#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

The 6 seed, or the lottery, which is the better position, and why?
Is it universal, or based on team circumstances?

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5, 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

Due: Deadline for Sim 9

I would say it depends on the circumstances. If you’re a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in a couple seasons, making that 6th seed matters more than having a late lotto pick. It’s unlikely as a 6th seed would create an upset against the highly favored one seed but stranger things have happened in SLOE.

If you’re a disappointing team that is on the cusp, given the kind of draft the kind of talent that can help turn a team around faster, it might be worth it to skip the playoffs and add another contributor to your roster. If you have the building blocks in place to really develop a solid squad, given your circumstances, hovering around the lotto might just be your best bet.

Given the talent I’ve accumulated on the roster, I’d be disappointed to not make the playoffs. You don’t just acquire the talent on the roster just to miss the playoffs and give up young assets in the process. You have to pick a lane one way or another and build on it. Either way, it’s been a really good year for Hersey Hawkins to build upon for the future and the league sees him as a potential star in this league. I really do think that he’s going to take the experiences and grow from it to become a better leader and I really want to see the Hornets make the playoffs for him mostly so he can get that experience and grow from it.

I think it's definitely circumstantial depending on your team's timeline. I think if you're in the predicament, your team is also stuck in the purgatory of rebuilding or competing. If you're tanking and rebuilding, you shouldn't be a fringe playoff team. If you're trying to compete, you should be looking to be higher than sneaking into the playoffs. The situation can have a positive outcome though and make you reevaluate your squad.

I've been in both where I missed the playoffs by one game and in that offseason decided to tear it all down. Rebuilt and after 2 seasons, made the playoffs and haven't looked back. The first year in, I got in as the #6 seed. I was honestly a little disappointed at the time because I was looking for that lottery pick, but it showed me that the team was on the up-slope and from there it just motivated me to want to continue to improve and extend the season as much as possible.

The lottery doesn't shake up the bottom too much either, so you're probably still looking at a #8-#12 pick. While not nothing, I don't think there's a big enough jump from there to #13-#15 where you'd be picking if you made the playoffs. And you could always trade up a few spots if you really wanted someone.

I'd personally wanna always be in the position to compete. Even if that's being 6th seed and losing every year. I think it builds the itch to wanna learn more and gameplan better. There's no better time to do that than against the best gms in a series.

Based on cirumstances, it is good to accumulate lottery bluechip prospects but the game rewards winning teams, particularly in free agency so you need to have some playoff success eventually to retain the talent after RFA deals go by the wayside. Plus the whole point of the game is to win a championship. You have to be in the playoffs to win.

Yeah
I don't really care about the circumstances, give me the playoffs every time, if we're talking the end of the lottery, which is what I meant without clarification.
If I'm tanking for top 5 is a different story, but I agree that the top talent is always gone by the 7th pick, and after that there's always a set of players who could be great or could be trash and evaluation and development become important.
By the time I make it to the 6 seed I will have built past the space of valuing the end of the lottery and hopefully be headed towards winning the division.

Absolutely depends on the circumstance. My team is a great example. I do not have my pick so getting the 6 seed or better keeps the Nuggets from getting a lotto pick. And if my team can't make the playoffs this season, it will be a blow to morale because it has shown so far that it is built to make the playoffs. Same with the rest of the Western teams currently below me. None of us have our 1st round pick this upcoming draft so not making the playoffs would be a huge disappointment. But the teams in the East that are on the cusp, they have their 1st round picks so if they barely miss out on the playoffs, its not as bad because their team has shown it's very close to competing AND they get a chance to get a player that can develop into the missing piece that they need to make that leap into the playoffs.

But ultimately, making the playoffs is slightly better either way because being at the end of the lotto draft picks means you likely aren't getting a player that can help you right away. Those teams on the cusp likely would look to trade away their end of the lotto pick to get a player who can actually contribute next season

If you just miss the playoffs (absent a lucky lotto draw) you're looking at picking between 9 and 12. If you squeak into the playoffs as a #6 seed, you're looking at drafting between 13 and 15. Most years, the talent gap between 9 and 15 is not really that big. Making the playoffs awards you 3 points. The difference between making and missing the playoffs is probably 1 or 2 points (if not more) in terms of total wins and winning streaks. And of course, if you find a way to pull an upset (and remember, in round one, you're not going against a 1 seed, you're going against a three seed and in some years those teams are vulnerable due to injury, a not-so-large talent gap between the two teams, or just "bad matchups"), you get another 4 points.

So what this question is really asking at its worst is "would you trade the #13 pick plus 3 points for the #12 pick" (with pick numbers and points variable to a degree)?

On draft day, obviously, that depends on the draft year and who exactly is on the draft board when that #12 pick comes up, but I think in general, the points are almost always more valuable than the extra jump up by one or two draft spots, and you're being asked to make that decision pre-draft - you don't get to know who is still going to be there.

Also, there's the fact that if you take the playoffs and points, and it later turns out jump in draft position looks worth it, you can pull the trigger on draft day. Miss the playoffs and there's not an easy way to get those points back later.

The 6 seed, or the lottery, which is the better position, and why?
Is it universal, or based on team circumstances?

I think it works out either way this season. If you don't make it, you are pretty much guaranteed a blue potential player. If you do, you have a chance to maybe make a little run. You never know what injury may befall the 1st-4th seed team in the last few sims of the season. The Sim GAWDS have been particularly cruel this year with regard to injuries... and maybe they aren't done yet (I hope they are!).... but there are a lot of teams that have made mid-season improvements and that are hitting strides right now that could end up in the 5-6th seeds. That momentum can really carry over into the playoffs too. Its happened before, andit can happen again. And if you don't make it, well you have a building block or trade chip to use to improve said team thats on the proverbial cusp.