By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
First, like everyone else who writes about the NBA in any capacity, I wanted to offer my thoughts on the NBA’s latest proposal to tweak the lottery system, as reported in Zach Lowe’s latest Grantland article. The two main changes under the new proposal were as follows:
1) The odds would be flattened out, with the worst 4 teams all having an 11% chance of receiving the number one pick, with the remaining 10 squads’ odds ranging from 10% to 2%. Currently, the percentages range from 25% down to 0.5%.
2) The top six picks would be determined by the ping pong ball lottery process, as opposed to only the three picks under the current system.
All of this fervor over a need to change the lottery system seems completely unnecessary to me. First off, teams toward the bottom have been losing on purpose forever. Decades ago, they used to have a coin flip to determine who received the top pick between the worst two teams. After the Rockets won the 1984 coin flip, there were accusations that Houston and others were intentionally losing games. This led to a system change that lasted five years where all lottery teams received an equal chance of the number one pick and so on. Sound familiar? Just because we have a fancy buzzword for intentional losing, ‘tanking’, and the hordes on social media and the look-at-me talking heads are in an uproar about it, doesn’t mean it’s a problem. Teams have been tanking forever, and guess what, the league has got along just fine.
We also had something similar to this flattened lottery system in the early 90s, but then Orlando received back-to-back first overall picks, earning them Shaq and Penny, and a lot of people freaked out and forced the NBA to skew the odds to their current levels. The thing was, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that a young team was able to land two exciting young superstars in consecutive years. The Thunder got Durant and Westbrook back-to-back at 2 and 4, and obviously those weren’t consecutive first overall picks, but people generally seem to like that there’s a team with two talented young players like that building something together.
The point is, teams have been intentionally losing for as long as any sort of draft system has been in place, and they would continue to do so even under a system like the one within the latest proposal. It doesn’t mean the league is a joke, or drastic measures need to be taken; it’s just another interesting wrinkle in a complex and interesting league. So if you want to change the system Adam Silver, by all means go ahead and do it. Just know that in a few years time, people will only find something new to complain about and want change again.
Out in Vegas, the Summer Sixers were once again without Nerlens Noel for rest and precautionary reasons after he tweaked his ankle Monday against Cleveland (although he continued playing in that game). I understand why the Sixers are treating Noel like a bubble wrap kid, it’s only summer league after all, but it’s still frustrating for people that have waited over 13 months at this point to watch the man play. Don’t worry folks, there are 82 games coming up that won’t feature too many bright spots, but Noel will be one of them.
With KJ McDaniels and Jordan McRae also out due to left ankle sprains, things didn’t look especially hopeful for the squad taking on a Julius Randle-led Lakers squad. Instead, the Sixers rallied together and ran LA out of the Cox Pavilion, powered by a 24-4 run in the second quarter to take command of the contest. For the second straight time when he received significant minutes, Sean Kilpatrick led the team in scoring, dropping 19 points on 8-17 shooting. I want Kilpatrick to receive a training camp invite. He can hit the outside shot, create for himself, and score efficiently. He may not do much else, but those are valuable skills to have, especially on a Sixers team where I wouldn’t even need fingers to count the number of players who could do those things.
The other guy who stood out this game was Elijah Millsap, brother of Hawks forward Paul Millsap for those genealogy fans out there. Millsap tied Kilpatrick with a game-high 19 points, on only 7 shot attempts as he earned trips to the free throw line time and again. He also tied a Vegas Summer League record with 7 steals, with his all over the court game resembling his brother’s, minus the outside shot. He’s certainly thrown himself into the mix for that energy guy forward role with the likes of Jerami Grant and Ronald Roberts, Jr.
With the win, the Sixers advance to the round of 16 to face Chicago tonight at 10:00 pm. We’ll see if the team incurs the wrath of Dougie McBuckets for passing on him with the 10th overall pick.
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