In the wake of Emmanuel Clase having the audacity to go public with his desire to throw 0-2 fastballs in the dirt, the NBA has issues of its own when it comes to teams intentionally veering from the desired target.
Fortunately, I have a solution to the so-called problem.
In fact, I can resolve TWO of the league’s biggest issues at the same time, which makes my idea the best.
Seemingly everyone with a phone or a keyboard has a brilliant scheme on how to keep NBA teams from tanking. Most of them miss the mark for one basic reason:
The goal of the draft MUST continue to be to help bad teams. If your solution doesn’t aid in narrowing the talent gap between the league’s haves and its have-nots, then you need to try again.
Better yet, focus your save-the-world fixes for curling.
One problem up-and-comers have in the NBA is the salary cap. You can’t just go out and snatch up a bunch of big-time players without maxing out your credit card real fast.
Did you know that every team in the NBA except the Nets is over the misnomered cap? As a league, the 30 teams are legally cheating by a total of almost $1.3 billion this season.
Even the Dodgers must be envious.
So what you have are two types of teams trying to get better – the bad ones by coasting into a more desirable draft position, and the rich ones by playing games with the cap.
I’m left wondering: Which is really the top-of-the-list problem?
We can agree to disagree on that, and that’s OK, because my goal is to lessen the popularity of each.
Consider this:
- Only teams under the salary cap on the day of the draft get to use their first-round pick.
- Hand in hand, the draft lottery is restructured to include ALL teams, each with the same odds of earning the top slot.
This would eliminate any incentive to tank. At the same time, it would give teams a reason to start adhering to the spirit of the salary cap.
Here’s how this works:
When the Finals have crowned a champ in mid-June, all franchises are given two weeks to get their finances in order for the following season.
Then, on or around July 1, the draft lottery is held.
After the ping pong balls have landed, any team under the cap gets to keep its pick in the slot determined by the lottery.
But any team over the cap must either trade its slot or forfeit its first-rounder.
Think about it …
No more tanking and a shrinking in the disparity in payrolls.
Both are good things, right? And they could happen at the same time.
I know what some of you are thinking: If only the Nets are under the salary cap, why hold a lottery? Aren’t they assured of making the one and only first-round pick?
No, that’s not the case.
As noted, teams – even those over the cap – would be allowed to trade their lottery-created draft slots. But here’s the catch: Since it has no financial value, the pick could only be dealt for a future pick or picks, or in a package in which matching salaries are included.
In either case, it would almost surely be a team under the cap that acquired the draft slot. Because only they can use the pick that season.
So, again, no tanking, yet the desired result: A bad team gets better.
As for the Nets … as we stand today, the Grizzlies are in line to join them under the cap at the start of the NBA’s next fiscal year in July, while the Hornets and Jazz are close enough that a little roster creativity could get them in.
If this rule had been in place at the recent trade deadline, no doubt others would have maneuvered to get themselves into better financial shape.
By the end of next season, when the Lakers and Bulls already are scheduled to be under the cap, you’d likely have a lot more teams that qualify to make first-round picks. This following a season in which the financial gap has shrunk and bad teams have added the best young talent, creating greater parity to go with the lesser incentive to lose.
Problem(s) solved.
You want to take it another step? Do a lottery for the second round as well. Teams, say, $50 million over the cap (there are nine right now) are excluded, and there would be no incentive to lose games in order to get the best second-round picks.
Sorry, Emmanuel. With my pitch, you get a home run on 0-2.
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