04-11-2023, 06:12 AM
The lottery was designed to keep teams from tanking for the 1-2 slots. Truth is that on the occasions generational talents emerge nothing stops it, and even more teams line up to get a ticket.
What the lottery has evolved into is a hard line that the strategy is to get into the lottery if you believe you are not competitive, and bottom out for the 5-10 picks. - so in that range it encourages tanking.
Where the trade protections are in place, then those teams figure it out sometime after the TDL and try to slide into place at the last minute - say last 4 games of the season. Dallas actually did it correctly, with the exception of the coach saying he was doing it, while actually complaining he was having to do it.
What the lottery has evolved into is a hard line that the strategy is to get into the lottery if you believe you are not competitive, and bottom out for the 5-10 picks. - so in that range it encourages tanking.
Where the trade protections are in place, then those teams figure it out sometime after the TDL and try to slide into place at the last minute - say last 4 games of the season. Dallas actually did it correctly, with the exception of the coach saying he was doing it, while actually complaining he was having to do it.