NBA decides against draft lottery reform
The NBA is run by smart people, 76ers coach Brett Brown said. And on Wednesday morning, those "smart people" sided with the Sixers.
The NBA is run by smart people, 76ers coach Brett Brown said. And on Wednesday morning, those "smart people" sided with the Sixers.
The league's board of governors voted against making reforms to the draft lottery, changes that would have limited the Sixers' odds of landing the top pick in the draft.
The proposed changes would have given the league's four worst teams identical odds (12 percent) to receive the first overall pick. The changes also would have allowed the league's worst team to receive as low as the seventh pick.
Under the current format, the worst team has a 25 percent chance to win the lottery and is guaranteed a top-four selection. The second-worst team has a 19.9 percent chance to land the first pick, the third-worst team has a 15.6 percent chance, and the fourth-worst team has a 10.4 percent chance. The lottery setup has been in place since 1994.
Brown said he had not given much thought to the lottery changes and was unsure how the vote would play out. Reports Tuesday indicated that the reforms would pass by a wide margin. Instead, the league voted 17-13 against changing the lottery.
"I think, in essence, the owners were concerned about unintended consequences," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. "I think we all recognize we need to find the right balance between creating the appropriate incentives on one hand for teams to, of course, win, and on the other hand allowing for appropriate rebuilding and the draft to work as it should in which the worst performing teams get the highest picks in the draft."
"The league spoke and that's what they decided to do," Brown said. "Here we are. Here I am, just moving forward and coaching. I think we just keep going with it."
The 2015 draft is expected to be deep in talent, similar to the quality of last season. Point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who opted to play a season in China instead of attending Southern Methodist, is the projected top pick. Kentucky center Karl Towns, Duke center Jahlil Okafor, and Texas power forward Myles Turner are expected to be among the first four selections.
Online sports book Bovada has set the Sixers' win total at 16 games, the league's lowest mark by eight games. The Sixers have not finished with the league's worst record since the 1973-1974 season.
The league's worst team has not won the lottery since 2004. Cleveland won last season's lottery with just a 1.7 percent chance to receive the first pick.
"I don't necessarily disagree with the way it works now," Silver said of the lottery. "I'd say from a personal standpoint what I'm most concerned about is perception out there right now and frankly the pressure on a lot of our teams, even from their very fans, to somehow underperform because it's in some people's view the most efficient and quickest way to get better.
"I think that's a corrosive perception out there."
Roberts' shot
Former St. Joseph's standout Ronald Roberts will have a chance to earn a roster spot Thursday night when the Sixers play their final preseason game at Detroit. The undrafted forward missed the last four games with a strained left quadriceps. He returned to practice Tuesday.
"I have one game left and I feel like I did pretty good in practice," Roberts said. "I'm just going to leave it in their hands."
Brown compared Roberts to Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried. Both are 6-foot-8 and played for the same North Jersey AAU organization. Despite his size, Faried grabbed 8.6 rebounds per game last season.
"Ronald Roberts is a jumping jack, he's high energy," Brown said. "He's a bouncy, undersized five man. That's what he does and that's what he'll have to do stay around."