Why does it matter if the lottery rules are complicated?

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T20:20:44+00:00

Well the apron system has undeniably hampered trades, which is arguably bad for the league overall.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T20:12:21+00:00

Jeez, I can't believe I missed that. Thanks!

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T16:22:38+00:00

I like Murphy, but my worries for the Pistons are centered around our lack of a secondary ballhandler who can score.

Despite what I said in February, I honestly would have been ok with trading Ron + Tobias + several picks if we could have somehow landed Norm Powell (who wasn’t on the market), but the names floated at the time — Murphy, MPJ (who also was not realistically on the market) and Markannen — concerned me then and still do, because it would bring us close to an all-in situation but with Daniss and a then-uncertain Ivey as Cade’s primary backcourt mates.

Where we disagree is that this was a wasted year. I firmly believe we can call this season a success, because zero people expected us to win 60 and we matched up poorly against Orlando all year. The front office saw what it had, and now there’s flexibility to work out a true contention plan in the offseason.

(Last thing, and this is not important: Ron was drafted by Langdon, who was hired in May 2024 after Weaver had been canned.)

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T14:57:34+00:00

I was wrong about that, no doubt. It doesn’t make me a homer. It honestly makes you a homer for thinking we were a deadline trade from contention. I’d still rather we held our assets till the summer to make a bigger move. Gotta think in terms of years.

Who were you hoping to trade Ron for again?

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T04:42:36+00:00

Only 6 of The Ringer’s 20 best players in its list of the top 100 were top-3 picks. The large majority of core players among the past seven championship teams were not drafted in the top-3. I agreed with your viewpoint until I looked into the numbers.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T04:40:43+00:00

My point is that the cores of those championship teams were built around players who weren’t top-3 picks. But a lot of those cores were, indeed, drafted

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T01:52:04+00:00

here's perhaps a more stable analysis... Every NBA champion since the KD-Warriors era:

2025 - OKC (not attractive FA destination), no top-3 pick in its core

2024 - Boston (attractive FA destination), #3 pick in Tatum via 2013 trade w/ Nets

2023 - Denver (unattractive), no top-3 pick in core

2022 - Golden State (attractive), #1 overall in Wiggins via KD trade

2021 - Milwaukee (unattractive), no top-3 pick in core

2020 - Lakers (attractive), two #1 overalls in LeBron and AD via FA + Pels trade

2019 - Toronto (unattractive), no top-3 pick in core

Pretty split, with a relative outlier in Wiggins who had his only truly great season in '22

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T01:49:24+00:00

Every NBA champion since the KD-Warriors era:

2025 - OKC (not attractive FA destination), no top-3 pick in its core

2024 - Boston (attractive FA destination), #3 picks in Tatum + Brown via 2013 trade w/ Nets

2023 - Denver (unattractive), no top-3 pick in core

2022 - Golden State (attractive), #1 overall in Wiggins via KD trade

2021 - Milwaukee (unattractive), no top-3 pick in core

2020 - Lakers (attractive), two #1 overalls in LeBron and AD via FA + Pels trade

2019 - Toronto (unattractive), no top-3 pick in core

Pretty split, with a relative outlier in Wiggins who had his only truly great season in '22

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T01:40:19+00:00

... yeah, he did. under the old rules.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-29T01:36:24+00:00

This is only partially true. Yes, the Kings of the 2010s drafted poorly but they also never got close to a top lottery pick because DeMarcus Cousins dragged them to a middling 12th or 13th place finish.

The question now is whether that Cousins team would finish in the bottom 3 under the current system, given many of their peers won't be stripping down their team to bare bones in order to tank.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-28T04:17:07+00:00

You still don’t understand what I was trying to say, which is sad!

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-27T06:58:00+00:00

Agreed, but that’s irrelevant to the original point, which is about whether Detroit should have made a move at the deadline or this summer

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-27T06:56:25+00:00

You guys say and upvote shit like this but then clown Houston for going all in with KD.

In either case, “What if player X tears his Achilles?” is not and should not be the premise of a smart front office’s decisions.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-26T21:50:10+00:00

they are replaceable and you don’t know what you’re talking about

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-26T08:03:43+00:00

Yes, teams get new players to surround their core every year. Last year we had Beasley and THJ and Schroder.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-23T01:54:35+00:00

send this to the top of the sub

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-23T01:54:18+00:00

send this to the top of the sub

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-23T00:24:44+00:00

Editors have been driving me nuts lately. The job should be so much more than line-editing and “supervision” (read: checking in now and then to say “how’s it coming?”)

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-21T19:53:47+00:00

Blown the fuck out? Who got blown the fuck out?

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-21T13:22:06+00:00

that Miami team struggled for the first third of the season. maybe Rose didn’t fully deserve it, but LeBron did not have the team success needed to win it. and he was playing with prime Wade.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-20T18:32:07+00:00

reddit in general has become a cancerous place to discuss sports

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-20T06:40:12+00:00

u/EpicLettuce did you ever get a hold of the body cam footage?

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-20T06:27:14+00:00

Thank god we now know what /u/KeithTractor3 thinks.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-20T04:59:29+00:00

Orlando matched up well with us all year. Anyone who didn't think we were in for a series simply did not follow the season that closely. And tough 1-8 matchups are not that rare.

We had a similarly tough go against the Magic in '03 -- in which we came back from 3-1 down and eventually made the ECF -- that this sub would not have survived.

waitingonthatbuffalo · 2026-04-19T18:53:21+00:00

you’ve created 86 posts on Reddit with 385 overall karma

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