Well, this is one we didn’t see coming. And frankly it doesn’t make a ton of sense.
But according to Chris Sheridan over at the new Sheridan Hoops (two days old and two great posts, well done sir), the NBA owners are requesting a third round to the NBA draft.SheridanHoops.com has learned that NBA owners have proposed adding a third round to the annual draft, a proposal that the players’ union has countered by offering an array of changes to the draft that would help address the owners’ desire for more competitive balance….
Under another proposal, the teams with the eight worst records would get an additional first round pick, beginning with selection No. 22, and the teams with the eight best records would have no first-round picks but would select at the top of the second round (picks 31 through 38), then also would get the final eight picks of the second round.
There had been reports of giving the NBA’s worst records a chance to get better faster through the draft (something that is part of the ongoing labor negotiations), and Sheridan lays out a couple different options being discussed. The one above with the worst eight teams getting another first-round pick makes the most sense to me.
A third round? That doesn’t make sense.
First, the usual breakdown on NBA rosters is about 60 percent of the players were drafted in the first round, 20 percent in the second round and 20 percent undrafted. Theoretically a third round could capture those undrafted guys — but those are guys who need development, years in the D-League or Europe before finding their way to the NBA (most of the time). Do the owners plan to start picking up those development costs?
At the end of the second round this past draft teams started making wild reaches for little known overseas players (ignoring guys in college who might actually have made a roster).
But let’s go back, here are the last 10 picks of the 2010 NBA draft: Magnum Rolle, Luke Harangody, Pape Sy, Willie Warren, Jeremy Evans, Hamady N’Diaye, Ryan Reid, Derrick Caracter, Stanley Robinson, Dwayne Collins. Of that group, Harangody looked most likely to develop into a rotation guy (he got 19 minutes a game in his 21 games in Cleveland) but already many of these other guys struggle to hang on (the Lakers are not brining back Caracter, for example).
2009’s last 10? Jack McClinton, A.J. Price, Nando de Colo, Robert Vaden, Patrick Mills, Ahmad Nivins, Emir Predzic, Lester Hudon, Chinemelu Elonu, Robert Dozier.
Picking another 30 guys after those guys is going to improve competitive balance? Nope. That’s not the answer.