"Breaking News" The NBA is Corrupt.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

It's actually Afflalo, Vucevic, Harkless, and Al Harringon, plus three #1s for Howard and Jason Richardson, according to the reports.

It's not the best return. Magic got no All-Stars in return. But they did get a bona fide young, quality starter, two prospects, financial relief, and multiple 1st rounders.

This.

While I believe Orlando got better offers from Brooklyn and Atlanta and Houston, it's not the NBA's fault that Orlando agreed in such a deal, which is not that bad.

Trust me, Afflalo will be a stud next year. They get two young prospects, a proven veteran and picks, not to mention they shed salaries. I don't see the NBA being corrupt here.

[Who]

The NBA badly needs to re-think it's current lottery system.

Get rid of the for these "dump your star and blow up your team so you can lose 55-65 games next year and try to win the lottery" type trades.

[Fafnir]

The NBA badly needs to re-think it's current lottery system.

Get rid of the for these "dump your star and blow up your team so you can lose 55-65 games next year and try to win the lottery" type trades.

What better alternatives are there?

I don't think the league is willing to give up cost controlled rookies, which means you can't go to a true FA system.

[Rondo2287]

What about adopting a modified baseball model where draft picks aren't tradeable, and if you loose a good free agent you receive that teams first rounder and a sandwhich pick between rounds

[Chris]

 I was OK with Howard going to the Lakers for their starting front court. But Keeping Gasol makes this so wrong again.

 Arron Agustin Afflalo and Al Harrington and crappy picks for Dwight Howard. Lets get real here this is just wrong.

 It makes sense for Bynum he was at least smart enough not to go to a terrible team in Orlando. The Lakers Get the best center in the world and keep Gasol no brainer there.

 The Magic get A. Afflalo. Wait What? Yeah you know a gut who has had two seasons scoring more 10 PPG. And last season was by far his best year averaging 15 PPG 3 RPG and 2 APG, sounds like Courtney Lee or maybe a poor mans Jason Terry.

 Everyone knows here that in a trade for a top 5 player like Howard those picks mean almost nothing now. For a player of this magnitude you have to get back a ready  made star now. I can't remember the last time I have seen such a lopsided trade for a future Hall of fame player.

 Someone try explaining this to me please.

This is what happens when you have a team like the Magic who are indecisive and waited too long until teams took their offers off the table, and you have a system where owners wanted to disuade players from forcing trades at the end of their contracts, and the watered down compromise ended up essentially killing the option of a player signing an extension with the team they are traded to until they are a free agent.

Basically, the trade options dried up, because so few teams were willing to pay a premium for a guy who could walk at the end of the year. 

This isn't corruption, it is "compromise".

[Who]

The NBA badly needs to re-think it's current lottery system.

Get rid of the for these "dump your star and blow up your team so you can lose 55-65 games next year and try to win the lottery" type trades.

What better alternatives are there?

I don't think the league is willing to give up cost controlled rookies, which means you can't go to a true FA system.

The best I have seen was that suggested one at the MIT conference where ... once teams are ruled out of the playoff picture, their W-L record is tracked from there and the team that wins the most games gets the first pick.

The theory being that teams are less inclined to tank to open a season than they are at mid-season (which makes sense) + that it will keep teams trying to win games late in the year rather than tanking games (which also makes sense).

It won't get rid of the problem completely but I do think it would help decrease it.

[chambers]

The Magic are simply in tank mode.
Afflalo is an overpaid bum. So is Harrington.
Afflalo is a poor mans Sefalosha and has reached his ceiling.
The Magic will let him start for a season and then move him while his stock is high- he'll be one of the go to guys on that terrible roster.
They'll finish bottom in the East for a few years and go after Noel, Jarbrari Parker etc and cross their fingers.
Decent blow up strategy and perfectly understandable.

Lakers give up their future franchise player for another franchise player coming off back surgery. Big gamble but probably the right gamble.
Nothing corrupt about any of it.
Makes me laugh when people are 'disgusted' that the Lakers 'only' gave up the second best center in the NBA (who happens to be less than 25 years old). el oh el.

Lakers are stronger and it sucks that they'll have a great shot at overtaking our 17 banners. But we don't have to worry about them until the finals which is a positive.
We are still better than Philly and still better than the Nets, meanwhile Rose is injured.
It's us and the Heat. Over in the West there's the Grizzlies, Clippers, Nuggets, Mavs Spurs and OKC- it's not a cake walk by any means.

[celtsfan84]

What about adopting a modified baseball model where draft picks aren't tradeable, and if you loose a good free agent you receive that teams first rounder and a sandwhich pick between rounds

The players union would rally heavily against that as it would really hurt free agency.  Teams would shy away from signing mid-level and lesser type players or even older players for fear of losing picks.

That works in MLB because realistically the MLB draft sucks.  I read an article about the 2000 MLB draft.  14 of the 30 players picked in Round 1 never made it to MLB.  Imagine if half of the NBA Round 1 never made it to the NBA.

It is easy to give up picks when they'll never play anyway.  NBA 1st Round picks typically play.

[Chris]

The NBA badly needs to re-think it's current lottery system.

Get rid of the for these "dump your star and blow up your team so you can lose 55-65 games next year and try to win the lottery" type trades.

What better alternatives are there?

I don't think the league is willing to give up cost controlled rookies, which means you can't go to a true FA system.

The best I have seen was that suggested one at the MIT conference where ... once teams are ruled out of the playoff picture, their W-L record is tracked from there and the team that wins the most games gets the first pick.

The theory being that teams are less inclined to tank to open a season than they are at mid-season (which makes sense) + that it will keep teams trying to win games late in the year rather than tanking games (which also makes sense).

It won't get rid of the problem completely but I do think it would help decrease it.

The problem with that is that it essentially creates a larger discrepancy between the haves and have-nots...because the teams that are legitimately bad wouldn't be able to win at the end of the year, and they would just never get better...and you would have teams tank at the beginning of the year, and then turn it on at the end to earn the pick.

I really think the tanking is the least of the concerns in the NBA.  No one cares about the bad teams down the stretch anyways. 

[Rondo2287]

What about adopting a modified baseball model where draft picks aren't tradeable, and if you loose a good free agent you receive that teams first rounder and a sandwhich pick between rounds

The players union would rally heavily against that as it would really hurt free agency.  Teams would shy away from signing mid-level and lesser type players or even older players for fear of losing picks.

That works in MLB because realistically the MLB draft sucks.  I read an article about the 2000 MLB draft.  14 of the 30 players picked in Round 1 never made it to MLB.  Imagine if half of the NBA Round 1 never made it to the NBA.

It is easy to give up picks when they'll never play anyway.  NBA 1st Round picks typically play.

Im not talking about any free agents though there would have to be some type of ranking system like there was in baseball.  But also keep in mind, you add a star pitcher to a baseball team and he can start every 5th day, you ad a star player to a basketball team he can immediately mean 20+ more wins. 

[kozlodoev]

Orlando has zero leverage in this deal, I'm surprised they got as much as they did. This league where has no franchise tags or arbitration.

[Chris]

Honestly, I am not sure what the problem is.  The Lakers traded the second best center in the league, and a first round pick for the best center in the league.  It stinks, because its the Lakers, but they were able to do this largely because they were smart enough to draft Bynum, when plenty of other teams passed on him.

Yeah, there are other parts to it, but ultimately it comes down to the Lakers had the young star to make this trade happen. 

[Who]

Honestly, I am not sure what the problem is.  The Lakers traded the second best center in the league, and a first round pick for the best center in the league.  It stinks, because its the Lakers, but they were able to do this largely because they were smart enough to draft Bynum, when plenty of other teams passed on him.

Yeah, there are other parts to it, but ultimately it comes down to the Lakers had the young star to make this trade happen.

I don't mind the Lakers part of it. It's Orlando's part in it that bothers me.

The type of trade package they accepted in return for Dwight. Turning down Andrew Bynum in order to win 10-15 less games next year so they can get themselves a better draft pick. Dumping Dwight Howard for Afflalo, A.Harrington and so-so first round draft picks. It;s an awful trade package.

When the system makes a trade like this a good option, then you have a problem with the system ... and more and more teams seem inclined to go down this road too. Frustrating.

[Who]

The NBA badly needs to re-think it's current lottery system.

Get rid of the for these "dump your star and blow up your team so you can lose 55-65 games next year and try to win the lottery" type trades.

What better alternatives are there?

I don't think the league is willing to give up cost controlled rookies, which means you can't go to a true FA system.

The best I have seen was that suggested one at the MIT conference where ... once teams are ruled out of the playoff picture, their W-L record is tracked from there and the team that wins the most games gets the first pick.

The theory being that teams are less inclined to tank to open a season than they are at mid-season (which makes sense) + that it will keep teams trying to win games late in the year rather than tanking games (which also makes sense).

It won't get rid of the problem completely but I do think it would help decrease it.

The problem with that is that it essentially creates a larger discrepancy between the haves and have-nots...because the teams that are legitimately bad wouldn't be able to win at the end of the year, and they would just never get better...and you would have teams tank at the beginning of the year, and then turn it on at the end to earn the pick.

I really think the tanking is the least of the concerns in the NBA.  No one cares about the bad teams down the stretch anyways.

The italics part -- I think you would still have some tanking. Just less of it. That is a worthwhile improvement in my book.

The bolded part -- I don't think that is a problem at all. Teams that would get the #1-#3 pick would now be getting the #4-#7 pick. They still have a chance at picking up good talent. And then as they win more games their chances of getting those top three pick talents improves. They are forced to build better teams rather than worse teams. That is a good thing.

[celtsfan84]

What about adopting a modified baseball model where draft picks aren't tradeable, and if you loose a good free agent you receive that teams first rounder and a sandwhich pick between rounds

The players union would rally heavily against that as it would really hurt free agency.  Teams would shy away from signing mid-level and lesser type players or even older players for fear of losing picks.

That works in MLB because realistically the MLB draft sucks.  I read an article about the 2000 MLB draft.  14 of the 30 players picked in Round 1 never made it to MLB.  Imagine if half of the NBA Round 1 never made it to the NBA.

It is easy to give up picks when they'll never play anyway.  NBA 1st Round picks typically play.

Im not talking about any free agents though there would have to be some type of ranking system like there was in baseball.  But also keep in mind, you add a star pitcher to a baseball team and he can start every 5th day, you ad a star player to a basketball team he can immediately mean 20+ more wins.

The star player you are talking about never becomes a free agent without a trade anyway.

Cleveland received draft picks for LeBron. Phoenix received draft picks for Nash.  Toronto received draft picks for Bosh.  Cleveland did receive Miami's 1st Rounder, so that kind of makes your system moot.

Orlando traded Dwight before free agency.  Denver traded Carmelo before free agency.  Utah traded DeRon before free agency.

What stars are you actually speaking of that changed hands without a draft pick and helped a team win 20+ more games?  Shaq in 96?  That was 16 years ago man.