[SC Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

What is dumb about the NBA's lottery is the amount of teams they allow into it. In any given year there are at most 2 players worth tanking for. The rest of the players are pieces who'll go where they fit. The NBA should reduce the lottery to 5 teams. Give the teams proportional ping pong balls to losses.

The
1st worst record gets 10 for every loss
2nd worst record gets 7 for every loss
3rd worst record gets 5 for every loss
4th worst record gets 3 for every loss
5th worst record gets 1 for every loss

Then pick the top 2 positions. The worst team can fall at most 2 spots and has a propotionally better chance than the 5th worst team. Not just a predetermined proportion but a loss adjusted proportion. That way if one team is far worse than the others they get a better chance at the top pick.

Example:

25-57 gets 570 giving them 40.45%
27-55 gets 385 giving them 27.32%
31-51 gets 255 giving them 18.10%
32-50 gets 150 giving them 10.65%
33-49 gets 49 giving them 3.48%

The only problem I see with this is that it still rewards tanking. As long as the odds are weighted I don't see how they can ever reduce the motivation to tank really. But on the other hand it would be totally unfair to weight everyone the same. In the above example why should the team who won 8 more games have the same shot at the first pick? The worst team didn't tank out of 8 games. At worst they lost 3 or 4 games they might have won if they had tried.

Seems pretty sensible, is that original? Pass it along to David Stern.