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Hoop Idea: Should the NBA Draft add Compensatory Picks?

By Austin Peters

November 23, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Portland Trail Blazers small forward Nicolas Batum (88) leads power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12), shooting guard Wesley Matthews (2), center Joel Freeland (19), and point guard Mo Williams (25) to their bench after an altercation with the Golden State Warriors during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. The Trail Blazers defeated the Warriors 113-101. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
November 23, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Portland Trail Blazers small forward Nicolas Batum (88) leads power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12), shooting guard Wesley Matthews (2), center Joel Freeland (19), and point guard Mo Williams (25) to their bench after an altercation with the Golden State Warriors during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. The Trail Blazers defeated the Warriors 113-101. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

The NBA Draft and the NFL Draft both have different structures to how they are run. There are a few key differences in this regard. The NBA has a lottery — a random draw at winning the No. 1 pick that gives each team that misses out on the playoffs a different percentage chance of getting into the top slot. The NFL bases their draft order strictly on the record of their teams, leaving no doubt to a team that has the worst record that they will have the No. 1 pick.

The most complicated difference between the two, however, is the additional picks that the NFL gives to teams, called compensatory picks. How compensatory picks work is the NFL rewards a certain amount of draft picks to a team based on the players they lost the offseason before. The picks vary in degree as to which round the picks are, a process that is decided by a formula that only a certain group of people given this task know. For example, the Detroit Lions lost their dominate defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, meaning next season they will most likely get a nice compensation in draft picks for it.

Is it practical, though? What would the NBA have to gain from implementing such a system?

The Case for Compensation

Each summer, we see more and more NBA rosters turned over on their heads. With the salary cap rising as fast as it is, there is more incentive for players to chase teams with money to spend, no matter who has it. A compensation draft would help out a team like the Blazers, who lost four of their starting five that led them to the top half of the Western Conference this past season.

Another reason to consider possibly adding a compensation portion of the draft would be the growing size of the NBA Development League. It’s looking more likely that each team will have their own D-League affiliate, giving the NBA more access to possibly taking on more players through the draft. The NFL has seven rounds and roster sizes that are astronomical compared to the 15-man NBA rosters. With seven rounds and more roster spots, compensatory picks are easier to just simply throw in. Now that the D-League is growing in size, adding more compensatory picks could be beneficial in this way.

How It Could Work with the NBA Draft

Right now, the NBA draft has two rounds with each team having a pick in each, unless they’ve traded it away beforehand. Similarly to what the NFL does, the NBA can add in additional picks to the second round of the draft for teams that lose players for nothing in free agency. This would give more opportunity for players to be drafted and more opportunities for teams to fortify their rosters and D-League programs.

These picks will be determined not on the record of the teams like the original first two rounds are. Like the NFL, the picks will be given out based on what the team has lost the previous summer in free agency. A team of individuals would have to be assembled much in the same way the NFL has in order to come up with a formula that will determine who gets higher compensation.

What would happen is this committee would determine how many and where the picks get added in the second round. The picks that are added in could be anywhere between the 31st pick and the last pick, depending on what the committee’s formula and consensus decides. If this theoretically took place in the 2015 draft, the Miami Heat would most likely receive a high compensation pick, due to the loss of LeBron James.

You don’t want to penalize teams for being good, so there wouldn’t be picks taken away and/or given to the worse teams. Barring any trades, each team will still have their original second round pick. If you were one of the beneficiaries of free agency, however, you won’t receive any compensation picks and will likely be jumped by a handful of the compensations to the other teams. Seeing as Cleveland signed LeBron last summer, not only would they be close to the bottom due to their better record, but they would also be bumped farther back due to compensation picks.

A way to tame this down is to possibly set a cap on how many total compensatory picks can be given out. If there were only 10 or 12 picks, it wouldn’t push the better teams back far enough to where it would make that much of a difference. Most second round picks don’t turn out to be rotation players in the NBA anyway, so the extra 10-12 spots wouldn’t make much of a difference. Another way to help this out is in offseasons with less roster turnover, the committee can have the right to only hand out eight or nine picks opposed to the full amount their allowed to give out.

A few other things that would have to happen have to due with the CBA and salary cap. As it currently stands, teams can trade first and second round picks without knowing their order. Compensatory picks can’t be traded beforehand, but once the NBA announces them (ideally shortly after the lottery), teams can be free to trade them.

This idea may be a pipe dream, but the NBA has the resources and with growing chaos and roster turnover in the offseason, compensatory may be a need as well.

What do you think?

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