The NBA Draft Lottery should be abolished

"As the draft gets deeper and deeper players begin to level out in ability." According to this statement you are saying that Danny Granger (17th pick overall in the 2005 draft), and Gerald Green (18th pick overall in the 2005 draft) and Jarret Jack (22nd pick overall in the 2005 draft) are "leveled out in ability." I'm pretty sure Danny Granger is much better than Gerald Green and Jarret Jack. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My opponent says "many teams in the NBA may indeed tank when the end of the season is drawing near and they are without a doubt not going to make the playoffs." If anything the players are trying to play their best at these times, and the coaches coach their best in order to prove to their teams they are worth their job and shouldn't be cut or fired. When teams miss the playoffs the front office are quick to make changes to get them into the playoffs and replacing players and coaches are numbers 1 and 2 on the list. To owners a 30-52 record is much better than a 20-62 record where players blew the games on perpose for the higher pick. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The chances are staggered and start at a standard 250 out of 1000 chance for the worst team and is then adjusted based on the degree of difference in the teams records...It would be unreasonable for said teams to have a substantially different chance at obtaining the number one pick. " This in fact is false. The first pick gets a 25% chance no matter what and the 2nd place team gets a 19.9% chance so like you said it is unreasonable for those teams to have such a substantial difference that we might as well get rid of the system. "The new system increased the chances of the team with the worst record drawing the first pick in the draft from 16.7 percent to 25 percent, while decreasing the chances of the team with the best record among lottery teams from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent."- NBA.com There is no mention in here of a staggering percentage based on the closeness of the teams record ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Finally the NBA lottery is in place to prevent teams from obtaining top spots for multiple years in a row, like happens in other leagues...The Detroit Lions obtained a top spot from 07-09. One year being which they traded the pick." This again is another case of false evidence. The point of the lottery is to in fact make sure teams don't lose games on purpose to receive higher picks. The Lions deserved the pick in 07 going 3-13 didn't get a top pick in 08 more false information (they got the 15th which is the middle of the round) and in 09 didn't win a game. With the Lottery they could have gotten as bad as the 5th pick in 07. Wouldn't have been in the Lottery during 08 and 09 could have dropped to 4th being passed by teams that did win. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "In essence, the lottery is in place in order to keep the draft in check and not have it become waited in any one teams favor." Drafts without a lottery can not be weighted in any one teams favor because the draft order is decided by record which is a fairly accurate tool to measure the team against the rest of the league. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Draft lottery has been around since 1985 (25 years) In those 25 years the team with the worst record has won the lottery 4 times. That means that the team with the worst record has gotten the 1st pick only 16% of the time. This year for example the New Jersey Nets went 12-70 that is tied for 3rd worst record of all time during the Lottery era. They were the 4th worst team in NBA history and they ended up with the 3rd pick because of the lottery explain how that is fair. 1998 Denver Nuggets go 11-71 tied for worst record of all-time during the lottery era and they get the 3rd pick. 1993 Dallas Mavericks go 11-71 tied for worst and they get the 4th pick (the lowest the team with the worst record can go). 1994 the Mavericks go 12-70 this is tied for 3rd worst and they receive the 2nd pick. The Los Angeles Clippers go 12-70 Tied for 3rd worse and get the 1st pick which was traded away before the Lottery. The means in the lottery era of the 5 worst teams (6 All-Time) only one won the lottery, and none of those teams selected with the first pick. Please explain to me how that could be fair.