In this special episode of RealGM Radio, host Daniel Leroux (@DannyLeroux) discusses ways to improve the NBA Draft and NBA Playoffs with five different guests.

First, Leroux and Zach Harper (@talkhoops) of CBS Sports' Eye on Basketball Podcast and Blog along with AWolfAmongWolves.com about the ways that he would tweak the system.

Next, Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) of BasketballInsiders.com joins the show to contribute the system he proposed on his blog, as well as his tweaks to the playoffs.

Arturo Galletti (@ArturoGalletti) of BoxScoreGeeks.com explains how he would improve the system along with a few ways to make the playoffs more exciting and fair.

Then, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM comes on to explain his system for bringing new players into the league.

Ethan Sherwood Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) contributes his improvements to both systems and provides insight into David Stern's legacy as he leaves office. 

Finally, Leroux details his own preferred changes to the Draft and Playoff systems.

Click here to listen or download.

You can also click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Mark Tatum will replace Adam Silver as deputy commissioner of the NBA.

Silver will assume David Stern's position as commissioner on Feb. 1.

Several league officials describe Tatum as bright, capable and engaging, an executive who has spent most of the past 15 years as a revenue creator for the NBA.

Tatum joined the NBA in 1999 and previously worked for Major League Baseball. Tatum graduated from Cornell and Harvard Business School.

Tatum becomes the highest-ranking minority executive in major professional sports.

The Sacramento Kings have become the first professional sports franchise to accept the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system introduced in 2009.

Bitcoin is most frequently used by speculators at this point due to the uncertainty of its future as a usable form of currency.

The Kings are run by software developer Vivek Ranadive.

During a podcast on Monday, ESPN NBA analyst Bill Simmons suggested that the lessons from baseball's performance enhancing drug problems of the past two decades need to be studied by those involved in basketball.

"The retroactive thing is really funny to me," said Simmons. "It does seem like there is this weird residual guilt, especially with the writers: 'We didn't know. I should have known. How did we not know?'

"Why aren't we asking that now with the other sports? What about basketball? Go on YouTube and watch a basketball game from 1977 and see what the guys look like. You really think there are no PED guys in the NBA right now? You've got to be kidding me.

"It's just funny to me. If we end up repeating this whole cycle with the NBA. Everybody is going to be like, 'How did we not know?' It's the same thing we were going through with baseball in the late nineties."

Adam Silver is expected to take the NBA in a more innovative direction when he takes over for David Stern as commissioner on Feb. 1.

One idea that has been floated is a elimination tournament involving the four teams with the best record at the All-Star break.

The games wouldn't count in the regular season standings, but would create an entertainment boost to begin the second half.

The tournament would presumably take on a guise similar to special cups that club soccer teams play for during the season.