2014 NBA draft/off-season thread

The lottery isn't perfect but the concept isn't my issue. Where the draft fails is that they can't resist blatantly rigging it when it suits them, just like this year with Cleveland. If it were up to me I'd do away with the lottery altogether and just do it like every other sport where the worst team gets the highest pick. The tanking issue won't even go away with this new system, it'll just be further down the line and throw off the balance of the league even more.

 

I think it was better the old way. I would rather have a team tanking than be constantly wondering if the commissioner was rigging the lottery.

I think tanking would exist, but there aren't many years anymore where the players available are worth tanking for. The group this year? Maybe... Last year? No way.

 

Wow. I just looked it up and the team with the worst record in the NBA has gotten the No. 1 pick only four times since the lottery was instituted.

 

I actually don't see a problem with the way it is now. There aren't many years where the fourth-best player in the draft is worth tanking over. Maybe even out the odds a bit or have someone run a statistical analysis and adjust the odds year by year based on how close or far away they are from the worst record. No way one more loss should boost your chances significantly over the next bad team.

 

Since the lottery was implemented:

Top pick and whether teams might would have considered tanking to get them

1985 - Patrick Ewing - Yes
1986 - Brad Daugherty - No
1987 - David Robinson - Yes
1988 - Danny Manning - Yes (or so was thought at the time)
1989 - Pervis Ellison - Hell no
1990 - Derrick Coleman - Debatable
1991 - Larry Johnson - Debatable
1992 - Shaquille O'Neal - Yes
1993 - Chris Webber - Yes
1994 - Glenn Robinson - Debatable
1995 - Joe Smith - No
1996 - Allen Iverson - Yes
1997 - Tim Duncan - Yes
1998 - Michael Olowokandi - No
1999 - Elton Brand - No
2000 - Kenyon Martin - No
2001 - Kwame Brown - No
2002 - Yao Ming - Yes
2003 - LeBron James - Yes
2004 - Dwight Howard - No (People forget Howard wasn't a slam dunk No. 1 pick when this happened. A lot of people thought Orlando should have taken Okafor, obviously, they were wrong)
2005 - Andrew Bogut - No
2006 - Andrea Bargnani - No
2007 - Greg Oden - Yes
2008 - Derrick Rose - No (another pick that seems more obvious today than it was at the time)
2009 - Blake Griffin - No
2010 - John Wall - No
2011 - Kyrie Irving - No
2012 - Anthony Davis - Yes
2013 - Anthony Bennett - No
2014 - Andrew Wiggins - Yes

 

Which is why the Cavs should have no problem moving Wiggins for Love. A lot of those "no" picks were seen as having limitless potential.

The Cavs don't need another superstar - they've got LeBron. Same with the Warriors reluctance to move Thompson - you can find guards in the NBA. Probably they are more concerned about how losing Thompson would impact Curry's game.

 

Doc Rivers has apparently said if Sterling remains the owner he will quit. I hope the Clippers sue him for breach of contract and keep him off the bench for the duration of his contract. You took his money knowing, mostly, what a creep he is, and he did nothing to you to prevent you from doing your job.

 

Oh, get a life, why don't you. You have no way of knowing all the particulars.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-clippers-owner-doc-rivers-20140722-story.html

What particulars could there be, the President of the Clippers testified to this, under oath.

 

They are speculating that the Lakers are waiting to see if Rivers becomes available. I tend to doubt that's true, but you never know.

 

This is spectacular.

Frank Caliendo reading LeBron James-SI letter as Morgan Freeman.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/24/lebron-james-letter-in-morgan-freemans-voice-lebron-james-letter-in-morgan-freemans-voice/

 

Philadelphia upset with potential new lottery rules. When your "team concept" is sucking enough to have a good shot at the top pick for three years in a row...that's a problem. If Embiid, Carter-Williams, and Noel don't do the trick, I don't know of a lottery pick willing to endure more losing after three years. So then you'd start losing the guys you started tanking for in the first place.