Mustachio
04-12-2007, 08:30 PM
I was gonna write a blog about this, but i wanted to see if it was just a down right ridiculous idea. But hear me out, and respond slash give me ideas.
Tanking has become a terrible part of the game. The NBA tried to fix it by bringing in a lottery for the draft, and that hasnt worked because its just as rampant today as it was before the lottery. After reading a Bill Simmons article about a fix to the problem, it got me thinking. His first suggestion (an awful one) was to contract 3 teams. Memphis, Atlanta, and you guessed it, our beloved Charlotte Bobcats. This lead to some other actually good ideas, but the thought of losing my favorite team to contraction got me thinking of alternatives. The best one i could come up with was Relegation.
Some of our European fans can side with me here, as they see it often in some soccer leagues. Heres how it could work and help in the NBA. (and some of this is playing off of what Bill Simmons wrote and i really liked it.) you start with 30 teams. The top 12 teams of the regular season automatically get seeded in order and make the playoffs. The next 15 teams in order play in a 2 week tournament and four teams emerge to take the remaining 7th and 8th seeds in the playoffs. and that rounds out your 16 team playoffs same as the one we have currently. That was Simmon's idea. (you can check all this out on his blog on ESPN.COM) Now with the remaining 3 teams the 3rd from last goes into no mans land and is excluded from the tourney but safe from relegation. The draft would then be a random, evenly distributed lottery between the 12 teams. Now it gets interesting.
The last two teams in the standings are sent down to the D-League. They play the next season against D-League opponents for a full season. At the end of the season, the team that wins the D-League Championship automatically gets promoted to the NBA, wether it be Atlanta Hawks or the Fort Worth Flyers. and the regular season champion also gets promoted. If the D-League playoff winner and reg season champ are the same team, the next best reg. season record team gets promoted. This would not only sprout intrest in all kinds of smaller markets but eliminate tanking. No owner would want to be relegated, no coach, player, fan, homeless person or dog would want to be relegated. So that completely takes away tanking. It would make the end of the season even that more interesting as well. Ratings till the bitter end.
Thats all i wanna go into right now, the rabbit hole goes much deeper however. For now think of ways this wouldnt work and I (and whoever else thinks its a good idea) can argue how it could help/work.
Tanking has become a terrible part of the game. The NBA tried to fix it by bringing in a lottery for the draft, and that hasnt worked because its just as rampant today as it was before the lottery. After reading a Bill Simmons article about a fix to the problem, it got me thinking. His first suggestion (an awful one) was to contract 3 teams. Memphis, Atlanta, and you guessed it, our beloved Charlotte Bobcats. This lead to some other actually good ideas, but the thought of losing my favorite team to contraction got me thinking of alternatives. The best one i could come up with was Relegation.
Some of our European fans can side with me here, as they see it often in some soccer leagues. Heres how it could work and help in the NBA. (and some of this is playing off of what Bill Simmons wrote and i really liked it.) you start with 30 teams. The top 12 teams of the regular season automatically get seeded in order and make the playoffs. The next 15 teams in order play in a 2 week tournament and four teams emerge to take the remaining 7th and 8th seeds in the playoffs. and that rounds out your 16 team playoffs same as the one we have currently. That was Simmon's idea. (you can check all this out on his blog on ESPN.COM) Now with the remaining 3 teams the 3rd from last goes into no mans land and is excluded from the tourney but safe from relegation. The draft would then be a random, evenly distributed lottery between the 12 teams. Now it gets interesting.
The last two teams in the standings are sent down to the D-League. They play the next season against D-League opponents for a full season. At the end of the season, the team that wins the D-League Championship automatically gets promoted to the NBA, wether it be Atlanta Hawks or the Fort Worth Flyers. and the regular season champion also gets promoted. If the D-League playoff winner and reg season champ are the same team, the next best reg. season record team gets promoted. This would not only sprout intrest in all kinds of smaller markets but eliminate tanking. No owner would want to be relegated, no coach, player, fan, homeless person or dog would want to be relegated. So that completely takes away tanking. It would make the end of the season even that more interesting as well. Ratings till the bitter end.
Thats all i wanna go into right now, the rabbit hole goes much deeper however. For now think of ways this wouldnt work and I (and whoever else thinks its a good idea) can argue how it could help/work.