Delaying the NBA Draft is the best idea I’ve heard lately.

If you get a headache trying to figure out where LeBron James will wind up next year, or who will win the bidding war for Kawhi Leonard, maybe it would all make more sense if the NBA Draft was held after the free agents settled with new teams.

With so many restricted and unrestricted free agents – and don’t ask me what the difference is between them – looking for the best deals from the most high-profile clubs, this year’s draft should have been nicknamed the Big Guessing Game.

How can teams draft players to be a part of their 2019 rosters, when those rosters could blow up during free agency? And how do teams that think they can get LeBron James make a serious bid for the King if they don’t know who they will have to play with him? Or who even wants to play with him?

The most obvious examples are the Sixers of Philadelphia and the LA Lakers. Both have point guards who must have the ball in their hands to be successful, Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons and Lonzo Ball, no pun intended. Neither of those guys has ever played “off the ball” so what are they going to do when LeBron takes over the game like he has done in Cleveland and Miami for 15 years? Will they suddenly want out, too?

And what can they promise James while trying to sign him to the largest free-agent contract in history? The Lakers can say they will sign Leonard and Paul George and trade away Lonzo, if the King will move into his LA home permanently. But can they, or will they, really do any of that?

And face it, if you are an NBA star playing for Sacramento, Portland, or Phoenix, all you really want to do is get to Boston, Chicago, New York, or LA because those are the biggest media markets and that’s where the endorsement money is. Or is it?

The NBA may be at the height of its popularity, but it also close to total chaos. The Celtics are even talking about trading away Gordon Hayward, the injured free agent who has yet to play a full regular-season game for them. Now that is crazy!

And Paul George wants to go wherever James and Leonard go, even if it’s to different cities. Does that mean he will play half the season as Paul George for one team and the other half as George Paul somewhere else? Sounds like something today’s NBA would consider.

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