Fuck Draft Lotteries

Submitted by Westside Wolverine on May 16th, 2023 at 8:34 PM

The last place Pistons fall as far as possible to pick 5. Unbelievable that this happens to Detroit teams regularly. Detroit now gets a decent player rather than a once-in-a-generation talent. 

Great Cornholio

May 16th, 2023 at 8:56 PM ^

The system lacks any real transparency, yet they wonder why fans think it's rigged. This happens every time there's a generational player at #1. Unbelievable, yet totally predictable. Silver and the rest of his corporate scum legion can lick my taint.

kehnonymous

May 17th, 2023 at 10:28 AM ^

Agreed - the whole rigging thing is QAnon-level tinfoil shit (yes people the NBA Deep State rigged the lottery for the Spurs this year and for the post-LeBron Cavs 3 years in a row), but.... it does rate mention that late NBA commissioner David Stern tacitly didn't discourage that speculation because of the whole "no publicity is worse than bad publicity" adage.

Westside Wolverine

May 16th, 2023 at 9:03 PM ^

If reducing tanking is the goal, the NBA should reduce ping pong balls for each game starters rest or engage in some other form of tanking. Punishing truly bad teams for performing badly just locks those bad teams into the bottom of the league.

tsunami42080

May 16th, 2023 at 9:08 PM ^

I don’t watch the NBA much at all these days but this level of buffoonery makes me want to forget it altogether.


Criminal you can penalize the worst team in the league this badly. Make it so worst team can’t drop past 1 or 2. 

Cruzcontrol75

May 17th, 2023 at 7:11 AM ^

Bottom 3 teams should share a 33% chance at #1 & let 4th worst have 1%.  Those 3 teams should not drop more than 3 spots respective of their records.  
 

The NBA and probably all sports have some level of fixing involved.  What came of the Donaghy fiasco?  Nothing AND most of you probably have to ask the intergoogle who Donaghy is.  And that’s how the ASSociation wanted it.
 

I used to love pro basketball and the current product is so far from what I grew up watching.  Seeing guys who shoot sub 30% from beyond the arc jack it up because they’re open is ridiculous.  NBA officiating is atrocious at best.  Breathe on someone while on defense and it’s a foul.  Don’t get me started on the replay situations and the determinations of flagrant fouls.  The fact that the pistons have been terrible has accelerated my level of disinterest.  Haven’t watched 1 NBA playoff game this year.

CityOfKlompton

May 17th, 2023 at 11:42 AM ^

You pulled results for ONE team. We don't have the necessary context to know whether or not their results are greater or worse than average. We can determine nothing from this in a greater context.

Here is an actual evidence-based argument of how lucky or unlucky a team has been in the NBA Draft lottery. Summary: Pistons are slightly below even, but there a bunch of other teams way worse off. This isn't the NBA rigging against Detroit.

Cam

May 16th, 2023 at 9:47 PM ^

The lack of transparency is absolutely insane. There are millions if not billions of dollars at stake, and the NBA says “just trust us.”

UMinCincy

May 16th, 2023 at 9:47 PM ^

I'm a huge fan of the "gold points" idea where draft position is determined by how many points a team earns after they are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Teams eliminated earlier will still have the advantage to pick higher, but will not be actively trying to lose. It also gets rid of the lottery, which is reason enough to support it

jippolito

May 16th, 2023 at 10:03 PM ^

The lottery is so rigged that the NBA purposely put a generational talent in the 31st largest media market rather than the 7th (Houston), 17th (Orlando), 21st (Charlotte), or 22nd (Portland).

The lottery is meant to discourage tanking. The Pistons tanked and ended with the exact anti-incentive to discourage tanking that we all applaud when talking about other teams tanking but not our own. They system worked.

SanDiegoWolverine

May 17th, 2023 at 3:05 AM ^

They started two shitty rookies, employed the worst coach in the league, and traded away their best wing player and were trying to win? They also traded for two young worthless power forwards and played them a lot even though they didn't play as lick of defense all year.

Sounds like a team that really tried to win. I love the Pistons but get real.

nerv

May 17th, 2023 at 3:29 AM ^

Trading away a mediocre wing player who you werent resigning at the trade deadline when you have the worst record in the league just seems like a savvy move. They also started the season looking to be an improved team pushing for playoff contention. Traded for and reupped Bogdanovic. Starting two rookies in no way was a move to lose more games.. they just had even crappier, less upside players behind them. They also made no trades for a PF this season? Wiseman is in no way shape or form a 4. I suppose youre counting Bagley from mid last season, but they also gave up next to no assets for him. 

I dont really love the Pistons at all and am being quite real.

SalvatoreQuattro

May 16th, 2023 at 10:33 PM ^

The NFL does it right. The worst teams get the highest draft picks. If a team tanks, it tanks.

The NFL is by far the most popular league with by far the most popular draft. One would think the NBA would recognize this and adjust accordingly.

The worst team should have the highest pick. The NBA can do a lottery for every team afterwards.