Let's spurce things up a bit...

[Dejay]

I recently scanned over some older documents and came across Bill Simmons's idea of having a tournament to determine the final seed of the playoffs. Letting my imagination run a little wild, well, I thought that it would be a great idea to spruce things up than watching a bunch of teams tank and but it in the deep freeze for the last month or so of the season. Of course, my imagination wouldn't let me stop there...

Not only would I have the tournament but I would also give out extra ping-pong balls to the two winners on top of that. You think MJ wouldn't be the least bit concerned about losing early? He'd ride his team like a bronco to get those extra ping-pong balls. I'd also propose having the top two seeds from each conference having the rights to choose any one of the three bottom seeds (#6, #7, tourney winner), with the top seed going first, the second seed going next, and the third seed getting who's left. Why should the Heat, NYK, OKC, and Spurs put out to earn the best records, only to face a red-hot tourney winner who won three elimination games in a row when a slumping Atlanta or Golden State team is just sitting there, waiting for a soft spot on the canvas to lay down? And what #6 or #7 seed wouldn't be fired up from having been called out by the #1 or #2 seed on national TV as being an 'easier' matchup than someone who might've lost 50+ games in the regular season? It would say a whole lot about your team if your squad was 'called out' by the Lebrons or OKC as being a better matchup, only to get swept. The pressure for that #6 and/or #7 team to actually perform and show that your squad has a valentine in their chests would make for quite the opening round instead of the blah we get from a 4-1 back-cracking that we normally would see.

And one more thing; why should the NBA allow the NCAA to have all the fun? Let's put the opening two rounds in four regional locales like they would do. There are towns all over this country that aren't quite up to NBA snuff that has viable arenas that could make this work. The last thing you'd want to do is put this in, say, Orlando, where fans are still seething over the Dwight-mare situation and would boycott the event. A town that has newer arenas (Louisville, Kansas City; a sort of 'show us why you REALLY deserve a team' tester) or towns that never see the NBA other than those exhibitions where stars half-ass it (Vegas, Chapel Hill, St. Louis, Richmond, Knoxville, Dayton, Fresno) would make this an annual spectacle that would eventually get smaller cities bidding against one another to be a part of it. This, in turn, would spur interest in areas of the country that wouldn’t care to watch the NBA until playoff time, if then. Imagine a kid from Norfolk, VA watching John Wall live for the first time, following the Wizards as they win the EAH tourney, and giving a team like the Knicks all they could handle in a series? That kid becomes an instant Wizards fan for life instead of another mindless drone who buys the jersey of (insert superstar here).

I know, I'm putting way to much time into thinking about something that will never, EVER happen. But in what way would you liven things up in the league? Just passing the time...

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I like your idea. But I've been an advocate for a few years now, of having an NCAA style tournament to decide who will pick first in the NBA draft. A Draft Lottery tournament. The winner gets the 1st pick in the draft, while everybody else just falls back into place, slotted by worst record. You'd have a qualifying round between the 14 eligible teams, to see who would play in the single elimination tournament, held in a neutral city ( like what you proposed ). Las Vegas would probably be my choice, but I agree that they could also have the tournament in NBA prospective cities like KC, Louisville, Seattle, or even Virginia Beach, to see how fans would react to the NBA coming to their city for a weekend. 1st Round * Matchups determined by record. Example . . worst two teams would play vs each other ( #7 seed ) . . then the next two would play vs each other ( #6 seed ) . . and so on. The tournament needs to be weighted, as to give the low seeds a chance to advance far in the tournament, while the top seeds would have to face each other all the way up until the Finals. Matchups ( as of today ) . . . coin flip determines home team #7 seed - Orlando @ Charlotte#6 seed - Cleveland @ Phoenix#5 seed - Detroit @ Sacramento#4 seed - New Orleans @ Washington#3 seed - Minnesota @ Toronto#2 seed - Philadelphia @ Portland#1 seed - LA Lakers @ Dallas Winners of these games get to go play in the Draft Lottery Tournament. #7 seed gets a 1st round bye. Play 1st Round #1 vs #2 #3 vs #4 #5 vs #6#7 Bye Semifinals Winner of ( #1 vs #2 ) plays winner of ( #3 vs #4 )Winner of ( #5 vs #6 ) plays #7 Finals Winner of ( #1 thru #4 ) plays Winner of ( #5 thru #7 )So if a Draft Tournament final featured the LA Lakers vs Sacramento, that's OK. Winner of tournament gets #1 pick. Everybody else gets slotted by record. The winner of the draft tournament is NOT ELIGIBLE to play in next year's tournament, if they don't make the playoffs. At that point, the team with the worst record would automatically be Personally, I'd rather see a lot of these top stars go to a bad, but not horrible team . . than to go to a bottom feeder. I'd much rather see the kid from Kentucky ( Nerlens Noel ) go to a team like Toronto, and make an immediate impact for them to make the playoffs, than to go to Charlotte, and still be on a bad team.

Edited April 9, 2013 by northcyde

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I personally despise the Draft Lottery, in which the ping pong balls aren't selected live on the air. They could easily do this if they wanted to, but act like they need some secret accounting firm to do all of this. All it does is create speculation among fans about how the league rigs the results.

Just let these guys play for it out on the court.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Winner of tournament gets #1 pick. Everybody else gets slotted by record. The winner of the draft tournament is NOT ELIGIBLE to play in next year's tournament, if they don't make the playoffs. At that point, the team with the worst record would automatically be put in the Draft Tournament, while the other 12 would have to play their way in.

[Dejay]

I can go with that. By why not have the two conference winners of the tournament I mentioned get two of the lottery picks while the third one be up to the ping-pong balls? And I also love your idea of not allowing a team to rack up high picks by sand-bagging the regular season, only to show up for the elimination rounds every year. And I really believe that having year-end events would really hype things up in the league. Isn't this worth shaving off the last four games of the season? In most cases, those games are being sparsely attended anyway, except in cases where the home teams are in serious contention, has a star player, or they are giving out tons of tickets. Give the fans of those teams something to look forward to, while growing a loyal following in places that never get to see NBA players go at it live with a real sense of urgency. What could be better?

Edited April 9, 2013 by Dejay

[Admin]

I like your idea. But I've been an advocate for a few years now, of having an NCAA style tournament to decide who will pick first in the NBA draft. A Draft Lottery tournament.

The winner gets the 1st pick in the draft, while everybody else just falls back into place, slotted by worst record. You'd have a qualifying round between the 14 eligible teams, to see who would play in the single elimination tournament, held in a neutral city ( like what you proposed ). Las Vegas would probably be my choice, but I agree that they could also have the tournament in NBA prospective cities like KC, Louisville, Seattle, or even Virginia Beach, to see how fans would react to the NBA coming to their city for a weekend.

1st Round

* Matchups determined by record. Example . . worst two teams would play vs each other ( #7 seed ) . . then the next two would play vs each other ( #6 seed ) . . and so on. The tournament needs to be weighted, as to give the low seeds a chance to advance far in the tournament, while the top seeds would have to face each other all the way up until the Finals.

Matchups ( as of today ) . . . coin flip determines home team

#7 seed - Orlando @ Charlotte

#6 seed - Cleveland @ Phoenix

#5 seed - Detroit @ Sacramento

#4 seed - New Orleans @ Washington

#3 seed - Minnesota @ Toronto

#2 seed - Philadelphia @ Portland

#1 seed - LA Lakers @ Dallas

Winners of these games get to go play in the Draft Lottery Tournament. #7 seed gets a 1st round bye. Play

1st Round

#1 vs #2

#3 vs #4

#5 vs #6

#7 Bye

Semifinals

Winner of ( #1 vs #2 ) plays winner of ( #3 vs #4 )

Winner of ( #5 vs #6 ) plays #7

Finals

Winner of ( #1 thru #4 ) plays Winner of ( #5 thru #7 )

So if a Draft Tournament final featured the LA Lakers vs Sacramento, that's OK.

Winner of tournament gets #1 pick. Everybody else gets slotted by record. The winner of the draft tournament is NOT ELIGIBLE to play in next year's tournament, if they don't make the playoffs. At that point, the team with the worst record would automatically be

Personally, I'd rather see a lot of these top stars go to a bad, but not horrible team . . than to go to a bottom feeder. I'd much rather see the kid from Kentucky ( Nerlens Noel ) go to a team like Toronto, and make an immediate impact for them to make the playoffs, than to go to Charlotte, and still be on a bad team.

So then it's very likely that a borderline playoff team from the west wins this tournament of non-playoff teams and then gets to get even better by having the #1 pick? No offense but that sounds like an awful idea to me in that you could have a team full of star players like the Lakers barely miss the playoffs but able to blow through this non-playoff tournament and end up getting the best player in the draft to get even better.

Having said that I don't really have a solution other than to do what the NFL does. I hate the draft lottery that's very likely rigged and ends up screwing the teams who are truly the least talented year after year. The best solution is to get rid of David Stern and have someone come in who will give teams and players equal treatment and who won't fix outcomes of games / seasons / playoffs / lottery / etc. to his will.

I recently scanned over some older documents and came across Bill Simmons's idea of having a tournament to determine the final seed of the playoffs. Letting my imagination run a little wild, well, I thought that it would be a great idea to spruce things up than watching a bunch of teams tank and but it in the deep freeze for the last month or so of the season. Of course, my imagination wouldn't let me stop there...

Not only would I have the tournament but I would also give out extra ping-pong balls to the two winners on top of that. You think MJ wouldn't be the least bit concerned about losing early? He'd ride his team like a bronco to get those extra ping-pong balls. I'd also propose having the top two seeds from each conference having the rights to choose any one of the three bottom seeds (#6, #7, tourney winner), with the top seed going first, the second seed going next, and the third seed getting who's left. Why should the Heat, NYK, OKC, and Spurs put out to earn the best records, only to face a red-hot tourney winner who won three elimination games in a row when a slumping Atlanta or Golden State team is just sitting there, waiting for a soft spot on the canvas to lay down? And what #6 or #7 seed wouldn't be fired up from having been called out by the #1 or #2 seed on national TV as being an 'easier' matchup than someone who might've lost 50+ games in the regular season? It would say a whole lot about your team if your squad was 'called out' by the Lebrons or OKC as being a better matchup, only to get swept. The pressure for that #6 and/or #7 team to actually perform and show that your squad has a valentine in their chests would make for quite the opening round instead of the blah we get from a 4-1 back-cracking that we normally would see.

And one more thing; why should the NBA allow the NCAA to have all the fun? Let's put the opening two rounds in four regional locales like they would do. There are towns all over this country that aren't quite up to NBA snuff that has viable arenas that could make this work. The last thing you'd want to do is put this in, say, Orlando, where fans are still seething over the Dwight-mare situation and would boycott the event. A town that has newer arenas (Louisville, Kansas City; a sort of 'show us why you REALLY deserve a team' tester) or towns that never see the NBA other than those exhibitions where stars half-ass it (Vegas, Chapel Hill, St. Louis, Richmond, Knoxville, Dayton, Fresno) would make this an annual spectacle that would eventually get smaller cities bidding against one another to be a part of it. This, in turn, would spur interest in areas of the country that wouldn’t care to watch the NBA until playoff time, if then. Imagine a kid from Norfolk, VA watching John Wall live for the first time, following the Wizards as they win the EAH tourney, and giving a team like the Knicks all they could handle in a series? That kid becomes an instant Wizards fan for life instead of another mindless drone who buys the jersey of (insert superstar here).

I know, I'm putting way to much time into thinking about something that will never, EVER happen. But in what way would you liven things up in the league? Just passing the time...

Dejay I think that your idea is really cool and I could definitely get behind something like that! Would absolutely make things a lot more interesting that's for sure.

[Dejay]

Thanks, Dolf. I just think that in today's age of people having tons of options at their fingertips, you have to do different things in order to keep your product fresh. The same things that won the day back in the '50s and '70s is not necessarily the same methods that should be in use today when someone has over 500 channels and multiple sporting options in their town to choose from that simply wasn't available back then. This is a great way to officially usher in the NBA playoffs the right way, instead of just a few cheesy commericials; it gives a REAL sense of 'win or go home'.

And while I really don't want to guarantee the top picks to the two winners of the elimination tourney, I think giving out some extra ping-pong balls as a carrot will justify teams wanting to put out. I'm willing to bet that a lot of them will step up their play, especially knowing that they have a better shot at getting a top-3 pick by winning it. I think the pressure would really be dialed up on for teams (especially the coaches and GMs) who gave up the ghost since mid-January and finished 23-55 to 'defend' those ping-pong balls that they tanked the season for. And nope, a team that wins the elimination tournament the year before will be ineligilble to receive additional ping-pong balls the following year if they win it again; they will simply be playoff-eligible.

And as an additional addendum, the $$$ collected from this tournament (from gate receipts and TV) will go into a kiddie to be shared by the two winners and the 14 playoff qualifiers; this prevents owners from having any incentive to cheap out on their product, only to cash in from a tournament that they don't have to spend a single penny marketing on their own.

Finally, I love the idea of a top-2 seed having the option to choose any one of the three bottom teams (#7, #8, tourney winner) to play a series against. As a Hawks fan, wouldn't it be nice to see them play with 'energy', 'intensity', and 'defensive mentality' that LD keeps stressing in his pressers for a change. If being called out by Lebron, DWade, or Melo on national TV as the ones they'll choose to face instead of a 50-loss Wizards team doesn't drive them to prove the world that they have courage and heart, nothing will. Any idea of Ferry keeping the band together would be quickly erased if one of them told ESPN during halftime of the second game that they'll face the 'road easiest traveled' in the Hawks, only for the Knicks to sweep them Orlando-style. You can't keep Osh after a performance like that, let alone LD. And if they're not safe, woe to anyone else who doesn't have a contract with a trade kicker in it.

[AHF]

I personally despise the Draft Lottery, in which the ping pong balls aren't selected live on the air. They could easily do this if they wanted to, but act like they need some secret accounting firm to do all of this. All it does is create speculation among fans about how the league rigs the results.

Just let these guys play for it out on the court.

The reason they do that is that they select the #1 pick first, the #2 pick second and the #3 pick third and for TV purposes they want the excitement building up to the #1 lottery pick.

If they showed the #3 pick on tape delay they still might have to edit it for TV purposes because if say Toronto won the lottery then it might be that a Toronto combination was picked the first two times and only on the third attempt does an eligible team get its combination drawn.

I would be content with showing the ping pong balls in an edited format as long as the auditors are there because it makes for better TV (and if the NBA wanted to rig it then they would just rig it even if it was being done live).

[AHF]

There is no excuse for not making the entire filmed lottery drawing available for the public after the TV announcement of the picks.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

So then it's very likely that a borderline playoff team from the west wins this tournament of non-playoff teams and then gets to get even better by having the #1 pick? No offense but that sounds like an awful idea to me in that you could have a team full of star players like the Lakers barely miss the playoffs but able to blow through this non-playoff tournament and end up getting the best player in the draft to get even better.

Having said that I don't really have a solution other than to do what the NFL does. I hate the draft lottery that's very likely rigged and ends up screwing the teams who are truly the least talented year after year. The best solution is to get rid of David Stern and have someone come in who will give teams and players equal treatment and who won't fix outcomes of games / seasons / playoffs / lottery / etc. to his will.

You mean the same "star laden" Laker team who are currently in a dogfight with New Orleans . . in a virtual must-win game for them . . but are only up 3 points with 4 minutes to go? And they're playing in LA at that?

Edited April 10, 2013 by northcyde

[Admin]

You mean the same "star laden" Laker team who are currently in a dogfight with New Orleans . . in a virtual must-win game for them . . but are only up 3 points with 4 minutes to go? And they're playing in LA at that?

The Lakers are just an example but yeah they have more financial resources than 95% of teams and they still have 2 of the top 10 players in the game. Just because the team doesn't work as put together doesn't mean they can't use those great players as trade resources. Then give them the top pick in the draft, nah that doesn't seem fair at all.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

And that's why I laid out the process like I did. For a team like the Lakers, who would probably be the #1 overall seed in the Draft Tournament, they would probably have to go through these teams:

- Dallas in the qualifying round ( possibly @ Dallas )

- Portland in the 1st round of the tourney

- Washington in the Semis ( who have won 18 of their last 32 games, and beat the Lakers in LA recently )

- and Cleveland with Kyrie Irving in the Finals.

If the Lakers beat those 4 teams and got the #1 pick, so be it.

At least we know that the pick is going to a team that will make them better, instead of going to a bottom feeder for the next 3 years, playing in obscurity . . . unless he's truly a great player. And the rest of those teams are still going to be slotted in their respective positions, according to record.

The real issues with the scenario I present, is how many teams fighting for the #8 seed, would rather tank the season and get into that tournament, than to play in the playoffs and be the probable sacrificial lamb to the #1 seed. That's the real issue.

[Dejay]

And that's why I wouldn't necessarily put the top two picks on the line; they'll play for a playoff spot and additional ping-pong balls in the lottery. If a team can get through that tournament by winning three elimination games in a row, they deserve to get those ping-pong balls and the playoff spot that comes along with it. If any of those 20-58 teams don't want a 40-38 one to have the same shot at getting a top pick as they have while increasing their own odds, they'll have a shot to do something about it. But none of these bottom-feeders wouldn't get any share of the gate receipts or TV ad $$$ from the tourney unless they win it; I wouldn't guarantee them anything beyond playing one of the top-3 seeds in the playoffs.

And considering how much of a $$$ grab this could be for the league, to be honest, I'm surprised that they haven't enacted something to the effect years ago.