The NBA Board of Governors passes proposal on lottery reform and not resting healthy players.
It’s been a long time coming, but the NBA Board of Governors has finally enforced rules for teams to not rest healthy players. For fans of teams not positioned in the upper tier buying tickets to witness top end stars has been like purchasing a lottery ticket. Often those top end squads elect to not play their stars when visiting lower positioned squads. Teams like the Cleveland, Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs regularly opt to rest stars in these games.
Long time coming:
The worst part of this equation is when LeBron James, Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard extend this practice to road games. Young fans are the ones missing out. The irony is this change is being made because of television revenues, not to satisfy fans. Hey, no use splitting hairs, at least the result still provides the desired result. Now young fans can purchase tickets to see Stephen Curry on his one visit to their home team and feel confident they will get to arrive early to witness his famous pregame ball handling display.
Last season the Cavaliers didn’t dress LeBron James, Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love in a game at the Los Angeles Clippers nor did they bother to send those same players to Memphis for their very first Western game in mid December. Consequently, Gregg Popovich has long utilized this method and may well be the lone coach who thumbs his nose at the new rules.
Fines will be sanctioned by Silver:
First of all, teams are expected to play their stars in all road and Nationally televised games. As a result, all players will be required to be on the bench regardless of their health (assuming this may be altered dependent on serious injury). Adam Silver will bear the responsibility for enforcement. If the commissioner deems a team has defied the rules he can levy a fine of up to $100,000.00 for the infraction.
Draft Lottery Reform:
The new twist to the previous outline is Silver can also fine teams who overtly rest players in home games. Presumably, it seems like this would be tied to National TV games. But, the wording is such that it leaves room for teams who simply rest players at home to compensate for not being able to on the road.
Here is an ESPN graphic on how NBA Draft lottery odds change in 2019 pic.twitter.com/Jk8X7q0J3Z
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 28, 2017
The other major matter the NBA voted to pass was lottery reform. A new structure is meant to reduce the practice of ‘tanking’. Within the new structure teams will be weighted differently. There is less chance the lowest seeded team will have the best shot at snagging the top draft pick. Rather, the revised system looks to favor the bottom three seeded teams as they’ll all be weighted with a 14 percent chance at the top pick. The previous weighting changes as the lowest seeded team used to have a 25 percent chance at the top pick. Additionally, the next lowest teams are also weighted similarly.
Interestingly the OKC Thunder were the lone team who voted against the proposed lottery reform (Dallas Mavericks abstained).
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As for introduction of these two practices teams will be required to stop resting healthy players immediately this season. The lottery reform won’t take effect until two summers from now making it’s introduction in the 2019 lottery.
How the changes effect the Thunder:
To be fair, it’s not like Russell Westbrook is the type of player to rest. He sat out in just one game last season, and arguably was the one player in the NBA who could have used some of those healthy rest days. Paul George missed on six days and Carmelo Anthony missed eight. Of the 14 games the two stars missed they were all due to real injuries.
Suffice to say none of the OKC Thunder stars are the type of players who’ll be looking for healthy rest dates. So, this portion of the newly mandated rules won’t have a major effect on the Thunder. That said, Billy Donovan is a coach who makes a point of not over extending his stars. In spite of numerous games last season when leads were lost with Westbrook on the bench Donovan refused to acquiesce by over extending his star. Expect more of the same this season.
In terms of the draft lottery as per above, OKC voted against the reform and Presti has been vocal about his disagreement with the change. In spite of this, it’s not like the Thunder will likely be near the lottery picks anytime soon. Well, at least not likely for the next five season, if Westbrook has anything to say about it.