Everything just keeps coming up Hinkie these days ….
Today, the NBA Board of Governors voted to NOT implement lottery reform during the current 2014-15 NBA season.
The NBA draft lottery reform has been voted down at Board of Governors meeting, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. System stays.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) October 22, 2014
The reform measure (details of which can be found here) would basically have lessened the chances of bad teams (particularly the three worst team) receiving the top pick in the NBA draft, and increased the chances of better teams receiving said pick. The general spin on the movement was that the Sixers had taken such a drastic approach to tanking that it pissed off all the other team owners, so they set out to punish the Sixers mid-stream by lessening their ability to tank.
The lottery system is broken, this much is clear. There has been much discussion in recent months about entirely new systems for the lottery that remove the incentive for teams to lose (the "Wheel" proposal is one I am quite fond of). The best way to fix the lottery is to do away with it entirely, and hopefully that is something Adam Silver can shepherd forward in his tenure as commissioner.
But all this talk about neutering the current system … I never bought into it, for two specific reasons. First, this nonsense about the Sixers pissing off other owners or disgracing the NBA is absurd. The only possible way Tankadelphia enraged other owners is if they realized after the fact how poorly a job they did at tanking. Why else would they be mad? The Sixers cannot collect revenue sharing due to their market size, so it's not like we take money from other teams. Hell, the Sixers were profitable last year! You could make an argument that we are one of the best-managed teams in the NBA relative to our goal. We're like the WaSpurs, doing everything just as good in the opposite direction. These other GMs might be envious, but if you are envious you plot out how to accomplish what the other teams did, not how to blow up the only path to that goal. And as for owners being annoyed about the Sixers disgracing the NBA … please. They care about money. Adam Silver cares about image, but he doesn't get a vote.
But this is the real reason I knew this was all noise. The Board of Governors is a political entity, and just like in DC politics, or politics anywhere, its always easier to posture in front of a camera than it is to legislate in reality. And as anyone who has ever played in a fantasy sports league knows, the cardinal sin of any league is changing the rules mid-season. The owners knew this, and that’s why reform didn't happen. It's really just that simple.
As for the Sixers …. we continue our march towards infamy, Emmanual Mudiay, respectability, and championships. And the Harris/Hinkie management group get another notch on their collective belt, proving to not only be incredibly savvy with statistical analysis, risk taking, and talent evaluation, but also with board room politics. Onward and upward!
