The Celtics Impact on NBA Lottery Reform
The Boston Celtics may have had a huge impact on the recent NBA lottery reforms
The issue of tanking has forced the hand of the NBA front office once again. Before we dive into it, let’s clarify something – the NBA does not have a problem with particular teams losing a lot of games, nor does it take issue with incompetent ownership subjecting a city to long stints of terrible basketball.
The NBA has a problem with strategic and deliberate tanking over an extended period as a method of rebuilding a franchise. At the same time, the league is rife with unqualified owners and general managers, who will be highly impacted by the changes to the draft lottery, as they tank just as well, just in the less deliberate sense.
The most obvious and recent example of strategic tanking was the work of Sam Hinkie, former GM of the Philadelphia 76ers, who accidentally turned “Trust the Process” into a household phrase after reassuring fans that the “process” would work out. Even the free agents were adopting the phrase as a part of their rite of passage.
It’s not the first time the draft has changed as a response to tanking. In fact, the lottery system exists because of it. Push first came to shove when a Donald Sterling quote, albeit much less catchy than “Trust the Process”, exposed how easy it was to abuse the system.
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“We’ve got the bite the bullet. We can win by losing.”
This time around, the changes are once again attributed to the words of a single person (Hinkie), although the collateral damage will likely hit other teams much worse than the one responsible (as Philly has already stockpiled lottery players onto their roster).
Draft picks that are projected to land high in the lottery are some of the most coveted assets in basketball, and they’re about to lose value. The best way to build a contender is often via trade in free agency, and high lottery picks are much less attractive now as trade pieces.
For about two years we heard people say that Danny Ainge needs to “cash in” on all those stockpiled assets. “Cash in” never meant to actually use the pick, but to get a player (say, Kyrie Irving) who can help the team win immediately. As we see the comically lopsided outcome of the Boston/Brooklyn trade of 2013 unfold, I think the Boston Celtics (and therefore the Nets) may have had an impact on the upcoming lottery changes.
The main reason being: the NBA can’t stand bad optics. The viral spread of “Trust the Process” glorified tanking and made the winning-by-losing strategy more mainstream than Donald Sterling ever made the Clippers (insulting, but also factual). Sixers win a game? TRUST THE PROCESS! Sixers lose? Trust the process. Lose 10 in a row? You get the idea.
A similar thing happened with the Brooklyn draft picks appearing in every trade rumor for the past two years. It was a constant reminder of how devastating the consequences can be if a team offers their future resources in exchange for short-term success.
In other words, every single trade rumor inevitably involved the Celtics, which in turn reminds us of how bad Brooklyn was. Brooklyn’s demise was as well documented as any team’s success, in a similar fashion to the “Process” the Sixers were enduring. There was no slogan for it, although “Jae Crowder and a 1st” became the default starting point for all trade discussions on basketball forums.
It wasn’t a fraction as troublesome for the league brand as the Nets were not strategically tanking, but it still brought up memories of another time the league had to reactively make changes – the Stepien Rule – which forbids from teams trading their first-round picks in consecutive years.
In short, the rule exists because then-owner of the Cavaliers, Ted Stepien, gave away their first round picks like an episode of Oprah. It went about as well as expected. Even with that rule in place, the Nets managed to Stepien themselves into oblivion, and the new lottery could prevent this from happening again because teams might be forced into drafting players instead of stockpiling or trading the picks.
(And maybe they won’t. Who knows. The beautiful thing is that poorly managed teams will always keep us on our toes.) (Also, I’m aware that the Nets have hired a new GM since that trade, but my point still stands.)
Sam Hinkie will forever be immortalized as the catalyst for the change, and I fully expect the new lottery rules to be called Hinkie rules. Still, I think the Celtics did their part to make their mark by weaseling their way into multiple lotteries even while they contend for the eastern conference finals and beyond.
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In the future, I can’t imagine another deal like the Celtics/Nets trade of 2013 happening again. It was barely a good idea (for one of the parties involved) to begin with, and high picks are simply less valued now that the bottom teams all have a worse chance at the top pick.