According to Chris Sheridan (via SheridanHoops.com) the NBA owners have proposed adding a third round to the NBA Draft this year.
While the main issues surrounding the current CBA argument seems to be circulating around revenue sharing and the length of contracts. Players claim they want more revenue sharing from the owners, and the owners state that they’re losing significant amounts of money.
However, one issue that many people were not expecting to be an issue is the NBA Draft. The league adopted the current format of two rounds back in 1989. Before that there were 10 rounds, and as many as 21 rounds back in 1960.
The reason for this proposed change is the current lack of competitiveness in the league itself. Even with free agency being a prominent part of NBA life, the lack of parity in the league is certainly alarming. In fact, other than the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks (who played each other in the 2006 and 2010 NBA Finals), the league has only seen six different teams win the championship since 1984.
There are two proposed changes to the draft, and each would give additional help to the teams with the 15 worst records in the league.
“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.”*
Regardless of a lack of parity in the league or not, convincing every team owner that this is a good idea might be a tough sell.
*SheridanHoops.com
