I have no idea how similar this is to Bill Simmon's "Entertaining as Hell Tournament" in some aspects, but here's my take on how to prevent NBA teams from tanking.
You reward the teams with the best record not to make the playoffs with the higher chances of landing a higher pick. Basically it's the other way around from the current system. As for the teams that make the playoffs, just keep the current format of how they get their draft order.
Why would I suggest this? Because it encourages every team to be competitive from the start of the season to the end of the season. It also gives teams who are one piece away from making the playoffs a big chance to land that piece in the draft. And it also gives high draft picks a good chance to be in a winning situation early in their careers.
When a team gets mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, what reason do they have to keep winning? Nothing. Because then they'd do their best to keep losing so they can get a higher draft pick (unless the draft that year isn't very deep). So to encourage teams to keep playing to win, reward those teams that win with better draft chances.
Isn't it logical? Why will you reward a team that will embrace a losing culture with a good draft pick? Wouldn't that be counter-productive, because it will be difficult to create a winning atmosphere around a team that gets used to losing? Even for just one season, the damage it could do to players, coaches, and staffs mindsets could be bad. Specially in today's NBA where almost everyone (from my standpoint, at least, and I did say almost) seems more concerned with how much money they take home rather than how to play the game of basketball at the highest level.
But what about the teams that end up with the worst losing records? Won't they be forever stuck in a losing record if they only get mid-level draft picks? That's their problem. If they don't want to keep losing, if they want to keep their fans, and if they want to make sure they keep raking in the dough then they will have to be a smart organization.
One downside I do see in this is that the good teams who usually make the playoffs as a low seed have an incentive to tank to get a high draft pick. This could lead to league-wide tanking for seasons with a deep and talented draft. Then again, I never said my plan was fool-proof.
Out.
