2018 Phoenix Suns Pick Watch

[Gladiator]

Well done team ..and by team I mean phx-suns.net for enduring this season! A guaranteed top 4 pick seems the least we should get after putting up with that.

It is actually no mean feat for the Suns to beat out a very strong tanking field, so hats off them for that. With some luck (surely we're due!!!) and good management (surely we're due!!!), this off season could make this team for seasons to come. At least the draft lottery and lead up to the draft will be very interesting for Suns fans.

[Mori Chu]

I mean, great, we get the top lottery odds by out-tanking the field. But the league needs to do something about tanking. It's really bad for the game. The paying fans deserved better than having healthy players sitting out games down the stretch.

I think they should heavily flatten the lottery odds so that having the worst record hardly helps you at all. If you do this for *every* lottery team, then you open up the new problem of enticing teams to intentionally miss the playoffs to get into the lottery. So make it so that the last 3-4 teams who barely miss the playoffs are ineligible. That'll mostly fix it.

So my proposal would be to take the league's bottom 10 teams and give them nearly equal odds of getting the #1 pick. Then give teams 11-14 some odds but pretty pathetic odds.

I would also make more picks be part of the lottery; not just 1-3. I'd do probably the top 7 picks or more. Make it more of an actual lottery. Make it so that even if you get the worst record, you could end up with the 7-8th pick if all breaks badly for you. No incentive to tank; gotta go for broke.

[The Bobster]

If the league's goal in having a draft is to make the worst teams better I would ditch the lottery altogether. They've given it 33 years and it hasn't solved any problems, just created different problems every time its been tweaked.

Just go back to the coin flip between the teams that finish last in each conference. Or dump the draft altogether because let's face it, there are very few players now who are not projects coming out of college. Perhaps teams over the cap can have rookie exceptions of $1.2 million for a rookie contract, with teams under the cap having $3.6 million, and teams over the luxury tax limited to the $600,000 rookie minimum.

[Mori Chu]

Those of you who say "dump the draft," I don't understand. What do you want the system to be? Players out of college just negotiate and sign with whatever team they want? Isn't that a recipe for every player signing with the LA Lakers and NY Knicks? Or am I misunderstanding what you want the system to be?

[ShelC]

I think the biggest challenge is getting teams to compete through the end of the year knowing they're not making the playoffs and wanting to keep players healthy.

Maybe the #1 pick or the most ping pong balls should go to the team that has the best record that DOESN'T make the playoffs?

[The Bobster]

Those of you who say "dump the draft," I don't understand. What do you want the system to be? Players out of college just negotiate and sign with whatever team they want? Isn't that a recipe for every player signing with the LA Lakers and NY Knicks? Or am I misunderstanding what you want the system to be?

If they're signing with the Lakers for say $6 million over five years compared to $18 million with another team it might make a difference. Also, there are so few rookies that move the needle I don't think that would be a huge issue. There are two Simmons, who sat out a year after being picked #1, and Mitchell, who went in the middle of the first round. The draft is a crap shoot for the most part when players are this young.

[The Bobster]

The NBA Draft came about because the league didn't want more than one team bidding on players in order to curtail salaries. Then they told us that it was to give the worst teams the best college players. Now, those players aren't as NBA-ready when they come out and the salary cap and a rookie salary scale would alleviate that.

What are we worried about? The teams that buy the best veteran players buying the best 18-year-olds instead?

[Indy]

The NBA Draft came about because the league didn't want more than one team bidding on players in order to curtail salaries. Then they told us that it was to give the worst teams the best college players. Now, those players aren't as NBA-ready when they come out and the salary cap and a rookie salary scale would alleviate that.

What are we worried about? The teams that buy the best veteran players buying the best 18-year-olds instead?

Exactly. Make each team manager their cap. And if you don't force 19 year olds into (basically) 7 year deals with the team that drafted them, keep rosters limits where they are, and make it a hard cap, you don't need the draft to help with parity. Honestly, how much has it helped?

[Shabazz]

One interesting way I saw to make the "abolish the draft" proposal work was to give teams "rookie salary slots" based on their record. So the worst team in the league could offer a rookie a salary starting at $8M annually, the second worst $7M/yr. and so on.

[O_Gardino]

The draft is part of the entertainment value of the league. It's fun, and ultimately, that's the point of the league.

[Mori Chu]

No, no, no. Asking teams to sign these players right out of college to big contracts is a recipe for disaster. Guys were getting $50m right out of school who didn't deserve it, and it was crippling teams. The rookie salary scale is important.

Maybe the #1 pick or the most ping pong balls should go to the team that has the best record that DOESN'T make the playoffs?

No, no, no. That will overly incentivize a team not to make the playoffs. What would you rather have: getting swept in the 1st round by the Rockets, or likely the #1 pick in the draft? Obvious choice.

[Shabazz]

No, no, no. Asking teams to sign these players right out of college to big contracts is a recipe for disaster. Guys were getting $50m right out of school who didn't deserve it, and it was crippling teams. The rookie salary scale is important.

If this was in response to the proposal I was quoting above, it incorporates the rookie scale. The idea is it creates salary slots equivalent to the rookie scale for the team to be able to offer rookies.

So if Sacramento had the worst record, and $8M to offer a rookie, someone like Doncic would get to decide if he wants to play for the most money and play for the Kings, or take approximately half that to play for a team like the Knicks.

It's just an idea and not one I particularly support. I like the draft.

[ShelC]

Some owners want playoffs for extra revenue, most coaches would want playoffs for their career and/or to maybe save their job, all players want playoffs.

[Indy]

No, no, no. Asking teams to sign these players right out of college to big contracts is a recipe for disaster. Guys were getting $50m right out of school who didn't deserve it, and it was crippling teams. The rookie salary scale is important.

Maybe the #1 pick or the most ping pong balls should go to the team that has the best record that DOESN'T make the playoffs?

No, no, no. That will overly incentivize a team not to make the playoffs. What would you rather have: getting swept in the 1st round by the Rockets, or likely the #1 pick in the draft? Obvious choice.

Who got 50M on their first NBA contract? I don't remember that.

And the rookie scale for next year averages over 7.6M for the first pick.

[O_Gardino]

No, no, no. Asking teams to sign these players right out of college to big contracts is a recipe for disaster. Guys were getting $50m right out of school who didn't deserve it, and it was crippling teams. The rookie salary scale is important.

Maybe the #1 pick or the most ping pong balls should go to the team that has the best record that DOESN'T make the playoffs?

No, no, no. That will overly incentivize a team not to make the playoffs. What would you rather have: getting swept in the 1st round by the Rockets, or likely the #1 pick in the draft? Obvious choice.

Who got 50M on their first NBA contract? I don't remember that.

And the rookie scale for next year averages over 7.6M for the first pick.

Came to post the same question.

Fultz got 37.4 million over 4 years, and I thought he was the highest paid rookie of all time.

[Ring_Wanted]

Glen Robinson forced the Bucks to give him a 10 year $64M contract before playing one minute of NBA game.

[Ring_Wanted]

Back to our picks, MIA is #16 and MIL is #17. They are separated by one win. MIL currently keeps the pick, but if the lose to the 76rs (fighting for the 3rd seed) and MIA wins against Orlando, the tie goes in favor of MIA, dropping MIL one slot and sending us their 1stR.

A couple of weeks ago I was sure I wanted the pick to convey, but if this is going to be the summer of the revamp, perhaps it is better to delay the pick and be able to use it over the summer if needed for a move. On the other hand, trading up could be exactly what we need.

Regardless of what happens with our own pick, I am very interested in Wendler Carter and Mikal Bridges. If trading up is not possible and we indeed have the two mid picks, I am looking at SGA and Jontay Porter, but I could see both gone as well.

[Split T]

Do they determine draft spots via tiebreakers for playoff teams? Or do they do a coin flip?

[carey]

Back to our picks, MIA is #16 and MIL is #17. They are separated by one win. MIL currently keeps the pick, but if the lose to the 76rs (fighting for the 3rd seed) and MIA wins against Orlando, the tie goes in favor of MIA, dropping MIL one slot and sending us their 1stR.

Interesting. Thank you for the break down. I think that is a scenario that is possible but Miami is very hit or miss lately and plays down to their competition. I don't like our chances betting on them to win even against Orlando who are terrible. The only interesting thing is that Dallas, Atlanta and Orlando are all tied right now with a record of 24-57 so it is actually in their best interest to lose to Miami. We know that the Suns play Dallas and Miami plays Orlando but Atlanta plays the 76ers who, like you said, are trying to win.

[bajanguy008]

Yea to echo carey , kudos to you guys who been doing all the breakdown in this thread
Been saving me some headaches