NBA Draft Reform: Learning from the WNBA

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The WNBA's two-season approach to draft lottery odds offers a more equitable system than the NBA's single-season method. Teams with sustained struggles like the Wizards deserve better draft positions to genuinely rebuild rather than rewarding teams experiencing temporary setbacks or intentionally tanking.

• NBA currently bases draft lottery odds on just the previous season's performance
• WNBA uses the previous two seasons' records to determine lottery odds
• Washington Wizards finished second-worst in consecutive seasons but only received the sixth pick
• Two-season approach would make tanking much more difficult and less appealing
• 76ers receiving the third pick despite having Joel Embiid raises questions about equitable distribution
• Teams genuinely struggling for multiple years (Wizards, Hornets, Jazz) would benefit most from a two-season system
• Analysis of how WNBA teams' draft positions would change under different systems
• A longer evaluation period ensures help goes to teams that truly need it

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's up everybody?
It's your favorite show'sfavorite show Get a Bucket.
I'm your host, trey, and asusual, I hope you're all having
a wonderful, wonderful day.
Today we're going to talk aboutmy draft improvements for
basketball, but before we dothat, please make sure to hit
that like and subscribe button,comment, tell anyone who's
anyone about the show, Trying toget the ratings up a little bit
.
You know, just a little bit.
But, like I said, we're goingto talk about my draft

(00:26):
improvements thus far.
And it's interesting, right?
Because I was looking at theWNBA and the NBA's drafts and I
was thinking well, you know what, they're similar, right,
they're going to base thelottery the similar way.
Obviously, the NBA has moreteams, but they're going to base
it.
It's going to base the lotterythe similar way.
Obviously, the NBA has moreteams, but they're going to base
it the same.

(00:47):
It's going to be a similarformat, right?
Not quite, there is a slightdifference.
So, with the NBA, they basetheir lottery off of one season,
the previous season.
Wnba, yeah, they base it offthe last two.
So that got me to thinking.
Well, one, actually, just onething really Should the NBA

(01:13):
switch to this position?
Because I think the WNBA mightbe on to something, reason why I
have stated before I think theWizards actually got robbed.
Utah was done a disservice too,but I thought the Wizards were
robbed this year in missing outon Cooper Flag, because, when we
look at it, matter of fact,let's go ahead and bring this up

(01:33):
, shall we?
So let's go ahead and bringthis page up here.
So we got here.
The 2024 NBA standards and, asyou can see, the Washington
Wizards are at, are around thebottom.
They're around the bottom.
My math is mapping.

(01:55):
They look like the second worstranked team, at least record
wise.
You can talk about talent.
They could be low Like dogs.
That's trash and there's nodisrespect to them.
You know, again, someone got tolose.
How about 2025?

(02:15):
Because 2025, look around theshame.
Like, as you can see, they arenumber two, like second from the
bottom again Again, and theirdraft position this year was
number six.
I get you on the odds, but Ilike the odds based off the past

(02:39):
two seasons.
Like, let's look at this 2025draft odds.
If it were based on theprevious two seasons, right,
this would be the lot.
Well, one out of 13.
This would be one out of oneout of 13.
This would be one out of 13,all right, at least one out of
10, at least.
At least the worst 10 in order.

(02:59):
By the way, wizards would havebeen the worst, the next hornets
, then jazz, then spurs, thenpistons, then blazers, then
raptors, then then Nets, then76ers.
Now you can say the Hawks,bulls and Suns too.
But I got to look at otherteams as well to see where they
ranked in the previous seasons.

(03:20):
But those teams, they were oneof the lower rated teams.
So those would be the 10 teams.
And the 76ers we got a questiontoo, by the way.
They just had a tumultuousseason.
So those are the teams that Iwould expect to fight for the
number one pick, not theMavericks, not the Dallas

(03:40):
Mavericks, I'm sorry.
The Spurs, I hear you.
They're number four right hereon my listing, because again,
they weren't doing that well, Iget you, I get you.
Even Steele Would have liked tosee one of those, like the
Wizards, the Hornets or the Jazz.
Over the last two seasons thosethree teams have done the worst

(04:04):
.
And again, the NBA draft, thedraft in general is supposed to
help teams out, the lower ratedteams, supposed to make stuff
fair, how they not get in themix of it.
That's all I'm asking.
Those three teams can't get inthe mix of it for real.
That's tough.
That's tough Like, no, like forreal.
That's actually kind of toughCause.

(04:24):
Damn like I would.
I would, actually, I wouldactually prefer that happen Like
let's look at the WNBA, forexample, let's look at the WNBA.
Actually prefer that happenLike let's look at the WNBA, for
example, let's look at the WNBA, let's go to season 2024, all
right, now, I think they've doneit, I think they've done a good
job, but let's reverse it.

(04:45):
Okay, let's see the WNBA messedup, because I'm a fan of the
NBA, using the WNBA's format forthe draft.
Let's check and see how the.
So the 2024 season all right,cool, we got.
We got sparks, wings, sky,mystics and dream as the bottom
five.
All right, cool, I can takethat, I can take that.
And then, uh, and then let'ssee here the next, the next
season.
We have what?

(05:06):
No, no, wait, shouldn't this be2023?
I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, we need to focus on 2023
season.
There it is Now.
We're looking at squads righthere.
Look at that Mercury storm likeoh, fever, sparks sky.

(05:31):
So, by my estimation, 2025should have been sparks number
one, mercury, number two, wings,number three, sky, number four,
valkyries number five, becauseremember, they were the, the new
team, so they get slated intothat fifth spot.
But then you got the storm atnumber six, the fever at number
seven, the Mystics at numbereight, dream number nine, lynx

(05:52):
number ten, eleventh is the Aces, twelfth is the Sun and
thirteenth is the Liberty.
That actually would be adisservice because damn Alright,
well, the Sun lost some players, so they would have been
affected negatively this draft.
I don't know if they would havegotten the players that they
got.
That would have been one fullball, but their history
definitely.

(06:12):
I mean, you know they weredoing their thing.
But outside of this, though,I'm cool with it and maybe,
because I'm a Sparks fan, I'mbiased that means we had a
higher chance of getting anumber one pick.
But I do like the WNBA's currentformat of basing it off the
prior two years, because, again,we're actually trying to help
out teams.

(06:33):
Well, let's help out the teamswho are actually losing for the
longest period and genuinelylosing too, not teams that are
tanking.
And also it would make itharder to tank too, because,
remember this, ladies andgentlemen, so envision somebody
trying to tank for longer thantwo seasons.
A lot of teams don't want theirteams losing for longer than a

(06:56):
season, like tanking, aidedlosing for a season.
But you still got to becompetitive or at least attempt
to be competitive.
So now you can't tank becauseagain you got to base it off two
years, not one.
I think that would be prettysmooth and the WNBA currently
has that under wraps.
Now, in terms of going forward,I would love to see how the NBA

(07:24):
changes things if possible, ifat all, changes things if
possible, if at all.
But I'm curious what you allare thinking in terms of the
draft formats, like whatcriteria would you base it off?
Would you base it off theprevious season or the previous
two seasons?
I want to hear y'all thoughts,because I'm saying the two
seasons because we're helpingout the teams that actually need

(07:47):
it.
Remember, the Philadelphia76ers are in the lottery this
year.
They were third this year.
Did they really need that help?
Because I mean, they do have acouple of young guns and some
quality vets, plus a star inJoel Embiid, if he's healthy.
Just saying they might not haveneeded that third pick.

(08:08):
But the Jazz might have theHornets might have the.
The jazz might have the hornetsmight have the wizards might
have.
Just saying so again, I like tomake things fair, but I want to
hear y'all thoughts below.
So I want to hear your thoughtsand comments.
So definitely let me know.
But, ladies and gentlemen, Ithink that does about conclude
the end of the episode.
So definitely let me know yourthoughts.
I greatly appreciate your alltime.
Um, keep tuning in and untilnext time, right, but like I

(08:30):
said, ladies and gentlemen, myname is Trey.
I'm the host of Get a Bucket.
Please make sure to like,subscribe, comment, tell anyone
who's anyone about the show.
Hope you all have a good one,take care.