Hmm I wonder what the odds are that you're a kid, either that or an ignoramus. Life before 1993 doesn't exist in your books I guess. Just because the leaguerhas been doing it one way doesn't necessarily mean it's right.
It shall be repeated - this is a big PR moment for ther league, and instead of taking advantage of it, Bettman has theorized that announcing the picks himself is the most exciting way of doing it. He is once again wrong.
As for taking an average of a team's three balls; it doesn't make sense. Let's say a team with three balls averages 20th pick, but another team has also averaged the the 20th selection. Then what do you do? NY gets the 11th, 19th and 30th pick for an average of 20th, but Buff gets 5, 27th and 28th, for an average of 20th also. Then Columbus picks the 9th, 25th and 26th picks - averages out to....20th.
It would be a nightmare.
The way to do it is to make 30 picks, with the first one being the 1st selection, the 2nd the second selection and so on. Every time a team with more than one ball is picked, their remaining balls are removed. You can't do it in reverse order either, as I first surmised in an earlier thread, because the teams with more balls would actually be penalized.