The NBA should delay the draft
The NBA Draft is Thursday night. The NBA free agency period starts 10 days later.
The NFL free agency period begins in midMarch. The NFL Draft is held in late April.
Opposite order. The NBA is the league that has it backwards.
Free agency is when teams add proven talent. The draft is when teams add unproven talent. Shouldn’t free agency precede the draft?
Free agency is when players have the power to determine their place of employment. The draft is when players donothave the power to determine their place of employment.
Take the Cavaliers, for example. They have the No. 8 pick in the draft. Cleveland has a vague idea who will be available at No. 8. The Cavs also have LeBron James in flux. LeBron can bolt Cleveland, or he can stick around.
Whoever Cleveland takes could and should have a major impact on the Cavaliers future. But the decision between taking, say, Trae Young or Wendell Carter Jr., isn’t guaranteed to produce a massive difference in Cleveland’s 2018-19 season and beyond.
Whether the Cavs keep LeBron or not is the equivalent of whether or not the basketballs have air in them.
Wouldn’t the Cavs be better served knowing whether or not LeBron is going to be with them, rather than if Young or Carter is on the roster?
Here’s another example. The 76ers draft 10th. Philadelphia also has money to spend on the free-agent market. When the Sixers draft, wouldn’t they be better off knowing whether or not a plum free agent like Paul George has signed on? Or whether J.J. Redick re-ups with the Sixers? Wouldn’t that be good information when the 76ers draft? Even if Philly drafts a small forward, it wouldn’t tell PG13 to get lost. But if Philly signs George, it might draft for other needs.
Wouldn’t every team be better served knowing the veteran makeup of their team before adding rookies, as opposed to knowing the rookie talent coming in before shopping in the free agent market?
I’m hard-pressed to think of a good reason to draft before free agency. It can’t be for rosterbuilding purposes.
It’s quite possible this is merely a marketing decision. The NBA Summer League begins in early July. The draft picks play in the summer league. The NBA wants its high-profile rookies to show in Las Vegas. If you moved summer league to August, NBA personnel would have no time off. August is its dark month. But could the draft be moved to mid-July, with summer league in late July? Seems like a workable solution.
The NBA does many things better than does the NFL. The draft/free agency order is not one of them.