AROUND the NBA:

[ThisIStheYear]

What about having a designated portion of cap that is specific to drafting new players that starts off equal between all teams. Each team bids an amount to acquire a draftee and the highest amount gets the player. You can spend it all to get a really great prospect or split it between other players.

But for trades, instead of trading picks you trade amounts of this special cap space, so you give another team a certain amount of space that they can then use (and thus have more to offer draftees than other teams).

Seems like this would reward skilled front offices, removes any tie to record determining draft placement, and doesn't affect small/big markets differently. Rebuilding teams can acquire this space to get young players but without depending on lottery luck.

I kind of like this idea, with a few tweaks you may or may not like. You should have tiers in terms of money a franchise can spend. It could be connected to position vis a vie the aprons. That means the best teams probably won’t be able to get in on the action for the top rookies. All bidding is blind, so players are awarded to the highest bidder.  Bids must exceed a minimum level calculated based on current rookie scale. The contract from the bid is guaranteed, per current rules.  You’d need some kind of strategic system for rounds and hierarchy of bidding and tiebreakers that create drama, with results announced in a compact 2 hour TV special, like a draft show. Some aspects of the process should be live, for a better entertainment product.  Maybe like a reverse shark tank\college recruiting  with teams in a tie making their pitch for a player and the player selects the winning team’s hat!