Adam Silver Considered A Relegation and Promotion System in the NBA. Would it Work?

The NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently said he considered relegating the two worst teams to the G League, in a concept seen in European football. Would this work?

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

Tanking is an issue in the modern NBA. It always has been, but after the NBA world experienced Sam Hinkie openly announce his Philadelphia 76ers were tanking, it got much worse. Suddenly we saw NBA GMs blow teams up, like Sam Presti's Oklahoma City Thunder did after losing to the Trail Blazers in the 2019 NBA playoffs. Now in 2022 there are six teams leading the tank race in the Magic, Trail Blazers, Spurs, Thunder, Pistons and Rockets, while others like the Jazz, Pacers, Wizards, Knicks, Kings and hell, even the Lakers could just as easily join the tanking game if they fail to get the results they want at the start of this season. That's twelve teams. And it's no surprise that teams want to tank as the top price this season is 7'4 Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, who looks like he was gifted with Steph Curry's shooting, Kevin Durant's handles, Hakeem Olajuwon's shot blocking and Yao Ming's height all at once. With Victor being dubbed as the best prospect since LeBron James, many teams are content with winning 25 games or less just for a chance to see the eighteen year old wearing their hat on draft night.

Someone who isn't content with this is NBA commissioner Adam Silver. And it's no surprises why. Silver wants to make revenue. More revenue is made when the best players and teams are playing, and if a third of the league is tanking, their games won't pull much revenue, meaning the NBA could miss out on millions of dollars. So this year Silver has said the league isn't messing around with tanking. "We put teams on notice," Silver told employees. "We're going to be paying particular attention to the issue this year."

Silver even recently said that he considered relegating the two worst teams in the league to the G-League, and promoting the two best teams from the G-League. And while this idea looks highly unlikely to actually be put in place, that still leaves us with one question.

Would it work?

The Teams

So what if this plan was put in place at the end of the last season? Who goes down and who goes up?

At the conclusion of the 2021-22 NBA season, the two worst teams were the Houston Rockets 20-62, and the Magic who went 22-60. The two best teams were the Delaware Blue Coats and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, though if we were to go off of regular season standings instead of playoffs then Raptors 905 would be promoted instead of the Blue Coats. This is where we run into our first problem. The Blue Coats are a G-League affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers, while the Vipers are affiliated to the Houston Rockets, which is ironic as the Rockets get relegated in this hypothetical. If this plan was actually put in place, you would assume that all NBA teams relationships with G-League teams would be broken, and there would be no more affiliates.

Above: 2022 G-League champions Rio Grande Valley Vipers would be promoted to the NBA if this system was implemented.

The Players

A G-League team could not beat an NBA team. If a team could then their players would be in the NBA. But if two G-League teams were to be placed in the NBA overnight, they would probably be granted with extra benefits to improve their teams. Firstly though, I would implement a rule where any relegated player is free to sign with an NBA team despite their contracts. Obviously there's no obligation to sign with a promoted team, but it's something to consider. There would also be a lot of cap space for promoted teams, so signing players shouldn't be an issue. The main way to improve a promoted squad would be the draft. I would scrap the draft lottery and just go in order, with the G League winners getting the first pick and the runners up getting the second pick.

So if this hypothetical was to happen, the Vipers would draft Paolo Banchero to their team while the Blue Coats would select Chet Holmegren (and we'll live in a world where he doesn't get injured). From there I would consider giving the promoted teams an extra two picks in the first round to help improve the squad. I'd place these two picks right outside the lottery, going from 15-18. With these picks I'd have the Vipers taking center Mark Williams and shooting guard Dalen Terry, while the Blue Coats select power forward Tari Eason and small forward AJ Griffin. Finally, the two teams would also have early second round picks, and with these picks I'd see the Vipers taking point guard Kennedy Chandler and the Blue Coats taking shooting guard Max Christie.

But would any current players on the two teams hold their own in the NBA?

The Vipers had a number of players on last year's team who at one point held their own in the NBA. Tyler Bey, Gerald Green, Terrance Ferguson, Mfiondu Kabengele and Anthony Lamb all have NBA experience, and would probably still get minutes for the Vipers even if they joined the NBA and got to enter the draft. The Blue Coats don't have that same level of talent, but did have numerous young Sixers include Charles Bassey, Paul Reed, Charlie Brown Jr and Jaden Springer, as well as Patrick McCaw, who was good enough to be on three championship winning rosters, winning two in Golden State and one in Toronto.

And from there on it's all about signing free agents. Obviously it's impossible to know who the two teams would sign, and keep in mind players from Houston and Orlando are also available to sign.

In the end I decided to give each team one signing to create a ten man roster. I gave the Vipers Kevin Porter Jr from Houston and the Blue Coats point guard Jalen Suggs.

And so with that, ten man rosters were created.

The Rosters

Rio Grande Valley Vipers Lineup:

PG: Kevin Porter Jr SG: Dalen Terry SF: Terrance Ferguson

PF: Paolo Banchero

C: Mark Williams

Bench:

Kennedy Chandler

Tyler Bey

Gerald Green

Mfiondu Kabengele

Anthony Lamb

Delaware Blue Coats Lineup:

PG: Jalen Suggs SG: Max Christie SF: AJ Griffin

PF: Tari Eason

C: Chet Holmegren

Bench:

Paul Reed

Charles Bassey

Charlie Brown Jr

Jaden Springer

Patrick McCaw

The Aftermath

So, could either of these teams do anything in the NBA? Well to be blunt, no. Quite frankly, the Blue Coats team would probably be one of the two getting relegated again. The Vipers team is slightly better, but don't expect any playoff pushes.

And I haven't even touched on the two relegated teams. Because sure, you could take away their players, but considering that both their fans and resources double what G-League teams, you could probably assume that these two would be the two getting promoted again. To put it simply, we would just be creating an endless cycle.

And it appears that Adam Silver agrees, as he came out and said the relegation/promotion system wouldn't be implemented.

"It would so disrupt our business model," Silver said. "And even if you took two teams up from the G League, they wouldn't be equipped to compete in the NBA."

So yes, unfortunately it doesn't seem like we'll be getting a promotion/relegation system in the NBA. But watching the worst teams in the NBA fight for their life every game, and put their bodies on the line 82 times a season? Beats watching tanking any day.