NBA likely making changes to the Draft Lottery system

According to Zach Lowe, the 30 NBA teams will soon be voting on Draft Lottery reforms, including one that will change how the lottery odds work out.

NBA expected to change draft lottery odds, according to report - SBNation.com

Under the terms of the new proposal, the league's four worst teams will have an equal 12 percent chance of earning the top pick, with the next two teams following with only slightly worse odds. The league would draw ping pong balls for the top six spots instead of the top three, so the worst team is guaranteed to pick no worse than seventh. The odds for the other selections would be as follows.

Here's some more detail if you are interested.

NBA Lottery Reform Is Coming "

The league’s proposal gives at least the four worst teams the same chance at winning the no. 1 pick: approximately an identical 11 percent shot for each club. The odds decline slowly from there, with the team in the next spot holding a 10 percent chance. The lottery team with the best record will have a 2 percent chance of leaping to the no. 1 pick, up from the the minuscule 0.5 percent chance it has under the current system. The proposal also calls for the drawing of the first six picks via the Ping-Pong ball lottery, sources say. The current lottery system actually involves the drawing of only the top three selections. The rest of the lottery goes in order of record, from worst to best, after the top-three drawing is over.

The bottom line here is that (in theory) there will be less incentive for teams to have the absolute worst record in the league.  So the Sixers will be hurt in their blatant tanking strategy.  The side effect is that more good-ish teams (that's totally a word) like the Cavaliers from last year will be rewarded with winning the lottery and getting up into the top 6 picks.

While this is still going to be up for a vote before it takes place, it sounds like this is going to be happening.

I I'd expect this to pass easily if vote happens. Vote might reach 29-1, with only Philly against. Might be a few more "nos," but not many

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) October 3, 2014

;So what impact does this have on the Celtics?  Well, hopefully they'll show improvement this year and not be among the worst 4-5 teams like they were last year.  So this lottery change would benefit them because they wouldn't lose much in terms of lottery odds and they could potentially gain a lot if they actually won a chance to jump up a few spots.

There are more reforms as well, though more of the minor variety.

Next step for NBA: Structuring draft day like NFL. 15 mins between picks + allowing trades to happen in real time on draft night.

— Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) October 3, 2014

Best thing about real-time draft trades is not having to watch players go through the sham of putting on another team's hat when everyone knows they are in the process of being traded away.

So what do you think of the new changes and how they'll impact the Celtics?