Is the NBA penalizing teams for drafting well?
Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill and Jared Greenberg discuss if the NBA's Second Apron is penalizing teams like the Boston Celtics for building through the draft. Hear the full conversation on “Good Word with Goodwill” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
There feels something unsettling to me that a team that had built itself the right way, that we tell teams, you make smart trades, you nail your draft picks, you're opportunistic in free agency and in the trade market, and you find yourself a year ago, winning a championship rather easily, you didn't cheat your way to a title.
And then you were lined up this year before the injuries you positioned yourself to be good enough to be good again, year after year after year.
year and because of the rules of the 2nd apron, because of the legislative mediocrity of this NBA, excellence is now being legislated out and I don't like it.
Greatness is being reprimanded.
I think the NBA miscalculated this.
This is the biggest failure of the CBA and I've spoken to team executives about this.
I've spoken to league executives about this, and it boggles my mind that the one provision that the owners and players did not put into the CBA.
Is rewarding teams and taking care of teams who draft well.
We should absolutely be penalizing teams who are simply going out there and trying to trade their way or sign their way to a championship.
The whole point of this CBA was to prevent the Donald Sterlings and the Jim Dolans of the world from coming in.
And spending freely without getting penalized, not only financially, but prohibitively with trades and and draft picks and future signings and all this stuff.
All that, I'm fine.
But I wish there would have been some sort of provision, and I have ideas on how they could have done it.
And it could have been done a million ways.
You should not be penalized for guys that you draft or you acquire on draft night, grow organically, and then have to pay.
Like, that's what your fan base wants.
That's what the NBA should want.
Now, if you want to tell me you acquired a guy 4 years into him playing in the NBA or you're telling me a superstar demands his way out, yeah, I don't think those guys and those teams should be rewarded, but I think you should not be penalized.
For growing a roster, and, and think about it, you know, two of the guys that were acquired by trade, Pozingas and, and Holliday, they, they, they're the guys that are out.
Brown and Tatum are still there.
Pritchard and Hauser are still there.
I, I'm not shutting the door on, on, on, on Brad Stevens yet.
I don't think this is a full-on tank.
I don't think that they're waving the white.
It's, it's not a tank, it's a gap.
I don't think it's a gap year yet.
Now, if they trade Jalen Brown, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll wave the white flag on you.
