Casual NBA fan at best...but why not try this...
Bottom 4 teams.
The 3 with the best winning % get more lottery balls. Say 5 each. The worst winning % gets 3.
That way you wont have teams tanking. They would be fighting like hell to beat their "peers" and be in slots 2,3 and 4.
It also doesnt totally screw the worst team in the league (in theory the team with the worst winning%) at worst would get pick #4.
I suppose you could expand this to the Bottom 5 teams.
Say 5 Balls each for the 2nd 3rd 4th worst winning %s. worst winning % gets 3 balls and 5th worse gets 2 balls.
Its not perfect. You might still have the 5th place team "tanking" to get to 4th.....but they will be fighting like hell to stay above the worst. Again the worst team would get a "Top 5 Pick" even in a worse case scenario.
Beyond that you could either slot them as they finish 6th gets 6th, 7th get 7th etc etc or do a second lottery for that group of 5 (6-10)....again with the 6th place getting the worst odds....but the worse 6th can do is 10th overall pick.
Another idea is to "totally screw 2 teams". You run a straight draft worse gets #1 next worse #2 etc etc......EXCEPT....you pick 2 teams by random equal draw from the bottom 8 and automatically make them pick 7th and 8th.
Say you draw the 2nd worst and 5th worst team.
So in theory the 2nd worst team and the 5th worst team would pick 7th and 8th with #1 picking 1st, 3 picking 2nd, 4 picking 3rd, 6 picking 4th, 7 picking 5th and 8 picking 6th. 2nd would pick 7th and 5th would pick 8th.
I would imagine that a team would want to minimize its chances of "getting screwed" they would try as hard as possible to be close to picks 7 and 8 during the regular season. If they tank with the worst record and then get the 8th pick....thats a kick in the balls and the difference of 7 slots. If they finish 4th and get the 8th....eh thats bad luck and the difference of only 4 slots.
In another years example 1st and 7th might get picked.
resulting in a draft order of
2
3
4
5
6
8
1
7
the team who lost the most games would be bumming. The team who lost the 7th most games would be like "eh its 1 slot".
It would seem to me that teams would then play to their true talent levels.
Bottom 4 teams.
The 3 with the best winning % get more lottery balls. Say 5 each. The worst winning % gets 3.
That way you wont have teams tanking. They would be fighting like hell to beat their "peers" and be in slots 2,3 and 4.
It also doesnt totally screw the worst team in the league (in theory the team with the worst winning%) at worst would get pick #4.
I suppose you could expand this to the Bottom 5 teams.
Say 5 Balls each for the 2nd 3rd 4th worst winning %s. worst winning % gets 3 balls and 5th worse gets 2 balls.
Its not perfect. You might still have the 5th place team "tanking" to get to 4th.....but they will be fighting like hell to stay above the worst. Again the worst team would get a "Top 5 Pick" even in a worse case scenario.
Beyond that you could either slot them as they finish 6th gets 6th, 7th get 7th etc etc or do a second lottery for that group of 5 (6-10)....again with the 6th place getting the worst odds....but the worse 6th can do is 10th overall pick.
Another idea is to "totally screw 2 teams". You run a straight draft worse gets #1 next worse #2 etc etc......EXCEPT....you pick 2 teams by random equal draw from the bottom 8 and automatically make them pick 7th and 8th.
Say you draw the 2nd worst and 5th worst team.
So in theory the 2nd worst team and the 5th worst team would pick 7th and 8th with #1 picking 1st, 3 picking 2nd, 4 picking 3rd, 6 picking 4th, 7 picking 5th and 8 picking 6th. 2nd would pick 7th and 5th would pick 8th.
I would imagine that a team would want to minimize its chances of "getting screwed" they would try as hard as possible to be close to picks 7 and 8 during the regular season. If they tank with the worst record and then get the 8th pick....thats a kick in the balls and the difference of 7 slots. If they finish 4th and get the 8th....eh thats bad luck and the difference of only 4 slots.
In another years example 1st and 7th might get picked.
resulting in a draft order of
2
3
4
5
6
8
1
7
the team who lost the most games would be bumming. The team who lost the 7th most games would be like "eh its 1 slot".
It would seem to me that teams would then play to their true talent levels.