I think the Jazz want to compete now, which was shown by the JJJ trade.

Jazz don’t own their pick in 2027 as it was in the Jaren trade, and the Jazz are intending to compete next season, they have no reason to tank with no pick

I like that. Bad teams are rewarded, but there is no benefit, infact a slight penalty, to being complete trash 

Right but it’s not. They don’t get “sent down.” It’s just using the language

Relegation zone, but the league has no relegation

Me: “American Sports Leagues? Can we get promotion and relegation?”

American Sports Leagues: “No. We have promotion and relegation at home.”

The Promotion and Relegation at home:

Why tf are they calling it relegation zone?? If we’re gonna call it that let’s kick the bottom 3 out for a year 🤣

Bulls need to hire Kenny Beecham

you guys are the most fucked by this rule outside of the kings

“To its 29 GMs, and this fucking guy”

“For basketball reasons”

And you can’t pick top 5 in consecutive years, I feel all they really had to do was flatten the odds outside of the bottom 4 teams, and actually enforce the anti tanking rules.

except you have to purposefully be dogshit to be that bad.

you have to play 5 rookies like the Nets or not have any bigs like the Bulls.

It’s super easy to be a mediocre (not awful) team

dang, imagine that

That’s the only good thing. Like no way the Spurs should of been able to get Wemby, Castle and Harper back to back to back

The odds are so flat that trying to go up or down will to affect your odds will be almost impossible.

Every future pick that has already been traded becomes so much more valuable. The impact protections will wildly shift with higher odds for better teams.

Finished? Oh buddy, oh you sweet summer child

Finished being a bottom 3 team* 🙏🙏

Exactly. And now, not only do they get a lottery pick, the 9 and 10 seeds have the same odds of the #1 pick as the worst three teams in the league 🤣🤣🤣

It’s to prevent teams from tanking out of the playoffs. I’m fine with it. If the system were in place this year, Philly, Orlando, Portland, and Phoenix would each get a 2.6% chance at the #1 pick. What’s wrong with that? None of those teams are remotely close to contention without another superstar.

This is how it should be. You should not be rewarded for tanking

I get it, but at the same time Warriors dynasty was built drafting guys 8th, 11th & 35th. Basketball is impacted by the draft more than other sports, but the incentive structure had to be changed. A team can still rebuild themselves if they get 1st, 7th and 5th as opposed to 1st, 4th, 2nd.

I get your point, but I wonder if the league’s position is just “stop being ass”. Injuries happen, but some teams are just terribly constructed. The GMs that did it can then keep their job if they can convince enough people they’re losing for better draft position, rather than just being bad GMs.

Maybe the Knicks are an unfair example because of being in NYC, but getting rid of GMs like Isiah and bringing in Leon Rose was a massive overnight change.

Incentivizing winning is a good thing.

This is what the NBA wants anyway, they’d rather Boston, Lakers or the like win every year, they don’t want a good team from Charlotte

In football, if you finish in the bottom 3, you fall down a whole league. This is nothing compared to that, every team in the bottom three of the NBA has the capacity to become only the 26th best team in the league.

It feels kind of unnecessary given flat odds otherwise. But it does add a bit of spicy drama to the season

They’ll probably change it back when ass teams remain ass for several years and their valuation drops.

Just a reminder the pelicans are included in the teams in the lottery discussion and our GM thought we could compete with our roster and the cornerstone of our franchise for longer than half a decade is the healthiest he’s been in his career.

Sometimes teams just fucking suck Adam

if you’re bad because of luck, market size, other factors out of your control, my sympathy.

if you’re bad because a poorly run org with a stingy owner, then you probably SHOULD be cooked. can’t hide behind the draft to give your team false hope. speaking purely hypothetically of course

My Sonics are coming back into the league and are facing this shitshow. Fuck Adam Silver

Yeah, runs into the core issue of just how influential a single player is in basketball vs other sports. Like best shot small market bad teams will have now is take a gander on a promising young player that hasnt been made untouchable by another, but even then thats worse than tanking

i mean being a bad basketball team doesnt guarantee you a top pick anyway. Teams like the jazz cant be tanking every year until they win the lottery or get into the top 4. Eventually they have to start trying to win

How are the Jazz, wizards, pelicans type of teams supposed to get better if they are less likely get the number one pick because they’re a bottom three team as is? The difference in number one and two can be astronomical.

I think it incentives bad teams to look at other avenues instead of relying solely on the draft. Free Agency, smart trades, g-league development. These all become more important to your rebuild if you can’t just rely on tanking for the #1 pick.

At the end of the day it’s still by luck and developing players. They’re just not able to rest their entire rosters for 75% of the year now to get advantages on the luck side of things.

Might not get a Wemby but if a team stays bottom 3 despite multiple years of top 10 picks it’s hardly anyone else’s fault but their own

As soon as a large market team looks like it’s going to need a rebuild, an exception will be made.

Exactly this. Why should you be penalized for drafting and creating a good team? Drafted players should not penalize you.

The teams that have remained bottom feeders do so because they pick busts and can’t develop talent. You can absolutely stop being a bottom feeder with top 10 picks every year for a few years vs top 3. You aren’t entitled to become a contender in 5 years because you’re incompetent. 

2.7% chance but yes

If you’re legitimately trying, but end up bottom 3 when half the league is tanking, you have bigger problems then lottery odds.

This. So basically the bottom three teams will actually be bad teams. They will be really punished by this tanking rule when they aren’t actually tanking.

The penalties should only apply if there’s shameless shit happening before the all star break (what utah did basically). Post all star break tanking has been a staple of this league for over 40 years and no one cared until now; this bozo is gonna destroy the one replicable path to contention most teams actually have.

Yup, this will greatly screw over small market teams. (aka 2/3rds of the league). The only recourse they have for getting good players is through the draft, which now has lower odds.

Is it though? While there’s no perfect solution, this still might be better than teams outright refusing to play their better players in a rat race to the bottom

I actually think it forces them to make moves to be good, rather than make roster changes to “tank”. I think this pushes positive roster construction more than making moves as negative roster construction.

I’m a massive fan of this and I think it will be very successful in achieving its intended purpose.

We’ll get the 13th pick

Probably relegated to the gleague