This is a great decision for the NBA if they play their cards right. I like the age limit, but don't have an age limit for the D-league. If the age limit is 20-21, I think you would have more players being willing to go straight to the D-league until they are 20 and get paid while they are there. Could you imagine how much more popular the D-league would be right now if Wiggins, Parker, Smart, Embiid, etc. were on various teams?
what about international players, if the rule is 2 years college does that mean the intentional rooks can just jump the que? also if its an age limit, thats kinda unfair for them aswell because different counties finish high school at different ages keep it one and done, makes it easy to track the rookie classes at least in march madness
This would be a great thing for the NBA. Deeper draft and more developed and NBA ready talent for everyone.
I'm against it, for two reasons 1) Logically, it makes no sense and contradicts free market enterprise, if someone is good enough to play in the NBA at 17 or 18, why should we keep them from furthering their talent and careers. My postion It's silly, if you've already proven yourself to be a good to great college player, why are we trying to keep such a person in college, and people wonder why the term "student-athlete" is such a joke. Even if they fail or take some growing pains in the NBA, the concept of making them stay in college, longer makes about as much sense of sending someone back to the 5th grade, after they've failed at 6th or 7th grade level. Sending you back to a grade, you already did well in ... regardless if you play no college, 2 years of college, or 8 years of college, there's always fairly high bust factor in players. I'd also like to add the strong arguments to where basketball players, along with the football players want to be paid for their "TALENTS," since most scholarships are as guaranteed as people think in "the mythical 4 year full-ride," 2) Completely hate the NCAA, I only think its monetary ruse to more higher end talent in college, which would actually help attendance and sales at these schools to build marketable stars for two or three years. Again, I don't think players get better playing against inferior competition year-in and year-out. Lastly, for Christ's sake, we are talking about a game for little boys, where we, no where some people think it is an injustice to watch young men make millions for being great or terrible at such game. Yeah, I guess. Though, it's perfectly fine to send them to a foreign country barely out of high school to take a bullet in head, risk permanent lifelong disabilities, or become efficient killing machines, before they are even old enough to drink or go to strip clubs (in some districts and states). Why are keeping players in school when their intent is to be a professional basketball player, not a college student. Some players do go for degrees, but for the ones who don't it makes no sense to waste time in Again, what is so special about basketball, in the first place? Also, what's so special about keeping players in college? It's not like we developing future brain surgeons or putting them in positions where other people's lives are in stake. I thought college was about education, not playing "basketball" or helping the NCAA with its annual profits. I honestly do not think extra college basketball play is going to turn a talented young player who may lack a special-kind of work ethic, motor, a driven spirit, or interests to become a great player. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6bOnMSRep9g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...e-hoops-really-isnt-teaching-players-anything
The only result of this is to make the NCAA/schools more money and deprive the players from sharing in the revenue. I'm not sure if playing in the NCAA actually correlates with less draft risk. NCAA competition is absolutely not equivalent to NBA competition. Also, NBA has better healthcare, nutrition management, trainers, etc. Would you really want Lebron, Kobe, Garnett to be forced overseas or the NCAA for a couple years before seeing the NBA?
Reducing volatility in the draft encourages tanking. If young players inject volatility in the draft, you have a better (but still small) chance of getting a franchise-changing player later in the draft without sacrificing wins. If you force draftees to be older so the bets are more certain, more of the best players will go early in the draft, ensuring only the worst teams get them. Maybe that means that bad teams will rebound more quickly and become good, but it also means you need to drop more deeply to get that rebound.
Thinking about the NBA, D-League, and youth basketball some more... I wouldn't be opposed to the D-League having an age limit of, say, 16. There could be 2 or 3 levels of the D-League (think: MLB), and all of them would of course pay (though likely very little). The D-League teams would have a set up similar to the Rockets with RGV, where the big league squad gives as little or as much freedom to the D-League teams as they see fit. This way, kids can get out of those AAU teams that are almost universally blamed for all of the bad habits of young players just entering the NBA. They could start learning the fundamentals that players so often don't have to learn until they get into the NBA. The big squads would likely want the lower level leagues to focus more on developing the players rather than just getting Ws (although, as we see with RGV, the two aren't mutually exclusive). And in the end, I think that would give us a better quality of basketball on the NBA level. It may deal a death-blow to NCAA basketball, but I'm ok with that.
It's not stupid. It's called, maturity. It's not just about ready to play but more about being ready for the system.
In an expanded post, it would be more beneficial to all parties, the players, the college game, the NBA and it's employees, and fans of all levels if the Age Limit was increased, but offered non-cap hit incentives. No player can come out until Age 20 or completion of his Sophomore year. Three Year students should be paid an additional year of salary depending on where they are drafted (as in, a 4 year deal for the First Overall Pick should get an additional ~4 million paid as a bonus in the first year, that does not hit the cap, and a pick in the 20's should earn ~1.5 million extra), while 4 year students should get 1.5 times the starting years salary. Second Round selections should not be eligible. It would give kids the incentive to stay at least the third year, to 100% make up for the salary missed, and if you wanna complain about getting that big second paycheck, if they are good enough to earn that big raise, they'll be set for life and getting it 1 year later won't affect them in any way. If the NBAPA wants to fight it and let high schoolers in, then they need to drop the guaranteed contracts BS that cripples 75% of today's teams.
I'm not so sure. To me, the NCAA relies a lot less on stars than the NBA does, but rather is all about the upsets and underdogs of March Madness, as well as the fact that nearly everyone's alma mater has a team.
There have been a few failures coming out of highschool, but you can apply this to college too. If a player is 18 years old and able to enroll in the army, they should be able to play professional basketball. Out of all the highschool names you mentioned, Kobe, LBJ & Dwight are future HOF's. Are you telling me we need to tell the next LBJ he has to wait two more years just to dominate the NBA? IMO it's stupid.
Good for everyone except the guys who have to play for free to line the NCAA's/A-Dept's wallets. Ooooops.
Do it like hockey and let teams hold the draft rights of players while they're in college. But take it a step further: If the kid gets hurt or the team decides not to draft him, then the team takes over/extends the scholarship to finish his degree, switch to a real major, get a masters etc. So a 20mil mistake becomes a 60k-120k college scholarship.
Although the Players Union will never go for it, maybe all this talk could be settled through a better contract system. Allow signing bonuses like baseball and keep them on a salary as they progress. Shorten the years of development or risk losing the players to 2 years or so. Allow teams to keep players in D-league for a working salary that's blanketed across the D-league (keeping the league in play without crazy costs). Set up a rule-5 type deal where it speeds up the teams to get their major players to the NBA faster to prevent teams from holding players back to develop for years to come and put in a 3 year period then before they become UFAs. So in essence, allow players to get drafted out of HS, for signing bonus, allow teams to keep them down in d-league for 2 years for a standardized salary where it won't hit the cap outside of the signing bonus to a degree.... If they want to keep a third year, they risk losing the player to an outside draft (to keep teams from hoarding players with a loaded NBA roster), and start a clock on them for 3 years, making it a 5 year max window (with the 2 years of development) to resign players or not. Meanwhile, for college players, minimize years in d-league to 1? (just an idea to promote college). In all reality, it can help the d-league get players while keeping salaries to a minimal. There are many obvious flaw and holes in the logic, so tweaking could do. On the other hand, this has nothing to do with Silver's strategy or wants, so I guess the point is moot....
