NBA discussing adding a third round to Draft?

[bdm860]

I wonder what the reasoning behind this is.  Are some teams/execs/owners looking at the draft and saying, “Man look at all those quality guys the Spurs drafted with late first round or second round picks. If we had drafted Dajuan Blair, George Hill, Tiago Splitter, Beno Udrih, Leandro Barbosa, John Salmons, Luis Scola, Tony Parker, etc. we would be such a better team!”  So if we change the system and give the bad teams better draft picks, they’ll get better faster?

The thing is, if you change around the picks, instead of the Spurs drafting George Hill at #26 or Tiago Splitter at #27, they probably just draft them in the mid 30’s.  If the Spurs had a 1st round pick in 2009, they probably would have still drafted Dujuan Blair, but instead of being the 37th pick he would have been the 25th pick.  Certain teams are good at the draft, certain teams stink at it.  When you get that late in the draft, I think it’s more about the team that’s drafting than where the pick is.  Also I think a lot of teams suck because they blew it in the draft several years in a row, don’t give them another chance to blow it.  With 2 first round picks instead of the usual 1, those bad teams might be more willing to gamble.  “We drafted a sure thing with Hasheem Thabeet with our first 1st round pick, but since we have two let’s roll the dice on this next one!"

I have doubts about how much this would really help the bad teams.

[Chris]

Its an interesting idea.  To me, this seems like something that owners will throw out there as a negotiating point, so they can give in on it, even though its not a huge deal to them. 

If they are serious about it, I imagine it would be part of a larger plan.  It just doesn't make too much sense by itself, but if it goes along with expanding the D-league, and also creating a system more like baseball or hockey, where players will be paid less when they are in the minors, but can be called up, it could make sense. 

[jr_3421]

Love the idea of a 3rd round just because I think shows that the league at least appears to be invested in maximizing the D-League. Right now the D-League is terrible because because as a fan, you know the players on the team really have no shot of making it big in the NBA. I think that is the main appeal of any minor league team is that the fans get to see possibly great players at their beginning.

As for the draft order proposal, I hate this idea. You know how to draft, you will draft good players wherever you are positioned. There is no need to give certain teams even more of an advantage. People always say the Spurs are the main example but I say the Celtics are as well. Ainge built a team by essentially trading a bunch of middle to late round picks. 

[Celtics4ever]

A  lot of the first and second rounders can't play or don't pan out.   I am against this because more will come out and ruin their chances or egibility.  Talent evaluation is always a crapshot but fact of the matter is that not many players stick outside the first round now.   Ainge has been very lucky or good but he is not the norm.

[greenpride32]

No point in a third rounder. Waste of time.

I agree completely with this.  It's very rare late second rounders have an established NBA career, so how many 3rd rounders are going to make it?