FanNation

I will bite this one in the bud, well before the lottery.  Last year both the Celtics and Grizzlies complained about it because they were seeded tohave the rights to Oden and Durant and instead wound up with Mike Conley jr. and, well, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.  I guess things turned out ok for the Celtics.  Nonetheless, Jerry West practically campaigned against the lottery once he lost it and Portland and Seattle won it.  This is just whining because his blatant tanking strategy didn't work.  Both the Celtics and the Grizzlies shamelessy threw games down the stretch to add more ping pong balls to their pot.  And this is why the lottery is beautiful.

See, in the NBA it actually would make strategic sense to tank for an Oden or a Durant.  Unlike the MLB or NFL, one player can completely turn around a franchise (this is why the NHL also has a lottery).  Look at what Ewing did for the Knicks, Jordan did for the Bulls, and Hakeem did for the Rockets.  Thus, implementing a lottery was supposed to prevent tanking.  I guess some teams are willing to throw games for a 40% chance at a top two pick.  Though it wasn't necessarily karma, it does seem to be some form of justice that the two tanking teams miss out on the high picks, while two teams that played hard to the end got the two most coveted players.

Aside from mindless whining by GMs that didn't win the lottery despite the best losing efforts, the large detraction of the lottery is that it screws over a team that really tries and still does the worst.  Example: in 2006 my Blazers had the worst record but only got the 4th pick in the draft.  What they did with that pick proves that the lottery is fine the way it is.  Having the top pick doesn't mean you get the best draft, and the Blazers parlayed that #4 pick into LeMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy, giving them the best draft of 2006.  Also, the Celtics last year got Ray Allen and KG out of their draft position.   It's clear to see that owning the top draft pick doesn't directly correlate with success.

There is no question that some team will drop in the lottery and the fans will complain about the unfair system.  I would also surmise it will either be the Heat or Grizzlies (again) that drop in the draft.  This is in fact why the draft lotery IS fair, because both teams openly and actively threw games down the stretch.