Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 at 10:33 am  |  60 responses

NBA Owners Propose Adding Third Round To Draft


by Yaron Weitzman / @YaronWeitzman

One of the major points of contention between the NBA owners and players during this lockout has been how to deal with the lack of competitive balance in the League. (That is, of course, if you believe this to be an issue). Players want more revenue sharing among the owners. The owners wants the players to take shorter contracts.

But what if there was another way to help losing teams get pointed in the right direction, and, in theory make money by putting together a more competitive and exciting team? What if there was an option out there that could give a small market franchise like the Milwaukee Bucks a better chance at landing a superstar?

From Chris Sheridan (via SheridanHoops.com):

SheridanHoops.com has learned that NBA owners have proposed adding a third round to the annual draft, a proposal that the players’ union has countered by offering an array of changes to the draft that would help address the owners’ desire for more competitive balance.

According to sources involved in the league’s collective bargaining discussions, the union has proposed various changes to the draft:

Under one proposal, the 15 teams with the worst records would continue to pick 1st through 15th, but then would also have the 16th through 30th picks. The teams with the top 15 records would have the first 15 picks of the second round, then would have the 44th through 60th picks, too. Under this proposal, the Chicago Bulls (whose 62-20 record was the league’s best last season) would have the 45th and 60th picks instead of the 30th and 30th picks. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who had the NBA’s worst record (17-65), would have their lottery pick and the 16th pick, but would no longer have the first pick of the second round — No. 31 overall.

Under another proposal, the teams with the eight worst records would get an additional first round pick, beginning with selection No. 22, and the teams with the eight best records would have no first-round picks but would select at the top of the second round (picks 31 through 38), then also would get the final eight picks of the second round.

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  • http://therurbangriot.com The NUPE

    I like the concept that the worse 15 teams get two first-round picks, this can have the effect of more competitive teams over time. It doesn’t howeever do anything to help smaller market/less desireable cities from retaining their players.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFYwueh05mM nbk

    If the NBA were to add a round to the draft they would either have to take off their age restriction (mainly so they can get young professional european players on their radar sooner) or allow guys that get drafted in the 3rd round the option of turning down the pick and returning to where they were before, like baseball players have the opportunity to do. Basically the NCAA would have to be part of the discussion when adding another round to the draft.

  • http://therurbangriot.com The NUPE

    I’m likely one of the few people that agrees with having an age minimum for the NBA. I think 18, regardless of the # of years a potential player is out of highschool is fair. I would argue too much risk on the part of the team to have to ‘babysit’ a 17 year old throughout the season. I think in Tennis, Gymnastics, Ice Skating, X-game sports and other ‘professional’ athletes who compete as teenagers are in a different scenario as it’s typically their parents or guardian who has responsibility for them and make an event to event decision.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    MLB guys get drafted as young as 16.

  • LA Huey

    @bike, Curry was drafted in 2001 and the Knicks traded for him in ’05. So the Knicks had the same time to evaluate him as they could a college junior and determine whether he was the albatross his contract later became know to be.

  • http://therurbangriot.com The NUPE

    If NBA teams could ‘draft’ or claim rights to anybody 18 or over (regardless if the declare for the draft or not) would be interesting. So players like Barnes or Sully who could have declared this year but didn’t could still have their rights ‘owned’ by a team that picked them. Also, being drafted should not mean that you are guranteed spot on the team. This could allow a team to draft a player and ‘request’ that they stay in college an extra year – or not. This would also make a draft much deeper where virtually any player can be drafted and 3 rounds of talent could be worthwhile. Obviously this is not simple if a euro-team drafts the same players ‘rights’, but would allow a team to draft someone straight out of HS even if they won’t play in the NBA for at least a year. Possibilites and draft complexity would really increase.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Pretty much what I’m saying they would have to do to institute a 3rd round, they wouldn’t be able to enact those rules on the first 2 rounds though – Larry Bird is the reason for that. Boston drafted him a full year before his rookie year. Something like that would spiral down to LeBron being drafted when he was 14, OJ Mayo would have been picked when he was like 9. lol. But for a 3rd rounder, the team only retains rights to that player for a calender year, and then the next year they are up to be drafted again if they never made any kind of professional commitment. This IMO would work because these guys would not be benefiting from the process of becoming a professional, they would not have a “draft combine” and they wouldn’t need agents. They would also retain their writes to compete collegiately while getting a more firm grasp on their prospects as a pro. — I think that would also cut down on players that shouldn’t be leaving college early to enter the draft.

  • LA Huey

    ^Larry Bird had some significant rules changed for him that nothing to do with the actual game of basketball. Haha.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Right. But 2 pretty damn significant rules

  • RunNGun

    Third round? Isn’t this what the D-LEAGUE is for?

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