Draft (Lotteries)

[Mr. X]

Tonights NBA Draft Lottery is causing a little bit of an uproar with a select few individuals, manly the Grizzlies GM:

Just in the past week, Portland Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard had been sitting with his scouting staff and coaches in the team's offices. They were throwing out names on top of the draft board, probing the impossibilities of a draft-night choice of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. They went back and forth until Pritchard left them with these wistful words, "Wouldn't it be great to have the debate?"

Now, Pritchard was standing on the sound stage of the NBA Entertainment Studios. He had just hugged Brandon Roy, the Blazers' representative at Tuesday night's draft lottery, and his cell phone was buzzing relentlessly in his pocket. He stopped for a second and smiled, his eyes downright dizzy.

"Stunned," he said breathing out.

For the first time since the NBA moved to the weighted draft lottery system in 1993, the worst three teams – Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee – dropped out of the top three spots. Portland won the lottery despite a 5.3-percent chance of winning it, and, whatever you want to believe, there will be no debate.

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"I can't believe that Greg Oden has a chance to be my teammate now," said Roy, the rookie of the year. "We have a chance to start putting together a championship contender."

Unless Pritchard wants to be derided as ruthlessly as his Portland G.M. ancestor Stu Inman, who picked Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan in 1984, Oden promises to go to the Blazers on draft night. Kevin Durant goes to the Seattle Sonics with the second pick, and well, the Memphis Grizzlies and Boston Celtics, who pick fourth and fifth respectively, go directly back into the dumper.

"I don't think the lottery's fair," Grizzlies G.M. Jerry West grumbled. "I don't like the draft lottery, never liked it. I just think it's a terrible system and it needs to be addressed."

All of that suspected tanking for nothing. Well, Pritchard, one of the bright young executive minds in the sport, had the worst team in the league a year ago and ended up with the fourth pick. But of course, if you're going to miss out on No. 1, you don't mind doing it in a draft where the top pick turns out to be Andrea Bargnani.

Prichard called it a "dangerous path" for him to dare say that he would take Oden over Durant, insisting that it was the interview process that ultimately sold the Blazers on the steal of the draft at No. 6 a year ago, Roy, who was acquired by Portland in a draft-day deal.

There are no issues with Oden and Durant, no knucklehead tendencies to push people off one prospect and onto another. Ten years ago, the Spurs drafted the dominant 7-footer, Tim Duncan, and are chasing a fourth title in a decade this year. The Blazers can debate Oden and Durant until the June 28 draft, but there is an inevitability to the ultimate choice. It'll be Oden, and it'll be championship contention sooner than later.

They've come so far, so fast, from the Jail Blazers that Pritchard inherited as assistant G.M., and then, general manager. "From where we were, no, I didn't think we could be at this point in such a short time," Pritchard said.

In his hand, Pritchard clutched a lady bug pendant his 10-year-old daughter Kendall gave him for the trip to Jersey. They haven't felt lucky in a long time in Portland, and now, with the Blazers' staggering array of young talent, they're the fresh-faced envy of the sport. As soon as Pritchard discovered backstage that they won the lottery, he called his owner, Paul Allen, in Europe, where he was a on a trip. Now, his cell phone was buzzing on the studio floor, and he was sure it had to be the Microsoft mogul on the line.

It felt like everything had been turned upside down. The Grizzlies and Celtics were stunned. Ten years later, the franchise center got away from the Celtics again. Danny Ainge sent his lucky charm, the old Celtic, Tom Heinsohn, to his Northern Jersey roots to sit on the podium, and when it was over, Heinsohn, a broadcaster now, had a beauty of a line, insisting that this wasn't all so bad because, "If Al Jefferson was coming out this year, he'd be right up there, so in essence, we already have our first pick."

Sounds like a season-ticket marketing campaign for the final days of the Danny Ainge-Doc Rivers regime. Same time, same place next year, Tommy. Only maybe Ainge can come represent his franchise at the 2008 draft lottery. West is retiring in Memphis, and that franchise's future could be doomed there. So much on the line in Secaucus on Tuesday night, so many fates impaired.

Soon, the general manager of the Trail Blazers would be on the line to his staff back in Portland, where they will again gather and make believe that they're going to have a debate over the drafting of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.

Just for laughs, they'll run through the possibilities with two of the biggest prospects to come out of college together in years. Yet know this: The Blazers are getting Oden, and the suddenly old face of the franchise, Brandon Roy, was right: Sooner than later, the Blazers could be chasing championships.

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Personally, I like the draft lottery over the NFL draft where the order of picks is mostly based on the worst team getting first dibs to the Super Bowl winners getting the very last pick. I see drafts as a tool to build teams and that teams seemingly being blindly rewarded for being bad as absurd. The draft lottery enables other teams to be in the position to get the top pick and build themselves up rather than sitting back and watching the top players go to teams that more than likely will not improve very much as it is.

Overall though, I generally hate drafts as I think the European Football way of signing guys without drafting them seems to be the way to really put the pressure on clubs to find a way to make a team, and more so make a team that will win games and continue to be supported by the fans.

What sort of draft do you prefer? Or do you not care for drafts and would rather see a free for all?

[livid]

I prefer the NFL draft because it's a way to balance out teams and allow for a great deal of parody in the league, because eventually those bad teams have to get good unless they're completely stupid and don't know how to draft. And that's the way it should be.

And I don't like the lottery that much, either, because it's just chance and the worst teams, the teams that need the most help, could end up with a lower pick than they should because they need more help, therefore they should get first dibbs.

And eh, the signing thing works in baseball for foreign players and it's a tad ridiculous as evident by the fact that the Red Sox had to pay $50 million just to talk to Dice-K and that wasn't a guaranteed signing so if they didn't get them they just spent $50 million to negotiate with someone.

[Mr. X]

And eh, the signing thing works in baseball for foreign players and it's a tad ridiculous as evident by the fact that the Red Sox had to pay $50 million just to talk to Dice-K and that wasn't a guaranteed signing so if they didn't get them they just spent $50 million to negotiate with someone.

I believe the way it works is the 50 million was only payable IF Dice K was signed, so the 50 million can be looked as compensation to Seibu Lions.

[Hajjhowe]

I prefer the Lottery. It helps prevent tanking a little, and gives a sense of unpredictability to the draft.

[Maxx]

I'm okay with the Lottery because its not like the Spurs and the Pistons are drawing #1.

I feel its a little blown out of proportion about how bad the Celtics were. The Sonics weren't a great team last year and neither were the Blazers. Now it can be argued that the Blazers were well on the path to being a good team before the lottery, but the Celtics competing for a playoff spot until they got hit with injuries, so its not like the team horrendous and will be winning no more than 20 games next year.

Thats even more true with the Grizzles who until the injuries of this season MADE THE PLAYOFFS 3 years.

So Jerry West quit bitching, you team isn't bad enough to merit a Durant or Oden anyways. Blazers fans deserve one after the Jailblazers era and Seattle needs one to save basketball in the city

[Lowerdeck]

The fact that the Grizzlies and the Celtics are unhappy with their draft positions and they tanked to get #1 and #2 ... that makes me laugh. Those two teams should play competitive the whole season, and the lottery prevents this sort of thing from happening.

[jonnycomelately]

I could care less about the gripes of Celtics, Grizzlies, or Bucks brass about their draft positions due to the flagrant tank jobs each displayed at the end of this season. The Bucks are probably the worst in my opinion because it seemed like they saw their chances of the playoffs fading, they just started shutting down players left and right. The Grizzlies never really shut people down and the C's only really pulled the plug on Pierce, which probably did them more good by seeing that Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, and Al Jefferson could emerge if necessary. Too bad the rest of the team is mangled garbage. The only crisis averted by the lottery this year was the whole Phoenix/Atlanta scenario. Had there been no lottery, Phoenix would've had pick #4 (more than likely Al Horford) no questions asked. But now with Atlanta at #3, they get another chance to get a top pick and try to make a run in the East before they have to give their pick (unprotected next year) to a Western Conference powerhouse. Too bad Atlanta will probably drop the ball again and draft another UNC hype machine in Brandan Wright and he will stink as much as Marvin Williams does. But in retrospect, that's why they're the Hawks.

[JStarr]

Actually, most talk has Phoenix liking one of the other two top Florida guys, but I digress.

I would have expected Danny Ainge to piss and moan long before I would have expected it from West, but either way, it's all sour grapes. The NBA draft lottery is the best drafting system out of the major sports. The worst team in the league knows it's guaranteed one of the top four picks. Be happy. If they're that insistent that they need the #1, then start putting trade offers together. Duh. People talk like the #4 pick is complete garbage. Seriously, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Lamar Odom, Antawn Jamison, Stephon Marbury, and Rasheed Wallace were all #4 picks. All it means is that a team has to do a bit more homework, boofuckinghoo. If the NBA went to a straight worst-gets-first system, I guarantee that within five years, 9-73 would not be the worst record in league history anymore. There's absolutely no reason to unconditionally reward bad basketball.

I do love the fact that Roy Hibbert took one look at the way the lottery fell and decided, "Maybe one more year of college would do me some good." Otherwise, he'd have been the one ending up in Memphis.

As far as the European football method of find-'em'-sign-'em, it'd never work here with salary caps and what-not. Baseball gets away with it, but only three or four teams can actually get into those bidding wars. The rest have to actually know something about the game and find players that will fit their teams. Too much work.

[Trey]

Personally, I like the lottery for the reason most of the others do, it doesn't just allow teams to tank for players.

[Toe]

What's wrong with drafting Andrea Bargnani?

[blaze1992]

Barangie wasnt that bad at all ROTY runner up and hes a good player nto a great but a good player and fits the raptor mold , I wish the Celtics got Kev Durant he would of been a perfect pick

[gunnar hendershow]

My friend suggested to me earlier that this year's draft was rig to screw over the teams that actually did tank. While I think it's a bit far-fetched, I'd personally have no problem with it if Stern did do it. Of course I'm being sarcastic, but I'm sure you all get my point.

[Farmer Reil]

The only problem I have with the draft system (as in, NFL draft. Whatever you call that), is ithat it's bascially rewarding teams for being fucking shite.

To relate it to football, it's like giving Watford the best English striker, in an attempt to keep them competitive. For a start, it wouldn't keep them competitive, one player doesn't make a team. And secondly, rewarding teams for being shite is never a good idea.

Just let the rookies sign for whichever team they want. Sure, the Raiders would never get any decent players that way, but at least it would be fair.

It goes hand in hand with the relegation arguement. If American teams had the threat of relegation looming over them, they wouldn't want to finish last in order to get the best players. There'd be something for Oakland and Detroit to play for

[Farmer Reil]

The only problem I have with the draft system (as in, NFL draft. Whatever you call that), is ithat it's bascially rewarding teams for being fucking shite.

To relate it to football, it's like giving Watford the best English striker, in an attempt to keep them competitive. For a start, it wouldn't keep them competitive, one player doesn't make a team. And secondly, rewarding teams for being shite is never a good idea.

Just let the rookies sign for whichever team they want. Sure, the Raiders would never get any decent players that way, but at least it would be fair.

It goes hand in hand with the relegation arguement. If American teams had the threat of relegation looming over them, they wouldn't want to finish last in order to get the best players. There'd be something for Oakland and Detroit to play for

[Toe]

As long as the team I cheer for doesn't tank on purpose, I'm fine.

[Cactus Drags]

To relate it to football, it's like giving Watford the best English striker, in an attempt to keep them competitive. For a start, it wouldn't keep them competitive, one player doesn't make a team. And secondly, rewarding teams for being shite is never a good idea.

Just let the rookies sign for whichever team they want. Sure, the Raiders would never get any decent players that way, but at least it would be fair.

Edited May 29, 2007 by Dragsy 7-0

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

The lottery system isn't about complete luck...in the NBA, for example, playoff teams are not included in the lottery, and non-playoff teams have better odds of landing a top pick based on how bad they were.

[oldskool]

Ryan Leaf was a #2 pick.

The draft lottery...meh. I mean, the draft is supposed to help your team get better with young talent...so not giving the worst team the best pick seems sort of irrational, but if it wasn't for tanking there wouldn't be a draft lottery in the first place. It worked out well since the Blazers & Sonics both could really use a franchise player to help their team. What if, say, the Bulls (via the Knicks) took the #1 pick?

[Toe]

If your team has a good scouting staff and a good scouting system in place, then it does not matter where you pick in the draft.

Look at the Detroit Red Wings. They have traded away their first round pick for years, and even when they had the pick it was near the bottom of the list - #25 to #30. Yet, because they have a talented team of scouts who look for players in different places and stuff, they have picked players like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg later and had success. Anaheim gets value by finding people who were not drafted and are in college, and get skilled players that way.

[Hellfire]

I like the NFL draft formula. If a team is shit, a team is shit. They need help, and a good player will help them.