I’m going to layout 3 scenarios that I’ve thought about as potential rule changes for the JBL. I’m not suggesting we put these to a vote at this time, I’m just here spewing out some ideas for the masses.
Option 1
Rookie Draft – JBL Lottery
Currently, the JBL Rookie lottery is one of the most exciting things that happens all summer. Listening to TSN1040 has reminds me everyday that the sports world in the summer months, if you’re not a baseball fan, is slow and boring. The BC Lions are trash. The Whitecaps play horrible football. And there is no NBA.
The anticipation of the JBL rookie lottery keeps me going. Researching rookies from some small town College in Eastern Nebraska excites me. I’m still, to this day, amazed at these kids highlight reels on You Tube. Not because of their 3 minute videos of them just dunking – but because it doesn’t show any scouts (or a super keen JBL owner) if you can play in the NBA. Can you shoot? Can you hit a 3? I certainly can’t tell from your dunking video. I get it, you’re 6’10 and can dunk. Big whoop.
So this year’s rookie lottery was held at Talking Rock Resort, Shuswap. In attendance was Chilliwack owner Benny and Golden owner Johnny. Also there, former JBL’er and Dayton Yer Sista owner Cord. And finally, a fan favourite Deano R was the man holding the box o’ balls. The anticipation of who was going to get the 1st pick was amazing. Would Kok actually get #1? I was definitely rooting against French being drawn early – his run of championships (3 in 4) did not need bolstering by winning the Zion sweepstakes. Would the trash talking Idaho be able to pull off another major coup? So many good storylines.
We all know what happened and who gets to pick where. But my take on the Rookie Draft is that it should be 2 rounds. For a year like this with 14 JBL teams – that’s 28 rookie picks – essentially matching the NBA draft. All 2nd round rookie picks in my universe would be $1. You could do a lot of things to make the 2nd round more interesting. You could do the standard reverse draft. So Kok winning #1 also means he gets #28. Or, you could lottery up again for the 2nd round. Maybe the Kok wins #1 and #15?
You would get to take a chance on someone, before the Auction, for just $1 and see how his pre-season shakes out. Maybe you’ve got a $1 dollar gem on your hands. If not, release him before auction.
And I get all the negatives – that no one wants to take a chance on some $1 rookie. Well, in my scenario, you could ‘PASS’ on your 2nd rounder. Another negative I imagine would be that those true NBA fans (or JBL keeners) would have a huge advantage by potentially getting a $1 steal. Well, yes, but that’s the same for the Auction – do your homework and you’ll probably get some good players. Again, these players we would be picking in the JBL rookie round #2 would all be 1st round NBA picks. Or, you could gamble on Bol Bol or other 2nd rounders that may have slipped thru the cracks. And of course, as the JBL Auction date approached – if you didn’t like the looks of your 2nd rookie pick – you could release him and send him back into the auction pool.
So there is my first pitch to JBL owners – expand the Rookie Lottery Draft to 2 rounds.
Option 2
My 2nd idea for the JBL, especially now that we’re back to 14 teams, is to eliminate the IR spot and just have 15 man rosters.
With the current roster limits (16 players) and with 14 teams, that means we are drafting/holding 224 players from NBA teams. With 30 NBA teams, we are drafting roughly 7.5 players from every team in the NBA.
Eliminating the 16th spot (IR) would put 14 players back into the Free Agent pool.
This would force teams to be a little more strategic around how they want to use their 3 bench spots. If you’re in the hunt for a money spot or a JBL title and you’re stashing John Wall in one of your 3 bench spots – can you really afford to keep him – or should you drop him and sign a FA that can actually help you?
This would also make it much harder for those teams that are going to draft and stash the likes of Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Kevin Durant, and others. Currently, I can draft anyone of those guys and just put him in my IR spot right away and sign a Free Agent the first week of the season. Easy peezy. No risk. Lots of potential reward. Now if I only had 3 bench spots and I want to stash one of those long term injured guys that means I have to run my team with just 2 healthy bench players. And what if I get another injured guy? Do I run with just 1 bench option?
The NBA now has 15 player roster limits – so maybe the JBL should follow them.
Option 3
My third and final idea for the JBL surrounds the idea of developing more dynasty teams and carry over from year to year. My idea stems from the current keeper model where depending on where you finish in the standings determines how many keepers you get for next season.
So, to have the ability to build your JBL team from year to year, my proposal would be add a rookie spot to the current keeper allotments.
So, to use French Lick as an example. He finished 1st so he gets 4 keeper spots. In my proposed model – he gets 4 keeper spots + 1 rookie. So he can keep Tatum, Curry, Nance, and let’s say Carter Jr as his 4 keepers but then he can also keep 1 more player as long as he was drafted as a rookie – so in French’s case that could be Mitchell Robinson in this example. So, essentially, French now has 5 keepers.
This would work all the way down to last place. So, for poor Kok, if he finished last again this season (which of course won’t happen) – he would get 0 keepers but he would get 1 rookie keeper – so that would be Zion.
The negatives to this rule change are of course that the best teams are actually getting stronger as they get 5 keepers instead of 4. But there is also the notion that the bottom teams at least get something. Again, using teams from last season, let’s use Chilliwack this time, he finished 10th and gets just 2 keeper spots. In the new model – he gets those 2 plus 1 rookie. So currently he’s looking at KAT and Adebayo as his only 2 keepers. In the new model, since Bam is a rookie, Chilliwack could now keep KAT and Lord Covington as well as Bam Adebayo.
This model of course places even more emphasis on rookies and the rookie lottery as my proposal would only be for players who were drafted in a rookie draft and had the ‘R’ status in their contract years. So it doesn’t have to be a rookie in R1 year – as long as he was drafted in the rookie lottery at some point in the last 5 years. It would not include those rookies drafted at Auction.
The big thing in this model is that we are rewarding the last place team. So, a team finishes dead last but still gets to keep a top rookie?? Do teams sell out and trade an Anthony Davis for RJ Barrett because it doesn’t matter if they plummet to last place? There are definitely more risks associated with this potential rule change.
So, there you have it, 3 ideas for the JBL. They all have things that I like and they all have pieces that I don’t like.
My favourite one is definitely moving to 15-man rosters – just easier to manage (less time for the Commish emailing owners reminding them to move a player out of IR); adds more players to the Free Agency pool; aligns to NBA roster limits; might deter stashing long-term injured players.
I also like having 2 rounds of a rookie draft. I’m fascinated by the rookie class every year and doing the rookie draft during the NBA pre-season gives you the feel of maybe winning the lottery again and finding a great rookie. And if you don’t like your 2nd round rookie pick – drop them or even just PASS on the pick.
The Option 3 I’ve gone back and forth on for quite some time. The strong get stronger in my opinion but the bottom teams also get something for their efforts. And do we want to reward the last place teams with a rookie keeper? I’m really torn on this one…
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