01-20-2026, 10:31 AM
(01-18-2026, 09:11 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: I think the reduced odds for the worst teams of getting a top pick has helped.
Zach Lowe has been talking for months about reducing the pick swap protections. Dallas #10 a few years ago. Utah and Washington this year. This appears to be the biggest issue. Bad/average teams with pick protections reach a point in the season where they think "Really, what in the world are we trying to win games for, when our pick is top 8 protected and we aren't going anywhere". Eliminate this and you may fix a lot of it. Maybe allow top 3 protected or something less obvious.
I think bad teams will typically struggle down the stretch. The season is long. Players are looking forward to summer. Teams will prioritize development. At least now with the changed lottery odds, that when a fanbase and team clearly tank for a lot of the year and then drops in the lottery, you can look at them and say "was wasting a year with that garbage worth it""
The protections are the most obvious fix. They are definitely a problem. The reduced odds have probably helped, but they have created a weird situation for the play in games. If the Mavs make the last play-in game like last season (which seems very unlikely now) it would be hard not to root for a loss. If my choice is to have another shot at a top 4 pick or get crushed by OKC in the playoffs, I'm probably going with the former.
I think the best option is to make the entire first round a lottery and gradually skew the odds towards the worse teams. That way there is not a significant difference between a few spots in the rankings (including just making or just missing the playoffs) but there is a big difference between a good and bad team.