Mark Cuban is an idea man — some good, some bad and some a little of both.
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Before the NBA passed reform for the draft lottery, Cuban pitched a couple ideas that were quickly dismissed. But after he detailed his thought process to ESPN.com, I must admit I’m intrigued.
Proposal 1: Abolish the draft with teams getting a pool of money to sign rookies based on their records
"The team with the worst record gets the most money and the team with the best record gets the least money," Cuban said. "It's like a free agency. It makes it a lot harder to tank because you don't know if you get the best players if you're horrible all the time. … Nobody liked that at all, not a single person."
I see where Cuban is coming from here. The team with the worst record is given a monetary advantage, but what are the chances that top rookie will choose a rebuilding franchise when he can take less money and join a championship-ready roster?
In this scenario it seems small-market, middle-of-the-road franchises (Phoenix, Charlotte, Memphis, Orlando, etc.) will never have enough pull to lure a premier “rookie free agent” — the same way they struggle to land veteran free agents.
Dramatic reform like this will likely never happen. Fans love the draft and draft picks are common, valuable assets in the NBA. Sure, this would be interesting if it happened, but imagining the intricate details of this reform makes my head hurt.
Proposal 2: Lock the team with the worst record into a draft slot -- either third or fourth
"Now all of the sudden, if it's close at the end, you're going to see teams play as hard as they can because if they end up with the worst record, they don't get the best pick," Cuban said. “You basically eliminate them from getting the best player. Everybody else would just be the way it is now.”
Cuban said “Adam (Silver) didn’t like that,” but I do. That counts for something, right?
If a team is the worst in the NBA and simply can’t win games regardless of effort, it still gets a nice pick. But, if we have three or four bad teams flirting with the league’s worst record in the final two weeks of the season they’ll have to fight to avoid last place if the top pick is the end goal.
This would do more than the reform (set to begin in 2019) to avoid tanking as the three worst teams will have the same 14 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick. The current system gives those team descending odds of 25, 19.9, and 15.6 percent, respectively.
"It's OK, but you still have the best chance of getting the best pick if you have the worst record," Cuban said. "The hope is if you're one of the bottom three, you're going to try.”
I for one stand by your radical thinking, Mr. Cuban, even if those that actually matter don’t.