ESPN reported that the NBA could vote on reforming the NBA Draft lottery before the upcoming season. The Philadelphia 76ers show why it’s a bad idea.
This possible vote could happen because of The Process, which was the most blatant gaming of the system in recent memory. Apparently, the NBA didn’t like that, because Adam Silver recently said that the 30 teams in the league could vote on lottery reform in the coming weeks.
Reforming the lottery system would be detrimental to small-market teams whose best hope for winning is by building through the draft. Teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Charlotte Hornets, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Sacramento Kings aren’t exciting free agent destinations, and with the salary cap in place, they can’t just throw more money at free agents than other teams in order to improve their team.
Philadelphia 76ers
Additionally, with the rumored rule of having it so that a team can’t have a top-three pick two seasons in a row, bad teams will stay bad. Unless drafts get much deeper in the near future, young stars will end up on different teams, struggle, and probably leave to join up with better players once their rookie deals are over.
Rebuild via draft common
There are plenty of teams who rebuilt the same way as the Philadelphia 76ers did. The Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Minnesota Timberwolves all built through the draft along with the Sixers, and all of those teams had multiple top-three picks in the last four drafts. The Celtics, Timberwolves, and the Sixers are all looking to make a playoff run this season as a result of trading extraneous assets for stars or developing drafted players.
That’s another thing about building through the draft: teams are always able to trade picks or young players for established stars. The Celtics did it in the Kyrie Irving trade and the Timberwolves did it in the Jimmy Butler trade in this past offseason.
If small-market teams vote in favor of reforming the lottery, the owners are probably not smart enough to run an NBA team. Sure, the lack of good basketball being played for a few seasons will see ticket revenue decrease, but if Philly fans can get through three seasons of dreadful basketball, any other group of fans can do the same as long as they see the long-term goals of their franchise.
The draft is there so that teams can build through it. The Warriors drafted three-quarters of their big four, and they are a dynasty. Drafting wisely is part of the battle, and as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Building through the draft gives teams hope in the darkest of times; just ask fans of the Philadelphia 76ers from 2013-2016.
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Reforming the draft lottery and not letting teams pick in the top three in consecutive seasons would give fans less of an incentive to watch the NBA because of the hope the reform would take away from fans.