The NBA Draft
ESPN's Steven A. Smith isn't happy with the result of this week's NBA Draft Lottery. It's bad for the game, he says. We'll see. While I do not feel the draft will change my opinion of the league in the slightest, I do take issue with Steven A.'s reasoning.
Instead of having their teams draft in the reverse order of the final records like the NFL does, the NBA has a lottery among the fourteen teams that do not make it to the NBA playoffs to select the first three picks in the draft. The team that finishes with the worst record has a 25% chance of getting, the second worst 19.9%, and it falls off from there until the 14th team has only a 0.5% chance. This year, the lucky combination came up for the Portland Trailblazers for the number one pick. With a regular season record of 32-50, Portland tied with Minnesota for the sixth worst record and thus their chances of winning were only 5.3%. The second pick went to the Seattle Supersonics, whose 31-51 record was fifth worst and gave them an 8.8% chance at the top spot (9.3% at second given that Portland alreaday has the first pick).
So Steven A., what's wrong here? This year, while it may not be exactly certain who will be the first pick, basically everyone predictis that the first two players taken will two powerful big men leaving college after only their freshman seasons. Texas's Kevin Durant and the Ohio State's Greg Oden appear to be on track to be superstars in the NBA, which needs some superstars these days. And now these guys are going to play in Portland and Seattle? I mean, the league is going to get these two new superstars and then hide them in 23rd and 13th largest metropolitan areas in the nation according to the 2000 census. And they'd play out on the west coast? Who'd see them play?
Okay, so what is the appropriate talent level for playing in Portland? If they can't have the best, are they allowed to have an All Star reserve? The league's best sixth man? The only logical conclusion from saying that they should not get the first or second pick is that these cities should just not have teams in the first place.
Doesn't this draft set up something great for the league? The two teams being so close and division rivals helps build the Oden-Durant rivalry into something we do want to watch. Would it be better if one were in Seattle and the other were in Memphis? Or one in Portland and one in Charlotte? What story would that make for the NBA?
Instead of having their teams draft in the reverse order of the final records like the NFL does, the NBA has a lottery among the fourteen teams that do not make it to the NBA playoffs to select the first three picks in the draft. The team that finishes with the worst record has a 25% chance of getting, the second worst 19.9%, and it falls off from there until the 14th team has only a 0.5% chance. This year, the lucky combination came up for the Portland Trailblazers for the number one pick. With a regular season record of 32-50, Portland tied with Minnesota for the sixth worst record and thus their chances of winning were only 5.3%. The second pick went to the Seattle Supersonics, whose 31-51 record was fifth worst and gave them an 8.8% chance at the top spot (9.3% at second given that Portland alreaday has the first pick).
So Steven A., what's wrong here? This year, while it may not be exactly certain who will be the first pick, basically everyone predictis that the first two players taken will two powerful big men leaving college after only their freshman seasons. Texas's Kevin Durant and the Ohio State's Greg Oden appear to be on track to be superstars in the NBA, which needs some superstars these days. And now these guys are going to play in Portland and Seattle? I mean, the league is going to get these two new superstars and then hide them in 23rd and 13th largest metropolitan areas in the nation according to the 2000 census. And they'd play out on the west coast? Who'd see them play?
Okay, so what is the appropriate talent level for playing in Portland? If they can't have the best, are they allowed to have an All Star reserve? The league's best sixth man? The only logical conclusion from saying that they should not get the first or second pick is that these cities should just not have teams in the first place.
Doesn't this draft set up something great for the league? The two teams being so close and division rivals helps build the Oden-Durant rivalry into something we do want to watch. Would it be better if one were in Seattle and the other were in Memphis? Or one in Portland and one in Charlotte? What story would that make for the NBA?
1 Comments:
This reminds me how it was bad for baseball that Alex Rodriguez was playing for the Rangers. I guess that turned out ok.
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