these concepts have been discussed to curb tanking:
First-round draft picks can be protected only for top-four or top-14-plus selections
Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date
No longer allowing a team to pick in the top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes
Teams can’t pick in the top four the year after making the conference finals
Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records
Lottery extended to include all play-in teams
Flatten odds for all lottery teams
I think flattening the odds would be the most effective at curbing tanking, but also might be hardest on bad teams.
I don’t expect it to be flat, but if they’ll make the slope flatter, I think that’s reasonable. Taking this along with making lottery odds based on 2 years record will make it fair, giving poor teams a chance to still have a better chance vs like a Dallas. I also like limiting teams top picks in consecutive years. Spurs were tanking for years and now they got a juggernaut, another dynasty out of nowhere.
How about fixing the open corruption? It’s year after year of teams giving things away to the Lakers.
2012 Pelicans were for sale, rewarded with the 1st overall pick which allowed the team to find a buyer. 2019 the Pelicans give away Anthony Davis to the Lakers, get immediately rewarded with a 1st overall pick. 2024/25 the Mavericks give away Luka Donicic to the Lakers, immediately get rewarded with a 1st overall pick.
And it keeps going back. The worst trade in NBA history, the one that makes it illegal to trade draft picks in consecutive years. That’s how the Lakers got Magic Johnson and became the best team of that era. The Grizzlies also gave them Pau Gasol for nothing but the draft rights to a 2nd rounder! That one isn’t bad in hindsight, but at the time it was yet another star player being given to the Lakers for basically nothing.
A lot of the Lakers luck has nothing to do with league tampering and everything to do with the fact that players’ licensing income does not count against the salary cap. Do you think a guy would rather make $1,000 shooting an ad for Big Bill’s Discount BBQ or get $5,000 to make an appearance on opening night in Dr. Dre’s new club? Do you think a player prefers to spend his day off shoveling snow from his driveway or go swimming on Venice Beach in the morning and then film a fight scene in the next Fast and Furious? Do you think his wife would rather shop at the mall or Rodeo Drive?
The Lakers don’t get players gifted to them, they sign big name free agents at a discount and trade for expiring contracts knowing that the player will take an extension. They get traded so many players because they are on every players’ preferred list of destinations because every agent makes sure it is there because the agent wants a cut of any Hollywood cameos and rap album features their player gets.
The Pau Gasol trade is a perfect example of this. He did not get traded for nothing. He got traded for his brother, Marc. Pau wanted to get out of Memphis, so the teams made a deal with him: if he could nag his baby brother into moving from the Euroleague to the NBA, Pau would get to win a ring with Kobe.
The Lakers don’t get players gifted to them
I named 4 people. Luka Doncic, Pau Gasol, Magic Johnson, Anthony Davis. They were also gifted Chris Paul at one point, and the commissioner voided the trade because it was so lopsided. No team in sports history has EVER been gifted the type of stuff the Lakers have been gifted.
You name a number of reasons why players like to sign there as FAs. That’s clearly a thing also. That’s how they got Shaq. To some extent, it’s also how they ended up with Kobe (told New Jersey not to draft him). And many many more. I’m specifically talking about TRADES where the Lakers were gifted stars.
The Pau Gasol trade is a perfect example of this. He did not get traded for nothing. He got traded for his brother, Marc.
Can you find ONE source from the time that trade happened, calling it anything other than one of the most lopsided trades in history? There was universal condemnation of that trade at the time. Marc was a 2nd round pick who had never played an NBA game. Unproven 2nd rounder for a win-now All-Star? They immediately won 3 championships because of that trade! And you’re trying to pretend like it was fair value because Marc turned out to be good. You’re using hindsight to create revisionist history.
Many consider the Lakers the major benefactor of the trade.[6][7] As a result, some criticized the trade as being unbalanced in excessively benefiting the Lakers. Gregg Popovich called Memphis’ agreement to the terms of the trade “beyond comprehension” and suggested that the league should form a committee to “scratch all trades that make no sense”.[8] The trade became an immediate success for the Lakers, who went 22–5 with Gasol in the lineup and went on to reach the NBA Finals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–08_Los_Angeles_Lakers_season
I like the idea of allowing more teams to be draft eligible, since it gives hope to teams stuck in purgatory, not good enough to seriously contend for a title but too good to draft guaranteed talent in the draft.
I don’t like the idea of limiting the lottery eligibility of a team that finishes at the bottom for consecutive seasons (if they are not already ineligible for getting a high pick). It seems like unnecessary cruelty for a team to finish in the basement (because their best players all got old or left in free agency or something), then they lose the lottery despite good odds, and get told that next year they won’t get a good pick either. At that point, the team would have to spend 2 years with a roster of bench warmers.
Hopefully, if there are more strict anti-tank rules, they can get rid of the rules against resting star players. The restrictions are arbitrary and enforcement is random and unpredictable.
