Every sport has their draft. In 3 of the 4 major North American sports, the team with the worst record gets the first overall pick in the following years draft. Makes sense to me. Worst team gets best young players, best teams get "worst" young players(they aren't really bad players). The only sport that does not do this is basketball. They have what we know is the draft lottery. The worst14 teams are put in a lottery ball machine and they pick the order of the draft. The team with the 8th worst record can have the number 1 overall pick. I am going to tell why this is genius ONLY for the sport of basketball.
When it comes to the major sports, teams have time to develop their young plays no matter how they draft. Baseball has minor league systems to develop the players. There are 3 levels of minor leagues and they help to develop the players. Football has the biggest roster of any of the sports with a 53 man roster. Aaron Rodgers stood behind Brett Favre for 3 years before becoming a starter. Look how that turned out. These sports have time to develop players and it may take 3-5 years to start winning(look at the New York Giants). Basketball is different.
Yes, there is a D-League for basketball but there's not much of an impact on on of the teams. The basketball draft has the biggest impact on the right now for the respective teams. Look at Lebron being drafted by the Cavs, Michael Jordan on the Bulls or Larry Bird on the Celtics. They all became instant contenders and winners. This year there is no LeBron, MJ or Larry Bird, but there is a plethora of above average ball players. Will they have an impact on the team that drafts them, posisbly. Will they be draft busts(Deangelo Russell), possibly. We don't know yet. Why would a team like the 76ers tanks for all those years and draft Noel Norleans, Joel Embiid and Jahillil Okafor, who all play the same position. Look how that turned out for them. They traded Noel, Okafor has been a bust, and Embiid is showing promise. They tanked to try and get the number 1 pick for a while and they only had it once. These teams should be trying to put together the best team they can with where they draft. This is where the draft lottery comes in.
The lottery ensures that the teams that try and tank do not necessarily try and get number 1 pick. In baseball and football its very hard to tank, most teams just try and win and develop who is on their roster. The lottery is a punishment to those teams. A team like the Nets may not have tanked, but they do have some talent that could have placed them better than their record showed. The lottery is based on luck for all non-playoff teams. Let's hope they don't change this any time soon. Good luck to those teams.
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