Some Perspective on Draft Lottery Day
Posted by: ticktock6 in CP3 Will Eat Your Soul, HornetsI take you back to May 24, 2005.
Here’s the thread in which everyone on Hornets Report freaks out when the Hornets get the #4 pick after concluding their 18-64 season. See, and you didn’t think anything could make you feel better today. “Noooo the franchise is cursed!!” It’s funny in retrospect.
Because we all know what happened next. But just for history’s sake, you can watch the video of Chris Paul being selected by the Hornets at #4.
No one knew then that that #4 pick would turn out to be the best thing to happen to the Hornets. Chris Paul wasn’t supposed to fall to #4. They weren’t supposed to get that pick.
Or maybe they were.
The ping pong ball that saved the New Orleans Hornets.
(P.S. The Chicago Bulls, with a 1.7 percentage chance, just got the #1 pick minutes ago. Conspiracy theorists, have at it…)
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May 20th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Haha thanks for the HR link! Some good quotes: “I am really disapointed. We missed out on the top 3 players. I guess we take Williams from Illinios now.”
and
“Does that mean we pick Gerald Green? Might be a blessing in disguise..”
Retrospective vision’s 20/20 huh?
May 20th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Awesome funny thread. And now where are the Hornets in comparison with the Hawks and Bucks.
That video of CP3 being 4th pick was precious. <3
Cant’ believe Bulls got 1st pick! wtf! Knicks and other teams are so much worse than they are! Knicks should’ve gotten top 3– they’re pretty atrocious…
Bulls was like 3 spots from making playoffs …and they have young players.. no reason to get first pick!
Another angry NBA night for me………….. :/
May 20th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
So here are the NBA draft lottery results and their reverse ranking (#1 means worst record and deserving of the first pick):
1. Chicago (#9)
2. Miami (#1)
3. Minnesota (#5)
4. Seattle (#2)
5. Memphis (#3)
6. New York (#4)
7. Los Angeles C (#7)
8. Milwaukee (#6)
9. Charlotte (#8)
10. New Jersey (#11)
11. Indiana (#13)
12. Sacramento (#10)
13. Portland (#12)
14. Golden State (#14)
Chicago jumped over 8 teams it had no right picking ahead of. Minnesota and Indiana picked 2 ahead of where it should have,while New Jersey jumped 1 spot. Only Los Angeles and Golden State picked where they should have. And they are the lucky ones. The remaining eight teams got screwed. Seattle, Memphis, and New York, each horrible teams, got shafted two spots, as did Milwaukee and Sacramento.
As they should almost every fucking year, the NBA should be embarrassed by the lottery. I’m surprised the owners put up with this system.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Can anyone think of a time it was worse than this year (ie a better team than CHI getting the first pick). I dunno if I can. The lottery was put in to prevent “tanking” but year after year we get teams that are obviously tanking, shutting down their best players, etc.
I’m with you mW in saying the lottery system is pretty messed up. I saw a great proposal a few years ago where every team is assigned “points” based on order of finish. Teams can then use these points to bid on draft players, or they can save up points if they don’t like the players of the draft and have even more points to spend next year. That would introduce a ton of strategy into the draft- would you rather have the 1 seed or the 22 and 23? Stuff like that.
But then there are the racial implications… a bunch of white guys sitting around bidding on black players. That would be something of a PR nightmare, no?
May 21st, 2008 at 2:33 am
atthehive, this is EXACTLY why I feel Doc Rivers is an inadequate and incompetent coach. I remember all this hype on ‘Did Doc Rivers purposefully lose games’ last season, and now he has 3 all-stars (potential hall of famer, even) and people have forgotten.
While 1-2 are pretty much locked with decisions, I was heavily rooting against Miami, just from personal bias and Pat Riley giving up on games. Unfortunately they still pick 2nd, but still. David Stern had some good PR at the beginning dodging dangerous questions, but I feel this is a good method of determining draft picks. Can’t honestly penalize intent with coaching, so eh.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Very true. And he’s a terrible coach, strategy wise also. As you say, he has one sure fire hall of famer (KG), one probable (Ray-Ray gets in for being one of the greatest 3-pt. shooters ever), and one borderline that will probably miss the Hall (truth). Any coach in the league would do well with those three.
And Miami… Miami tanked as much if not more than any team in recent memory. Seriously, I’m sure there were college teams- Kansas, NC, etc.- that could’ve defeated the D-League jokers they put out there. But I still think that even though justice is served some times (Miami not getting the first pick, etc.) it doesn’t happen often enough. If memory serves, the Spurs did exactly that in ‘96 to get Duncan, and look at them now. An entire dynasty built off one year of tanking? That’s what is at stake in some drafts.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
By the way, interesting segue into something Hornets related: if Peja can avoid injury for a few more years, he could very easily get into the top 3 all time in 3’s made. He’s at 1400+ right now for 8th all time, but he’s less than 300 away from 3rd place Dale Ellis. That’s something to look forward to.
On the other hand, I’m fairly confident Ray topples Reggie “I can’t speak English” Miller for number 1 all time. I say in 2012, the top 3 looks thusly: 1. Allen, 2. Miller, 3. Stojakovic.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Awesome ESPN article about the draft and positioning: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=LotteryPreview-080520. Of note: “Since 1990, only four teams with the worst record have won the lottery…The team with the second-best probability of winning the lottery has fared even worse, winning the lottery just twice.”
Also from the same article, of the teams who drafted Shaq, Timmy, and Lebron, none had the worst record that year.