Someone who left after frosh year and didn’t get an nba contract. Iggy got paid.
Darius Morris? Manny Harris?
One of the reasons why I really wish some combination of NIL or Draft-and-follow could be figured out is for players like Iggy, DJ, or these guys could continue to develop in college rather than be buried on the bench or in the G-League hoping to survive until the end of their contract.
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Is the argument that guys develop better in college than at the pro level?
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I feel like if you believe Iggy made the right decision to leave, then there would also be a pretty compelling argument that Hunter Dickinson should leave now too. Old for his class, would assuredly get a contract.
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Yeah, that’s an interesting one. I do think that Dickinson could showcase his game to a degree that Iggy kind of already did as a freshman.
Dickinson could make a few jumpers, prove he can go right and be an All-American. I think that’s a reasonable path to improving your stock.
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Is it entirely inconceivable that Iggy could’ve played himself into the back end of the first round with another year in college? I don’t think that would fundamentally change his pro trajectory, but the retrospective cost-benefit analysis in Iggy’s case would have to consider that.
At the end of the day he made the right decision because it’s his own to make and he got paid. There’s always substantial downside risk in coming back (you don’t improve your stock but age one year, injury, etc.) so it’s hard to fault a guy for leaving early when he has a draftable grade.
Yeah I think it would have been extremely unlikely. Nothing about his game or body is going to make NBA guys fall over themselves.
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I’m not qualified to comment on whether a player would develop better playing in the G-League, somewhere overseas, or staying in college. There are probably too many variables for each situation to make a comparison.
What I can say is that I’m a college guy and for as much as we all joke about Josh Christopher and his brand, I do think big time college is a better opportunity to develop your image than the other options. I also suspect, though I could be wrong, that the experience of playing big-time college in front of full gyms and on TV every night is likely a more enjoyable way to develop than in a more clinical professional league like those other options…with the exception of having to fit within the NCAA student athlete requirements.
A pretty big exception!
You are absolutely going to develop more in the NBA than you would in college. I can’t say literally everyone would because that’s an absolute but for the extreme vast majority of guys they will improve at a faster rate outside of the NCAA.
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I think the question becomes, really:
-Do you think Ignas could have done something in college as a sophomore to make himself a first rounder? (I don’t personally but anyone can disagree)
-Do you think Hunter can do something as a sophomore to make himself a first rounder, if you don’t think he is now? (I’m pretty sure he’s not now, I’m less sure he can change that perception)
If a guy is hardcapped, by, say, athleticism level (my take on Ignas), I have a hard time saying he should have stayed. Playing “up” from round 2 to 1 or from undrafted to a signed contract are meaningful, though.
Yeah, too short and slow and couldn’t create. Was an all-time great at attacking close-outs but I don’t think that skill is important enough in the NBA to make up for the fact that he can’t guard anyone.
I’m also not positive what “developing your image” really means. Like, I have a hard time thinking of a college player in the last five years whose image was “developed” in college more than late second round pick Cassius Winston…what did that do for him?
Cunningham, Kuminga, and Green will be 3 of the top 5 picks, and nobody has seen them play more than 2 games outside of Oklahoma and an insane asylum for G-League obsessives.
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NBA teams don’t care about how much you’ve developed your image. They care about how much you’ve developed your game.
There are much better opportunities to improve your game (unlimited hands on coaching, for one) at a professional level.
I think it is probably right that it is better for nearly all players to develop in pros than college, but do G league pros really get more time on court (in a normal season)? You hear all the time about the lack of practice time in NBA. Is it different in G league? Off season access to coaching is incomparable; much better access in NBA, so that’s probably the main difference.
I mean the hype Zion and Trae Young got in college absolutely helped their endorsement earnings. Zion probably got like $30+ mill more for his endorsement deal from Jumpman than he would have gotten if he went straight to the NBA out of HS. But for a fringe prospect like Iggy, that’s obviously not applicable.
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Yeah, solid point. Has there been a college player that captured national fascination like Zion remotely often though? I can’t think of one.
In the NBA they need you to already be ready to compete. They don’t care about winning in the G league. Like for Duncan Robinson they sent him to the G league and told him to focus on just getting up 3 pt shots, told him to just get up 10 3pa per game.
This is mostly just a product of one and done though. If Zion could have gone straight to the league, he would have gotten those endorsements earlier IMO.
I do think that there’s an issue for players like him where the G League isn’t a big enough showcase.
That stuff also only matters at the very top end. Luka Garza has done all the “college feels” stuff but no one in the NBA really cares.
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Definitely not at Zions level, but like I said Trae Young also received a lot of hype the year before. Blake Griffin also got a lot of hype when he was in college too.
Basically the players who can really build their image in a meaningful way are the freak players who will be top 10 picks anyways. Companies are not looking to give endorsement money to players who aren’t sure fire NBA players, so guys like Cassius who are incredibly value for marketing college really have no endorsement value as a fringe guy at the next level
Zion got $75 mill before playing a game though. He wasn’t even the number one prospect, he would have been an early pick and signed a big endorsement deal, but his deal would not have been close to what it was IMO. His brand value exploded in his one year at Duke.
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