Second thoughts

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Draft changes meant to stop sandbagging

The NBA Draft’s order may be changing radically.

Grantland.com reported Monday that the NBA is set to consider and bring to its owners within the next year a proposal that would change the way the draft order is determined. The order would be set in a cyclical pattern, repeating every thirty years, which means all 30 teams would know what pick they would have.

The proposal would eliminate the current draft lottery, which has been in place since 1985.

Each team would pick in a specific first-round draft slot once every 30 years in a predetermined order designed so that teams pick in different areas of the draft each year. The practice of protecting draft picks would disappear.

Every team would be guaranteed one top-six pick every five seasons and at least one top-12 pick in every four-year span.

For example, the team that gets the No. 1 pick in the first year of the system would draft in the following slots over the following five years: 30th, 19th, 18th, 7th and 6th.

Grantland.com said that the proposal in the early stages and that most of the owners have not been sent the proposal yet.

Grantland.com writer Zach Lowe said that the proposal is designed to eliminate tanking.

“But as long as there is a lottery in some form, there will be incentives to lose in some particular way - to be as bad as possible [the current system], or to tank out of the no. 8 seed and into the bottom of the lottery [under a system that treats all lottery teams equally],” Lowe wrote.

“This proposal may have unintended ripple effects. Almost all major changes do. Any change of this magnitude is, almost by definition, a long shot. But it is perhaps the most fleshed-out proposal the league has seen. And it is certainly worth consideration.”

Season’s beatings

It’s looking more likely by the day that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will never meet in the boxing ring.

After Mayweather posted a “Christmas Card” on Twitter, expect that to remain the case.

In the “card”, Mayweather posted a photo of himself with the caption, “Manny, I’ll pay you 40 million to fight.”

Pacquiao’s “response”: “No way, you’re crazy. 50/50 or nothing.”

Mayweather then posted a photo of Pacquiao being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez. The caption over another Pacquiao photo said, “Dear God, please have Floyd call me again.”

“This is my Christmas card to the world,” Mayweather tweeted. “Happy Sleepy Holidays zzzzzzzzzzzz.”

Happy holidays, indeed.

Smackdown

The Detroit Lions have lost five of their past six games, including a 23-20 setback in overtime Sunday to the New York Giants which eliminated them from playoff contention.

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford’s girlfriend Kelly Hall, though, questioned fans who booed the team during overtime and after Sunday’s game.

“You wouldn’t even know we were playing at home the way these fans are booing our home team. #unbelievable,” Hall tweeted.

However, a Lions fan with the Twitter handle DetroitKoolAid made Hall regret her post.

“You wouldn’t know Stafford played for the Lions the way he keeps throwing to the other team,” DetroitKoolAid tweeted.

“Drop the mic. Walk off stage,” wrote Yahoo! Sports blogger Anwar S. Richardson.

Quote of the day

“I want to say Merry Christmas to them ... and thank them for coming out and creating a great atmosphere.” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson on the Razorbacks’ crowd Saturday night at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock

Sports, Pages 18 on 12/24/2013