NBA draft lottery reform is dead -- at least for the time being -- after the league's board of governors could not put together the necessary 23 votes to enact a new measure on Wednesday morning.
The measure to curb "tanking" and create a new draft lottery system failed by a vote of 17-13. The 76ers, a team with the most to gain from the status quo, voted against reform.
In fact, it was the rebuilding methods used by the Sixers and general manager Sam Hinkie that led to a push for lottery reform. Moreover, lottery reform was viewed as a foregone conclusion not even 24 hours ago when it appeared as if the Sixers' side would go down in a landslide.
But in a stunning turn of events, the "all but inevitable" vote to overturn the status quo was flipped on its head. A source suggested a strong lobbying effort helped persuade large-market teams to join the side of the status quo. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said owners had reservations about overturning the current system without an in-depth study.
"I think, in essence, the owners were concerned about unintended consequences," Silver said at Wednesday afternoon's press conference. "I think we all recognize we need to find the right balance between creating the appropriate incentives on one hand for teams to, of course, win, and on the other hand allowing for appropriate rebuilding and the draft to work as it should in which the worst performing teams get the highest picks in the draft."
Lottery reform is not completely off the table. In fact, the board of governors could revisit the issue in the not-so-distant future. However, as it pertains to the 2015 NBA draft lottery, the 76ers’ plan has been unimpeded.
And Hinkie has been very upfront about the team’s plan of rebuilding: that is, the club would focus on the draft, acquire “assets” and build with youth. Though the process is often slow and painstaking, it has many advocates amongst NBA GMs and is viewed by many to be the best — and cheapest — way to transform a franchise from a mediocre one to a championship contender.
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The San Antonio Spurs drafted a franchise-transforming player in Tim Duncan when they “tanked” during the 1996-97 season and the Oklahoma City Thunder were built largely on draft picks.
Other teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers have used the No. 1 overall pick four times since 2003 and three times in the last four seasons to rebuild the franchise. Those picks have netted the Cavs players like LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.
Not a bad haul.
But the Sixers' plan as implemented by Hinkie has been viewed as brazen and over the top. Though Hinkie has been upfront about his intentions and his end game, the Sixers' are almost too good at tanking. In past interviews during visits to Philadelphia, Silver was adamant that the Sixers were not doing anything wrong. However, the commissioner said he was disappointed with a system that rewards losing.
"I don't necessarily disagree with the way it works now," Silver said. "I'd say from a personal standpoint what I'm most concerned about is perception out there right now and frankly the pressure on a lot of our teams, even from their very fans, to somehow underperform because it's in some peoples' view the most efficient and quickest way to get better.
"I think that's a corrosive perception out there."
Despite losing an NBA-record-tying 26 straight games in a 19-63 2013-14, the Sixers did not finish the year with the worst record in the league. Nor did the Sixers get the top pick in last summer’s draft. But the Sixers have been able to make deals to acquire "assets" and highly-touted players that aren't quite ready to play in NBA games. To acquire these assets, the Sixers traded All-Star Jrue Holiday for lottery pick Nerlens Noel and another lottery pick that turned into Dario Saric, who is currently playing in Turkey.
The team used its No. 3 overall pick to draft Joel Embiid, a player seen as a potential No. 1 overall pick until a broken foot suffered during a pre-draft workout scared away the Cavaliers and the Bucks. Though Embiid likely won’t play in 2014-15 — just like Noel did not play in 2013-14 — he very much fits into Hinkie’s plan of acquiring assets.
To offset the Sixers' perceived brazeness, the reformers wanted to increase the odds of the best teams in the lottery jumping up into the top three spots and also lowering the floor for the worst teams to drop.
One scenario called for the worst team in the league to be able to fall to the seventh pick in the draft, a huge drop that may discourage teams from willfully losing games to boost their lottery chances.
But in the current system, the team with the worst record rarely gets the No. 1 overall pick. The Milwaukee Bucks won just 15 games in 2013-14 but picked just one spot ahead of the Sixers. The last time the team with the worst record in the NBA received the No. 1 overall pick was in 2004 when the Orlando Magic used the top pick to select Dwight Howard.
The news about the league vote failed to make a ripple with the day-to-day basketball people in the Sixers' camp. Coach Brett Brown was non-plussed when asked about his reaction to the news.
“I really hadn’t given it a whole lot of thought to be curious,” Brett Brown said after Wednesday's practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. “At different times I thought it would go one way, other times I thought it would go the other way.
“The league is run by smart people. The league spoke, that is what they decided to do. Here we are and I am just moving forward coaching.”
Meanwhile, Brown's boss, Sam Hinkie, notched the team's biggest win over the last two seasons.
Information from Dei Lynam and The Associated Press was used in this report.