Draft order

[Guest_Dromedarius]

My two cents:

If everyone is worried about where to draft, why not go 1-12, 1-12, 1-12, etc., instead of 1-12, 12-1, 1-12, 12-1, etc. That way the weakest teams get the best picks, and the strongest teams get the worst picks. You CAN do this in Yahoo! You don't HAVE to go up and then down. Personally, this is more like the NBA, and I like it for the sake of competition.

[Guest_Dromedarius]

Also,

I HATE the idea of a lottery for the Top 6 teams. Why not go reverse by record? The bye week is incentive to many teams, so the only teams that could tank are already there at the bottom of the Top 6 anyway. I absolutely detest the idea of having drafted late this year, doing poorly in the playoffs, and then having to draft late again (which WILL happen, if you know anything about my luck). I believe we all should EARN our draft spot. If I finish high and do poorly in the playoffs, I deserve a bad draft spot. The penalty of a gaudy record, just like in the real NBA, is drafting last.

On the other hand, if I finish poorly, I shouldn't have to draft late, too.
However, I DO like the idea of the lottery for teams 7-12, as their is no real incentive to play your best if you are guaranteed a good spot for tanking it.

[Skandery]

Personally I agree with Bods and Ziggy's idea of letting the teams choose where to draft and splitting the lottery teams from the playoff teams.  I also really love the strategy that would go into something like that.  Because I think that depending on who you're two keepers are and the kind of players that would round your team out, those ideal (perfect) positions *really* do change.

Now it seems that the BBF contigency seems not to like the fact that, in essence, of the top 24 players, the playoff teams get the 7-18 best free agents while the lottery teams get 1-6 and 19-24.  I say that the difference between FA 1 and FA 12 is a WHOLE lot greater than the difference between FA 13 and FA 24.  If you looked at the top 24 players as one homogenous group than BBF's argument would be valid.  But in reality there are only 3 maybe 4 really, really, really studly players and the rest of the 20 are the next tier down.  Because of this reality, there is no guarantee FA 13 (a guy who'll go to a playoff team) will be so much better than FA 23 (a guy who'll go to a lottery team).  

Michael Redd was the 39th player chosen and has outplayed earlier picks such as the 18th pick Steve Francis, the 21st pick Jason Terry, the 31st pick Brent Barry, and the 36th pick Jason Richardson.  In picking Michael Redd where he did, Ziggy showed great basketball acumen and foresight.  And was rewarded with having a great shooting guard to play when disaster struck and his 1st round pick (Allen) was out for half the season.  

The GMs with the lottery teams can and will be rewarded for drafting that FA 23 that far outplayes the FA 13 that the lottery team drafted.  There are too many variables, and too little difference between pick 12 and 24 where true basketball knowledge (and a little luck won't balance everything out.  

Let's say you don't agree with me that things are balanced.  Let's not forget that the lottery team that picked 23rd also has just picked the 2nd best FA out there.  If you compare that #2 FA with the #12 FA that the playoff team has chosen, you more than make up for the difference between 13 and 23.  

I don't think a huge advantage (such as choosing your keepers in the 12th round) needs to be given to the lottery teams because 1) I don't think any of the GMs in our league are so clueless as to need the advantage and 2) Plenty opportunity still exists for that saavy lottery team GM to outwit and outdraft the playoff team GM.

Sorry guys, that got way longer than I expected.