Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy doesn’t think the NBA’s new lottery rules will promote parity and do enough to dissuade teams from tanking, so he has a better idea.
Van Gundy said Friday that if the NBA wants to stop tanking altogether, the NBA Draft and max contracts should become things of the past — and that rookies should simply become free agents.
“I’d get rid of it, just get rid of the draft altogether,” Van Gundy said, via Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. “We’d just deal with the salary cap. Make all (rookies) free agents coming in and if I want to go give a guy $50 million a year, good, but I got to do it under the cap.
“I think if you did that and you had no individual max on players, we’d start to get some parity in the league, but the league really doesn’t want parity. They want the super teams, and I get that. It’s worked well, business-wise.”
Van Gundy doesn’t buy that rookies would simply flock to the marquee destinations, as cap space would be an inhibiting factor.
“They say everybody would want to go to L.A., well how much money are they going to give up to go to those places?” Van Gundy said. “Is [Kevin Durant] going to give up $25 million a year to keep the [Warriors] together? Hell no. Nobody’s going to buy a ticket to see the first guy off the bench. I have great love and respect for those guys, but I’m just saying it would be a fairer system, we’d get parity in the league and then the draft picks would be out there. Fit them under your cap.”
Most in the league are happy to see lottery reform come to pass. Van Gundy doesn’t seem to think it will change much at all.
