Report: NBA Considering Scrapping Draft Lottery For 'Wheel Concept'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's a confusing idea, but a proposal that NBA owners may be considering within a year to combat teams tanking seasons to get higher draft picks.

According to a complicated report on Grantland.com, the league would do away with the draft lottery entirely for something known as the "wheel concept." Within the soon-to-be-proposed system each of the 30 teams would pick in a specific first-round draft slot once — and exactly once — every 30 years.

Each team would simply cycle through the 30 draft slots, year by year, in a predetermined order designed so that teams pick in different areas of the draft each year. Teams would know with 100 percent certainty in which draft slots they would pick every year, up to 30 years out from the start of every 30-year cycle, CBSSports.com reported.

Currently, the NBA uses a weighted system in which all 14 teams that do not qualify for the playoffs get put into a lottery. The team with the most losses has the greatest chance of earning the top pick based on having more "ping pong balls" than any other team, and the odds for each subsequent team dwindle from there. The NHL uses a similar system.

The "wheel concept," while convoluted on the surface, guarantees each team one top-six pick every five seasons, and at least one top-12 pick in every four-year span, Grantland.com reported.

The website also reported that the proposal is still in the very early stages and already has several critics. Many owners have not even seen the proposal.

Decide for yourself if this is a good idea. Check out Grantland's story here and offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

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