As NBA commissioner Adam Silver continues his efforts to reduce tanking, the league’s draft lottery has been the topic of much discussion. Many solutions have been proposed, but should the NBA really change the system they currently have? Sports co-editor Ethan Diamond and contributor Ian Manley debate whether the league should get rid of the lottery or not.
Yes
By Ethan Diamond
There’s been a lot of debate recently over whether the NBA should keep the draft lottery or abolish it in favor of a different system. While these talks are primarily designed to prevent tanking, abolishing the lottery would have benefits beyond that.
I don’t think the NBA should adopt an NFL-style model in which the worst team gets the top pick; it will just encourage more tanking. Nor do I think they should do a tournament, as better teams would likely win and get a higher pick over truly rebuilding teams.
Instead, a system used by the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) might be just the solution for the NBA. Basically, when a team is eliminated, they start collecting draft points for each win. This would incentivize bad teams to make every game competitive while also giving them the earliest right to earn these points.
A system like this would also eliminate the element of leaving everything to chance, as teams like the Wizards have lost out on the opportunity to get franchise-changing superstars such as Victor Wembanyama and Cooper Flagg because of the luck of the draw.
No
By Ian Manley
Scrutiny for the lottery is understandable – it seems a little unfair to leave such an important part of the offseason up to chance – but it’s better than the other options, if people can even agree on what the replacement should be. The lottery ensures bad teams get high picks while also virtually guaranteeing the same team can’t pick number one multiple years in a row. Any other system simply doesn’t do this as efficiently.
For people saying the lottery needs to be abolished to discourage tanking, I have news for you. As long as the draft still exists, there will always be some incentive to tank if a team knows they can’t contend in a given season. If you want to get rid of basing draft order on wins and losses to counteract that, you risk creating a system where underperforming teams that aren’t tanking suddenly pick the middle of the pack, even though they did nothing wrong.
Some may say the lottery is unjust, but it’s the only way this can work.
