GarbageTime wrote:
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Rewarding poor teams and poor decisions is addressed in the article in post #4.
The goal of any team is to get a couple of core pieces to build around, grow with those players, and find other to compliment them. Looking at the top teams of the last 5 years (Lakers, Dallas, Nuggets, Spurs, Celtics, Cavs {before this year}, Suns {before this year}) very few have drafted a player that has stepped in and been a rotational player once they were a playoff team (Spurs had Hill, Suns had Lopez) because they already had their core players and 'team' in place - that is why they are good year in and year out.
Again this is all perspective but I do not perceive this to be a punishment for playoff teams given the use of first round draft picks by upper echelon teams of the last 5-6 seasons. The number of late first round draft picks sold or traded would question the idea of playoff teams wanting the guaranteed contracts of first round draft picks.
I do agree it could certainly hurt the borderline playoff teams or those stuck in purgatory, however, wouldn't it be poor decision making that got them in that position initially? Might the prospect of two guaranteed first round draft picks help them start a rebuild rather than get stuck on the mediocrity treadmill - especially if trading a good player returns another draft pick(s). Is the goal to win and compete for a championship each year or to get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round each year? The article in post #4 discusses this:
One of the biggest problems is that teams have to make it through rebuilding processes and because they don’t want to suffer the horror of a true rebuilding year until it’s absolutely necessary, teams will enter purgatory, sticking with marginal contracts to get a few wins which end up being expensive in terms of moving forward and don’t help them. But they don’t have the talent to get by. But multiple picks gets them out of this. It means that if a team drafts well, they’re not trying to suffer through a painful year, but going forward aggressively. And if that team elects not to go completely young, they can trade the secondary pick for better players. It just means that the hole isn’t quite so deep to get back to contention.
1) it could help create a very competitive league (16-18 really good teams versus current 10-12 really good teams),
2) fans of losing teams can have an extra prayer or hope.
Regardless of the draft system, poorly managed teams are not going to be very good regardless of draft system and well managed teams will do well.
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