dolan and became terrible for most of the last 2 decades

Tilman has destroyed the Rockets in just 3 years

etc

 

The play in tournament actually severely reduced tanking compared to previous years. Now only around 4 teams are tanking at the end of the season compared to around 10 usually. The league is well aware of the problem and they're coming up with creative solutions. Blowouts can happen even to good teams. The Clippers lost to the Mavs by 50 in December.

 

As long as Superstar players can hold a Franchise hostage and will their way to team up with 2 + superstars... We will always have unwatchable teams.
This is the New NBA-

 

Lol, you're right! I just threw out a random number. I forgot the number of that offer. Maybe it's $75MM+, but the point was that everyone has a number. The nba has to find an incentive to get superstars to want to stay in small markets. Nothing will fix the competitiveness of the league unless that happens

 

Nah not everyone has a number. At some point like harden in this part of his career, it isn’t about money and making the most. He can make money anywhere he goes. He’s made plenty to this point. He wants his best chance to win which is where he is now

 

Interesting idea, but I think it's going to create different problems down the line.

Let's say the 'suck tax' takes effect, starting next season; and let's take OKC and ORL as examples, since they have the highest differential. OKC and ORL aren't magically going to get better in upcoming seasons and will still suffer from the tax.

So let's say ORL's owner decides to remedy the problem. No decent FA wants to come to Orlando, so the owner will throw a lot of money at mediocre players (read: overpay) just so that they don't have to pay the tax, or pay less of a tax. There's still going to be a lack of parity, because this doesn't fix what's wrong with the league. Players are still going to want to go to a BKN team loaded with talent, vs a mediocre team that's good enough to go 41-41 and duck the 'suck' tax.

Furthermore, players that prioritize defense either because they suck at getting buckets (Thybulle, Draymond, 95% of today's big men) or because defense is simply what they're best at (Gobert, etc) will get a considerably lower contract than someone who can get buckets and don't play much defense (McLemore, Redick, someone like Michael Beasley, etc).

Furthermore, this prioritizes owners that don't mind paying any kind of tax (GSW's Lacob) over a stingier, cost-cutting owner like Tilman. What I mean is, GSW is willing to go into tax hell for a player like Oubre, while Tilman tries his best to not pay anything more than he has to. So GSW wouldn't mind sucking and paying a tax, if it meant increasing the chances of getting a high pick the following draft.

I think you're onto something as it's an alternative, but maybe 'suck tax' regarding point differential isn't the best way.

 

This is the problem. As we all know the NBA is completely dominated by about 3 different players every decade. If you didn’t have Curry, LBJ or Kawhi you didn’t win in the last 10 years. Same pattern goes back to the beginning of the association.

Superstars don’t hold the franchise hostage they hold the entire league hostage. Because where ever they go they win.

Tanking is the correct method and you’re not going to curb it. Without a top 3 player a team has basically no chance so better off to tank over and over until you get one.

 

do you think Harden would have rejected 100M a year extension?

 

Yup

 

The better question is, how many players can a team pay if there's no max? At some point players will price themselves out of teaming up for longer than 1-2seasons because they'll want the moolah and it's accompanying respect. Remove the max and there will be far more team parity.

 

I know you like to put all the blame on ownership, and I don't disagree in most part. But Kawhi Leonard forced his way out of a supposedly well run team. Maybe location does matter. If we empower superstars to go wherever they want disregarding contracts, this problem will never be fixed.