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Fool the NBA once, get a high draft pick or two. Fool the NBA twice and, well, don't expect to be rewarded. The Philadelphia 76ers want to delay the NBA's push to alter the draft lottery system, and they made their stance clear during league meetings in Las Vegas earlier this month, sources told ESPN's Brian Windhorst.
Good luck to them fighting the good fight.
If the Sixers feel they're being treated unfairly, it's because they are. There are probably several proposals of how the lottery will be altered, but any new system certainly is meant to hurt the Sixers, who went 19-63 last season after once again blatantly toeing the line of using losing to help their NBA Draft odds.
Liberty Ballers
Liberty Ballers
Philadelphia traded young All-Star Jrue Holiday last summer for rookie Nerlens Noel, who came into draft night injured. General manager Sam Hinkie and company proceeded in the 2014 draft by using the third overall pick to select injured Joel Embiid -- he who will miss a good chunk of the year coming off a foot injury -- and then traded for draft-and-stash forward Dario Saric. There have been no significant free agent signings despite freeing up loads of cap space. Other than Noel's expected impact after he finally makes his debut, there are no signs the 2014-15 season will turn out much better than last.
Furthermore, the Sixers' tanking has led to some poor revenue figures in an important market, according to Windhorst.
So yeah, the league isn't too happy. Windhorst reports that Philly isn't likely to receive much support from other teams to delay changes that will even out the lottery odds for the top-14 picks. Under the current system, the worst team in the league has a 25 percent chance of winning the first overall pick. The weight given to teams high in the lottery is such that the sixth-worst team only has a 21.5 percent shot of landing in the top-3.
The Sixers don't own any first-round picks from other teams, though their glut of second-rounders is another story. They've been working with their own picks, while teams like the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls have acquired multiple first-round picks from other teams that could be lottery-bound. Those teams seemingly have set themselves up for a new lottery system based on more random luck rather than controlling their own fate by losing. If only the Sixers had such foresight.