G League select contracts can go higher than 125k?
Yes. See the attached link to my post about the G League.
I hope that Todd is able to develop well under whatever system he chooses. Judging by the video Iāve seen, he is an extremely unpolished player whose HS coach let him do whatever he wanted to do on the court. That certainly isnāt a recipe for someone who can jump right into a pro environment without being overwhelmed. If he can get the coaching and physical care that he seemingly desperately needs at the pro level (be it overseas or in a G league setting), then good for him to develop properly and make money at the same time. If not, then a year or two of college may have been a better bet.
Iād love to learn more about the quality of coaching and access to physical training in various pro environments. I have to think it can vary a lot between leagues, and even among teams in the same league.
I think thereās an interesting conversation here to have about the pro option and how itāll play out over the next few years but lets save some of the tabloid non-sense at this point.
Thought this was interesting about Jalen Greenā¦ who is expected to announce for the G League on Thursday.
The talk in basketball circles has been about the amount of money that Todd was offered by the pros. If Todd, who is ranked outside the top 10, is getting big numbers, imagine what a projected top-three pick in the 2021 NBA Draft such as Green might be able to fetch?
āIām 97 percent weāre going to college,ā Marcus Greene, Jalenās stepfather, told The Athletic in September. āThe only thing that would get Jalen to go somewhere crazy is if they came and offered a crazy number that we know no one is offering.ā
If players are getting 3,4,500k in comp to play in the G League Select pathā¦ You have to figure that top 20ish prospects look at it a lot more seriously IMO.
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As was said before - Iād be very curious to know what the conversation between Green or Todd, the G-League rep is, and then what the conversation between the G League office and the franchise is.
How do they determine where these guys get placed? What incentive does the G League have to offer $100k+ contracts (nobody is going to watch it even with Jalen Green there)? Why would the franchise play them over their own guys?
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Rod Strickland is heading up the NBAās professional path program so he does a lot of the recruiting.
Iām not sure of the specifics of how they are amping up the $$ pool, could be a combination of shoe money in there too Iād imagine.
Iām not sure of the specifics but plenty of players in the G League are free agents and not associated with a particular NBA franchise. The G League teams might take guidance from their parent club and have some players who are assigned from it or on a two-way but they still coach and play to win games in the G League. They will play the Select player to win games.
Yeah I would think that could be a gamechanger for prospects if theyāre willing to drop 500k. I canāt imagine that model would last very long (Jalen Green is NOT going to bring enough eyeballs to justify 500k), but in the short-term that could change a lot of recruiting situations.
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But the teams will generally ācall upā players from their own G-League affiliate, even if they arenāt a 2-way, when they need them. As a Bulls fan, I can speak to this.
If you are talking about a handful of kids in any given year? Whatās the real purpose? Do you need a certain number of eye balls to make it worth it? Is it just a loss leader?
Hard to say what is sustainable without knowing the NBAās real plans or goals on the matter.
I guess my assumption is that the goal is to make the G-League profitable (or atleast not operate at a significant loss), because I donāt see the loss leader argument working. Is Jalen Green in the G-League going to make the NBA more profitable? I donāt see how. If anything, it would make it LESS profitable since insert college fanbase here is not going to have investment in his NBA success.
Maybe itās possible that better prospect scouting is the goal? Thatās the one argument I could maaaaybe see, but I donāt think the NBA is really struggling with scouting players at high-major colleges or overseas. Maybe they ARE struggling with comparing levels of comp in the NBL so enticing those kids to the G League is better for that purpose?
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Right or wrong, most NBA people donāt speak fondly of college coaching and player development. Iād think thatās the primary avenue of opportunity they see.
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Nor do agents, non-college coaches etc. Kids that go to college arenāt mostly there because that is what is favored. They are there because the opportunity to be in the pros hasnāt yet presented itself. For most of them, as soon as the door seems to be open, they are gone.
Fans can debate all they want about the āwisdomā of leaving. Throw is a couple of references to pros and cons, āget better developed here as opposed to thereā, āhave a chance to come back and improve their gamesāā¦, blah blah blah. The reality is, most of these guys aināt hearing none of that. They are working from an entirely different collection of priorities and evaluative tools than college fans, who find themselves trying to make āsenseā of a playerās decision who they largely know little to nothing about and/or are incapable or unwilling to accept what they are really about.
There are many things that I like about these open forums, but what I probably value most is the opportunity to get real insight into the folks, beyond just a message board name.
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Maybe? G-League teams are pretty starved for resources though. But letās assume that the G-League is moderately better at developing playersā¦ Does it matter to the NBA? What does that change for them? Jalen Green comes in as a rookie and average 1.5 more points per game? Why does the NBA as a collective care for that slight early boost to individual rookies?
I have no idea about resources, but the opportunity to play basketball full time and not three hours a day would probably be a massive leg up in terms of development, as well as playing in a bonafide NBA system (all the teams run the parent organizationās scheme).
That is certainly part of what these players base their decisions on.
āWhere am I better off; playing every day against grown men or playing for a college coach in his system.ā
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Just broadly speaking, Iām not sure the ācollege is great marketing for the players that the NBA can capitalize onā is true in reality.
College stars that donāt cut it as pro stars donāt remain popular (Burke, Jalen Brunson, Frank Masonā¦Buddy Hield is good but its not like he gets publicized), and the most popular NBA players now (Steph, Kyrie, Harden, Westbrook, Lebron, etc) didnāt really have meaningful college careers.
I donāt think Duke is what made Zion.
Your larger point may stand, but a couple of your examples donāt really hold. For Steph, the NCAA tournament absolutely launched his popularity. I would say he is an example of the opposite of what you are saying. And Lebron didnāt even go to college.
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Obviously there are and have been big NBA stars who were college stars. My larger point is that Steph is popular because he turned in the most prolific 4 year stretch of shooting in NBA history - popular NBA players are popular because theyāre stars in the NBA. We talk about Shaq and Alonzo Mourning, not Christian Laettner.
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Have you paid any attention to what has happened at UNC over the years [repeatedly] after student athletes are enrolled? I shudder to think what happens to enable them to enroll. I take it as an insult to compare UM to āother power conference schoolsā when UNC, AZ, etc. are in that list.
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