The Sixers Voted for Lottery Reform, Now That They’ve Exhausted the System

Lottery reform passed yesterday 28-1-1, with only the Oklahoma City Thunder seemingly understanding that this reform is bad for teams in need of rebuilding and the Dallas Mavericks unsure what to do with the draft in general. The Sixers voted for the changes that they forced into place over the past three four seasons, because upper management is filled with ex-NBA personnel who will happily move on from the Process years with the Process players and who would feel completely comfortable with the sliminess of benefiting from a system and then destroying it.

We’ve talked previously about how the new system changes the inflection point on tanking, rather than eliminating it entirely. Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren, who proposed the lottery wheel farce back in the day, quipped that this should prevent extreme tanking by the worst teams in the league. While true, it could set off tanking at the trade deadline from potential fringe playoff contenders who would see a puncher’s chance at a top 4 pick evolve into a real chance under the new system. That could arguably be worse for a league that’s already perceived, against its best wishes, as a league where nothing matters before the NBA finals.

But hey: if it means more luck is injected into the system, that means bad management might be rewarded more! Go Knicks!

A Succinct Recap of the Above

I checked to see if Sam liked this tweet. He did not: his only like remains T.J. McConnell’s game-winning turnaround jumper against the Knicks last year.

Puerto Rico Needs Our Help (Carmelo Anthony, The Players Tribune)

(I’ll continue to post this in links until further notice)

Puerto Rico and other islands in the Caribbean have been ravaged by multiple hurricanes over the past month, including Maria, which devastated the island and is expected to leave parts of the island without power for six months. Other islands like Barbuda and Dominica are bordering on uninhabitable after the storms. They need - and deserve - our help in the recovery process. Kudos to Melo for using his public platform to call for this aid.

Sixers, Nik Stauskas not talking contract extension (Keith Pompey, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Nik’s quotes in this one made me laugh. Keith also covers the Markelle Fultz free throw shooting form debacle, which is noted as being scratched.

As for a Stauskas extension: if he could do one thing other than shoot at a slightly above league-average clip, I might be interested in getting something done. One season with a three point percentage of 37% and no other positive production isn’t enough to retain or guarantee a rotation spot on this team, especially with a potential minutes squeeze for Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who has loads of defensive potential you couldn’t find by squinting at Stauskas.

I continue to think Stauskas has the raw skills to eventually improve in other areas and stick as a rotation player, but I wouldn’t mind if he had to prove that elsewhere.

Suggesting some lineups Brett Brown can experiment with (Rich Hofmann, The Athletic)

Rich goes into five lineup combinations the Sixers may want to try. Subscribe and give it a read. And while it might not make sense given the roster makeup, I just want the record to show that I want every lineup suggestion with Ben Simmons at the 5 injected directly and promptly into my veins.