Ryen Russillo made a nice point about the Sixers on his radio show. People still are stuck on this outdated notion of drafted players making an early impact on their team, because in the past that was the case. However, as we all know these days the best players come when they're 19, 20 as unfinished products. Only a few are actually impact players their first year. Even those that are considered successful are usually just putting up statistics on a bad team, not really making a huge impact to the actual win-loss record.
If you look at MLB, nobody looks at their draft and thinks, "team A needs to take a pitcher because their rotation this year is shaky," because it takes 3-5 years for most prospects to develop. People need to start looking at the NBA draft in the same way now.
The problem is that the NBA still relies on the college game as an informal, free "minor league." Wise to this, players are coming out of that farcical situation as early as possible before they're really ready in order to maximize their earning potential. If the NBA and NCAA could work something out where a player is drafted but allowed to stay in school, or if the NBDL ever became a legitimate option, things would be different. However the odds of either happening are very slim.
The problem is also exacerbated by the lottery system which rewards teams for being bad. Throwing rookies who aren't ready into the fire isn't so bad if you're rewarded for losing. The Sixers didn't create the system, they're just trying to take advantage of it like any competitive organization should. We should be happy the Sixers are flaunting the system because by exploiting it, they are shining a spotlight on the flaws and maybe we'll see some change.
We should really stop looking at the 30 teams as being equals. The fallacy is the idea that all 30 teams "have a shot" and are trying to win as many games as possible. The reality is that different teams have different goals for the season, but they are all lumped together in this imperfect scenario called the 82-game season. That's how at the end of the year, the Sixers owner can say the season was a "success." There was a lot of outrage, but what else could you call it? If you met your desired goal from the beginning of the season, isn't that the definition of "success"? They just had different goals than say, a playoff team. Rebuilding NBA teams are like minor league teams that are somehow in the same field as major league teams. Just like nobody cares if the Pawtucket Red Sox win or lose, just that the players are developing, so is the case with the Philadelphia 76ers last season.
Change the draft so that losing is not rewarded. Allow drafted players to continue playing in college until they're actually ready to join a 15-man roster that is actually attempting to win, not tank. Eliminate the rookie scale and replace it with something that doesn't pressure players to enter the league as soon as possible.
Topic: Which rebuild team is doing the best job IYO (Read 4665 times)