OK so we're talking this over with the Colonel and the issue is that the team that gets LeBron and Durant will keep them forever. So winning the that 1st pick of that first draft is like winning the lottery in perpetuity.
How to even out?
Well i have an idea.
Every year every team picks a franchise player (from their roster!)
Players are sorted based on last years APS (or ranking) as the "1st round".
GMs pick in reverse order of the 1st round for the next X rounds. (Say 3 for the sake of an example).
So if you took lebron you would pick last in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. If you took Durant it would be second the last in however many rounds. If you had Pau Gasol you pick first in multiple rounds....
Tell me that has legs.
The first year all players would be available to "Franchise" and these would be selected first and would determine draft order for rounds 2 through x..
I think we have to keep the idea simple. Every team gets to keep one player on their roster without giving up a pick (that's all there is to it.) Every year that's the same pattern. Keep one guy on your roster without giving up the keeper pick period.
The Lebron/Durrant question is a good one but a little short sighted. Who will be the next Durrant? LeBron was not statistically that much better than Kobe or Wade or Duncan just a couple of years ago. Change can and will happen.
Furthermore, the real interesting part of this equation is that there would be intense trading interest in those players. If you had a winning team with LeBron at least half a league could potentially be interested in trading their whole team for him at the end of the year. If I am on the outside of the playoffs looking in I would gladly trade my first, second and third round picks for a LeBron....potentially helping the playoff contender and the team on the outside. In fact, I would say that right now there is virtually no change LeBron ever gets traded. Most teams that have him will be playoff bound and there is rarely or ever a deal that would make sense. With the franchise player idea, there would be tons of offers for a LeBron that would be very competitive.
Bottom line.....I think top players would move more not less with the simple franchise player idea.
Just keep in mind that the flip side of a unique league is that you have get a group of people that want to play.
I think we could sell this as long as their was a counterweight to Lebron (i.e. draft positioning).
The more we talk about it the more we think that counter weight should be every round.So if you have LeBron you pick last in every round. Then it gets to the point where someone might consider not taking LeBron.
And i don't think its really fair to look at a few years back. LeBron was the best player by a good 100 points last sesaon. He broke 1.200 (comfortably) for the 3rd consecutive season. In the entire KFBA only Wade has done this the last three season and only once and just barely. For the next few seasons i think is comfortable to say that LeBron will match this and only Durant or Wade stand a chance of doing it on any given season.
This is no different than Shaq in his heyday or Jordan in his and it definitely tilts the scale from the early 2000s where we had a different player lead the league every year.
Like Doug pointed out so eloquenlty last summer. The difference between LeBron (1.250) and the 10th best player in KFBA (~1.000) is 250 points. Thats the same as difference between the same 10th player and the 120th.
broham: OK so the franchise player can be kept by forfeiting a pick one round above where he was drafted or kept in the previous season. And if he was drafted / kept in the 1st, then he can be kept in the 1st right?
OK so the franchise player can be kept by forfeiting a pick one round above where he was drafted or kept in the previous season. And if he was drafted / kept in the 1st, then he can be kept in the 1st right?
It's not my concept, so JCPerry can correct me if needed, but as I understand it, you don't "give up a pick" for the Franchise player. Everyone has a FP, and then there are 15 rounds of draft. In a sense, the FP is always your first pick.