Play-in tournament

In 2020, the NBA created a postseason tournament to determine which two teams in each conference will secure the final two playoff spots.  Teams finishing the regular season in positions 7 through 10 in the standings for each conference compete to determine the 7^th and 8^th seeds in each conference’s playoff format.

The play-in tournament has created additional excitement for fans because teams will rarely be “out” of the playoff race.

In-season tournament

The NBA introduced its in-season tournament in 2023. This single elimination tournament is an early season event where each team plays four designated regular season games which count toward “group play.”  Six “group” winners and two wild card second place finishers advance through a series of knockout rounds.  The last team standing wins the NBA Cup. Players on the winning team each receive $500,00 and members on the runner-up team pockets $200,000. In addition, players on the two losing teams in the semifinals each get $100,000 and the players on the four losing teams in the quarterfinals each receive $50,000.

The in-season tournament concludes the first week in December and is an effective marketing event that heightens interest in early season NBA basketball

Post-season awards eligibility

Players can be eligible to earn a “super-max” contract based on being selected to All-NBA team(s) or winning the MVP or Defensive Player of the Year, awards.  Beginning with the 2023/24 season, the NBA and the NBAPA agreed to a participation standard for eligibility of these post season awards.  Players now have to play a minimum of 65 games (out of 82) to be eligible for All-NBA, MVP and DPOY awards. This rule will help reverse the recent trend of load management—which is when healthy players opt to rest instead of playing games. If a player misses more than 20% of the season, he will not be eligible for the league’s top honors. Players wanting to earn a “super-max” contract will no longer take nights off unless they are truly injured. When NBA stars play everyone benefits!

Coaching eligibility.

I believe the integrity of the NBA will be better served if some modifications are made to the wins and loss records of head coaches. Specifically, two changes should be made immediately.

First, a person should only be eligible to coach an All-Star team if: (a) he did not coach the game the prior year and (b) he coached at least 80% of the regular season games prior to the All-Star game selection.

Doc Rivers was selected to be the 2024 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star coach despite coaching only three games the entire season! This embarrassment is an insult to the coaching profession and to the fans.

Second, eligibility for regular season wins and loss records for Head Coaches needs to be changed.  A rule should be implemented that states “the person designated as the ‘Acting Head Coach’ when the game begins will be credited with that game’s result.”  If a coach misses a game due to injury, illness, or a personal reason, they should not get credit for the win (or loss) for that game. This injustice was magnified during the 2015/16 season when Steve Kerr missed the first 43 games of the season.  He was given credit for 39 wins for games he did not attend.

Players are required to play in order to be eligible for NBA awards, so it makes sense coaches should have to coach to be eligible for a win.

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Fast forward a dozen years. Now $280 million is the amount the “average superstar” player is paid in salary during their playing career. At the completion of the 2023/24 NBA season twenty-two current NBA players will have earned more than $250 million from their standard NBA contracts. Any money these players have earned in endorsements and other business interests are in addition to their team salaries.

Prior to this group of twenty-two, only a select number of Hall of Fame players had career earnings in excess of $250 million. This list includes Kevin Garnett ($343 million), Kobe Bryant ($323 million), Shaquille O’Neal ($292 million), Carmelo Anthony ($266 million), and Dirk Nowitzki ($255 million).

“Club 250” will continue to grow because many young stars are on track to surpass the quarter of a billion mark in the next few years. Since more players will be earning annual salaries exceeding $60 million, I think it is time for the NBA to consider letting players own a piece of the team they are playing for.

Owners should have the right to issue restricted equity to players in lieu of salaries. If a player is traded his equity will remain in his financial portfolio.

The NBA has always been an innovative league, and this would be another bold step. Franchise ownership for players will be the ultimate partnership and a win/win for everyone.

Career earnings of active players following 2023/24 season:

1. LeBron James- $482 million
2. Kevin Durant- $405 million
3. Chris Paul- $391 million
4. Steph Curry- $358 million
5. Russell Westbrook- $343 million
6. James Harden- $340 million
7. Paul George- $307 million
8. Damian Lillard- $280 million
9. Kawhi Leonard- $279 million
10. Al Horford- $279 million
11. Kyle Lowry- $275 million
12. Kyrie Irving- $273 million
13. Mike Conley- $273 million
14. Kevin Love- $272 million
15.  Gordon Haywood- $270 million
16. Klay Thompson- $270 million
17. Anthony Davis- $269 million
18. Bradley Beal- $269 million
19. Jimmy Butler- $264 million
20. DeMar DeRozan- $258 million
21. Blake Griffin- $258 million
22. Tobias Harris- $251 million

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Identifying the best players from many different eras was a subjective exercise but accomplished its goal—to create a basketball buzz open to debate for years to come. Can you imagine the discussion if the list ranked the players in order?

Who is really the best of all time and how can the distinction be made?

An easy argument can be made that the “top 75” omitted many great players such as Vince Carter, Walt Bellamy, Bob Lanier, Artis Gilmore, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Chris Mullin but the most glaring oversight is Alex English.

Alex English is a top 75 all-time NBA player. Period. Alex was the NBA’s leading scorer for the entire decade of the 80’s! If that statement alone is not enough to make the “top 75”, consider he was the first player ever to score 2,000 points a season for 8 consecutive years. His career stats are rock solid: 21.5 points per game; 50.7% FGA; 83.2% FTA; 5.5 REB; 8 time All-Star.

Only 23 players in the history of the NBA have scored 25,000+ points and twenty-one of them made the “top 75” list. In addition, 32 of the top 35 NBA all-time scorers made the “top 75” list. Alex ranks 20th on the NBA all-time scoring list with 25,613 points.

The only stat missing from the English resume is an NBA Championship. He is not alone. Nineteen of the “top 75” players do not have a ring. That means twenty-five per cent of the “top 75” did not win an NBA championship but most of these players still belong on the list. Great players without an NBA Championship include Carmelo Anthony, Charles Barkley, Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing, Patrick Ewing, George Gervin, James Harden, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Damian Lillard, Karl Malone, Pete Maravich, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, John Stockton, Nate Thurmond, Russell Westbrook and Dominique Wilkins.

Most voters give much more weight to current NBA players than those of years past. This makes sense because they have seen them play in person and have watched their highlights on ESPN and social media. Because of this “now” bias, several current players may not belong on the “top 75” list. Kawhi Leonard is one such player. Leonard is a great player, but his accomplishments do not compare to Alex English’s career.

Although Leonard is a better defensive player than English, I think the voters judgment was clouded by the “now” factor and because Kawhi played on two championship teams. If Leonard stays healthy and plays enough games, he will easily be one of the best players of all-time, but he is not there yet. Alex English belongs on the “top 75” list ahead of Kawhi Leonard. The comparison is not close!

Ranking the players in order is much more difficult so I will start the discussion. I plan to do an entire blog describing my methodology but for now, here are my second ten best NBA players of all time:

11. Kobe Bryant
12. Shaquille O’Neal
13. Moses Malone
14. Kevin Durant
15. John Havlicek
16. Karl Malone
17. Steph Curry
18. Jerry West
19. David Robinson
20. Dirk Nowitzki

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Everyone knows that in 1984 the Portland Trailblazers front office led by Harry Glickman selected Sam Bowie with the #2 pick passing on Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton. Most basketball fans also remember the Portland Trailblazers whiffed again in 2007 when the Kevin Pritchard-led front office selected Greg Oden over Kevin Durant with the first pick in the draft.

Have you ever heard of Darko Milicic? In 2003 the Detroit Pistons General Manager Joe Dumars used the #2 pick to take Milicic. The Pistons passed on Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony!

The 1996 draft featured four players that are now in the Hall of Fame- Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and Steve Nash. Toronto, Vancouver, Minnesota, Boston, L.A. Clippers, New Jersey, Dallas, Indiana, Golden State, and Cleveland all selected journeymen players ahead of these great players. How can you select a player like Todd Fuller over these future NBA Hall of Famers? Can you imagine paying someone millions of dollars to select Samaki Walker over Kobe Bryant? These General Managers also passed on future All-Stars Peja Stojaovic and Jermaine O’Neal*.

In 2009, Memphis General Manager Chris Wallace selected Hasheem Thabeet with the #2 pick and Minnesota General Manager David Kahn selected Ricky Rubio at #5 and Jonny Flynn with the sixth pick. Both teams passed on future Hall of Famer Steph Curry!

In 1989, All-Stars Shawn Kemp* and Vlade Divac were drafted 17^th and 26^th respectively. Charlotte, Chicago, Indiana, Dallas, Washington, Minnesota, Orlando, New Jersey, Boston, Denver all selected journeymen players who never made an All-Star team. All-Star Zach Randolph* was the 19^th selection in 2001. Sixteen of the players picked ahead of Randolph were journeymen and never made an All-Star team. The teams striking out in this draft included Washington, Chicago, Golden State, Vancouver, New Jersey, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Houston, Orlando, Charlotte, Toronto.

Teams today continue to have better resources and technology to guarantee success on draft day. Some of the tools used include:

• Full-time scouts- General managers hire scouts to travel the globe and watch international, college and high school prospects practice and play games in-person;
• Analytics- General managers employ full-time analytics departments to statistically model every metric that can be used to determine the likelihood of a player’s success in the NBA;
• Strength, Conditioning, and Basketball Skills- Teams conduct in-person workouts with prospects to obtain first-hand knowledge of a player’s capabilities. Teams also talk with every coach the prospect played for and look at game tape of every game the prospect has ever played;
• Evaluations- NBA General Managers hire medical experts in all fields, including but not limited to, orthopedics, internal medicine, and psychology to understand all elements of the prospect as a human being in addition to a basketball prospect;
• Interviews- Basketball Operations departments conduct in-person interviews with prospects. In addition, teams hire private security to conduct background checks on draft prospects and the player’s family and associates;

Despite all the resources, teams continue to make monumental mistakes on draft day. Recent examples include:

2012- All-Star Damian Lillard was selected 6^th behind Michael Kidd-Gilchrist- Charlotte, Dion Waiters- Cleveland, and Thomas Robinson- Sacramento.

2013- Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo was selected 15^th behind Anthony Bennett-Cleveland, Otto Porter- Washington, Cody Zeller- Charlotte, Alex Lin- Phoenix, Nerlens Noel- New Orleans, Ben McLemore- Sacramento, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope- Detroit, Trey Burke- Utah, Michael Carter-Williams- Philadelphia, Steven Adams- OKC, Kelly Olynyk- Dallas, and Shabazz Muhammad- Minnesota.

2014- NBA MVP Nicola Jokic was selected 41^st by Denver. Virtually every team in the league including Denver which had the 16^th pick missed on the reigning MVP! The first two picks in the draft were Andrew Wiggins- Cleveland and Jabari Parker- Milwaukee. These teams took journeymen players over All-Star Joel Embiid.

2015- All-Star Devin Booker was selected 13^th ahead of disappointments such as D’Angelo Russell- LA Lakers, Jahili Okafor- Philadelphia, Mario Hezonja- Orlando, Willie Cauley-Stein- Sacramento, Emmanuel Mudiay- Denver, Stanley Johnson-Detroit, Frank Kaminsky-Charlotte, Justise Winslow- Miami, and Myles Turner- Indiana.

2016- All-Stars Jamal Murray (7^th selection) and Domantas Sabonis (11^th selection) were passed over for Dragan Bender (4^th pick by Phoenix) Kris Dunn (5^th pick by Minnesota) Marquese Chriss (8^th pick by Phoenix) Jakob Poltl (9^th pick by Toronto) and Thon Maker (10^th pick by Milwaukee).

2017-With the #1 pick, Philadelphia selected Markelle Fultz which was a major mistake. Jayson Tatum (#3) De’Aaron Fox (#5) Donovan Mitchell (#13) were much better selections. Orlando, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Sacramento, Charlotte, and Detroit also missed on Mitchell selecting journeymen instead.

2018- Sacramento selected Marvin Bagley with the second pick instead of Luka Doncic (#3) or Trae Young (#5).

Why do so many NBA teams get it wrong?

NBA drafts are properly evaluated after three seasons. Most NBA teams are only focused on the upcoming draft and fail to evaluate past draft day performance. I always evaluated our team’s player rankings three seasons following each draft. I felt it was essential to understand which players we rated properly and which players we missed on. Each team usually only has two draft selections on draft day, but they will have evaluated and graded approximately 75-100 players.

The key to getting the draft right is to understand why you got it wrong!

By nature, most NBA owners are forward-thinking and rarely hold General Managers accountable for draft mistakes made three years prior. In addition, General Managers and scouts are very good after the fact at rewriting their scouting reports. One example of this was when I was the President and General Manager of the Seattle Supersonics. We played the Denver Nuggets and beat them handily. Shawn Kemp had a huge game. Pete Babcock, the Nuggets GM was quoted in the paper saying he loved Kemp and would have drafted him if he was available. After reading the article I called Pete and reminded him he took Todd Lichti with the 15^th pick, and I selected Shawn Kemp with the 17^th pick. He was thankful for the call and happy the media and the owner did not “look back at the actual order of the 1989 draft.”

Selecting players and putting a championship roster together is very difficult. It requires vision and the ability to combine art and science. Some people are very good at it, but many others simply lack the skill set. Unfortunately, having a passion for basketball is not enough to be able to make the right selections on draft day.

Draft picks will only be successful if General Managers are good at other parts of their job such as:

Player Development 
Drafted players need coaches that can help them develop basketball skills required to be successful in the NBA. On-court skills work is a year-round process that occurs outside of regular team practice sessions. Development includes strength and conditioning, nutrition, media training, and a variety of skills to improve physical and mental health.

Coaching
General Managers must hire a coaching staff and draft players that fit the philosophy and system the team implements. In general, coaches do not like to play young players. Therefore, the General Manager must convince the coach to support young players and allow them to earn playing time. I was in charge of seventeen NBA drafts and in most cases, the coaching staff tried to convince me to trade our first-round pick for an established veteran player. A good General Manager will make the roster better for the upcoming season AND the future at the same time. I found that when I made the team better now, the coach believed in my vision and was more apt to help develop our young players. In 1989, our Sonics coach Bernie Bickerstaff wanted a point guard that could help us now. With the 16^th pick, I drafted Dana Barros to fill that role. In addition, with the upside for our future in mind, I wanted to draft Shawn Kemp. Bernie supported my gamble on Kemp because he got the immediate help he wanted in Barros. Both players became future All-Stars!

Support Staff
Drafted players need help adjusting to a new city and being away from home for the first time. Too many franchises assume the drafted player will figure NBA life out because they are being paid a lot of money to be a professional ballplayer. The opposite is true. The best players have support from the organization in all areas of life away from the court. A young player comfortable with his new surroundings in more likely to develop into a solid NBA player. In 1996 I drafted a seventeen-year-old from South Carolina to play in Portland, Oregon. Jermaine O’Neal was homesick and felt lost until I hired his former high school coach to join our staff and live in Portland. George Glymph was the comforting father figure Jermaine needed to help him adjust to the many demands of his new life in the NBA.

The 2021 NBA Draft is a deep and talented class. Many of the teams made excellent picks but in a few years certain players will be added to the annual list of NBA Draft Day Air Balls.

*Disclosure- I drafted Shawn Kemp (17^th pick), Jermaine O’Neal (17^th pick), and Zach Randolph (19^th pick) all outside the lottery. Kemp and O’Neal were each 6-time All-Stars and Randolph was selected to the All-Star team twice. All three players had seasons in which they averaged 20+points and 10+ rebounds.

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