NBA Draft night - Let's Change It Up.

 

The NBA draft is tonight. Here is the order of the top 12 picks in the Draft. 

1. Minnesota Timberwolves

2. Golden State Warriors

3. Charlotte Hornets

4. Chicago Bulls

5. Cleveland Cavaliers

6. Atlanta Hawks

7. Detroit Pistons

8. New York Knicks

9. Washington Wizards

10. Phoenix Suns

The concept for the draft has been around for years. All the teams that don’t make the playoffs are put into a lottery. The team with the worst record has the best chance of getting the top pick, 2nd worse team has the 2nd best chance and so on and so forth. 

I hope you can all see the glaring issue with this. 

That’s right – the Golden State Warriors have the 2nd pick in the draft. That’s right the team that went to 5 straight NBA finals starting in 2015 and won 3 Titles has the 2nd pick in the draft. Despite their record this year the core of the team is still intact, they were just hobbled by injuries.

Their record gave them the 2nd best chance to land the # 1 pick. However, their record this year should not mean they get the 2nd pick. The NBA needs to change up the Draft Lottery. 

The other glaring issue I have with this is that of all the non-playoff teams, Minnesota has the 4th most amount of wins the last 3 years. I get that they had the 2nd least amount of wins this year but still, I don't think they should get the 1st pick. 

So how would I change it up? And who would get the 1st pick?

Here is the process I would propose

Take all the non-playoff teams and calculate their record for the last 3 seasons (including the just completed year). The team with the least number of wins gets the 1st pick, 2nd worse record gets the 2nd pick and so on until all the non-playoff teams are slotted. Then take the records of the playoff teams and rank them from worse record to best record for the concluded season. Worse record gets the next pick after the lottery until that round is slotted. 

 If there are any ties with the non-playoff teams, take the record of the current season and if there is still a tie, look at their records 4 seasons back. 

If there is a tie with the playoff teams, take their record the past 3 seasons to break the tie, if there is still a tie, look at their records 4 seasons back. 

It’s simple. It does not introduce controversy. 

So with that formula here would be the 1st round slots for the draft

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non-playoff teams
	Pick		Wins last      3 years
	1	New York Knicks	67
	2	Chicago Bulls	71
	3	Atlanta Hawks	73
	4	Phoenix Suns	74
	5	Cleveland Cavaliers	88
	6	Memphis Grizzlies	89
	7	Sacramento Kings	97
	8	Charlotte Hornets	98
	9	Detroit Pistons	100	Detroit had a less wins this year - gets tie breaker over Washington
	10	Washington Wizards	100
	11	Minnesota Timberwolves	102
	12	New Orleans Pelicans	111
	13	San Antonio Spurs	127
	14	Golden State Warriors	130
Playoff teams			Record this year
	15	Orlando Magic	33
	16	Brooklyn Nets	35	Brooklyn had fewer wins (105) than Portland (137) last 3 years so they get the tie breaker
	17	Portland Trail Blazers	35
	18	Dallas Mavericks	43	Dallas had fewer wins (100) than Philadelphia (146) last 3 years so they get the tie breaker
	19	Philadelphia 76ers	43
	20	Miami Heat	44	Tie Breaker - wins last 3 years Miami (127) Oklahoma City (141) Utah (142) Houston (162)
	21	Oklahoma City Thunder	44
	22	Utah Jazz	44
	23	Houston Rockets	44
	24	Indiana Pacers	45
	25	Denver Nuggets	46
	26	Boston Celtics	48
	27	Los Angeles Clippers	49
	28	Los Angeles Lakers	52
	29	Toronto Raptors	53
	30	Milwaukee Bucks	56

The Warriors have almost twice as many wins as the Knicks the last 3 years and they get the 2nd pick and the Knicks, which have the worst record the last 3 years, are relegated to the 8th pick. The T-wolves have 35 more wins the last 3 years than the Knicks - 10 more per season and they get the 1st pick. Something has to change. 

This process is straight forward. Simple. Something the NBA Draft Lottery has not been as long as I can remember.