Yeah, definitely an odd position for Silver to take. Freshmen have been drafted #1 overall for what, 15 years in a row? Giving these guys a year of college exposure seems to work well for the NBA.
This sounds⌠suboptimal?
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Naw, teams pull their goalies all the time.
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Iâm not sure if this is the right spot for this,
but the Michigan guys listen in the top-4 did play in the NBA. https://twitter.com/retro_70s/status/1548099911387738113?t=5nXBXCe6dT5pfNz1oRLlVw&s=19
I think the big difference is that if NBA teams thought that the best place for kids to âwork on their gamesâ was college, they wouldnât be rolling back one and done, building a minor league team to circumvent the rule in the meantime, and heavily investing in a league for the 45th+ guy in the draft (and those not drafted) to play instead.
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College not just âwork on their gameâ, but build their names. G-league doesnât make names for players.
Why would that matter to nba teams?
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NBA doesnât care about that.
I think Lebron ended up being a bit famous?
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I donât know, I think player recognition is worth something to the NBA and some players do get a lift from college. Zion Williamson comes to mind. Maybe there arenât enough examples like him for them to worry about.
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Ultimately really good nba players will get fame. It helps to have a built in fandom like Zion but so far thatâs added little to the nba. And it doesnât happen enough that the nba thinks they need cbb to build their stars. I think in general OAD shows that. Most of these guys arenât leaving with huge followings when theyâre only there for a few months and may or may not have any memorable moments
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I mean itâs not like people are walking in Ochai Agbaji shoes (trying to think of the most accomplished college player in this draft). I feel like Zion was a black swan - Banchero, Holmgren, Smith arenât nearly in the national zeitgeist, right? Is Cunningham meaningfully more nationally famous than Jalen Green?
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Not sure it really matters in the end. Doing awesome things in the NBA is what will lead to lasting stardom /recognition/fame in the NBA.
Iâm sure theyâre better-known now than they were a year ago. The NBAâs marketing arm doesnât need these guys to come in well known, but it makes it easier for them if they do.
Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate only spent a year here, but theyâll forever be associated with Michigan and Iâll follow their pro careers, whereas if theyâd gone pro straight out of HS I almost certainly wouldnât.
To me the status quo seems like a no-brainer for the NBA. I donât see how the league benefits from going back to drafting straight out of high school.
The current situation is probably better for the kids too. There used to be a handful of high school players that would declare for the draft (foregoing their college eligibility) and not get taken.
Now they can see if they get an offer from the G-League Ignite or Overtime Elite or NABL while still checking out colleges.
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Those are a completely different group than the players that would be impacted by one and done though. There are way better options for players who donât want to go to college, but the reality is that players like Zion or Chet or Duren would probably be better off going to the NBA than playing a year in college.
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Ja Morant?
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Donât know how Morant would fit into the convo (he would have never been a one and done) but I feel like him becoming a star despite playing at Murray State is an example that your college brand is basically irrelevant at the NBA level.
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I agree that the status quo is good and preferable for the nba. Which is why itâs a little odd Silver is trying to change the rules. But itâs been talked up for a while and hasnât gained anymore traction. A few years ago people thought itâd be changed by now
One reason I think the draft and follow rule may benefit the NBA is that it would let them buy more lottery tickets but not have to cash them all in right away. If a guy like Diabate is interesting to them, they draft him out of HS but instead of having to pay him right away and stash him in the GLeague hoping he develops, they encourage him to go to Michigan and maybe stay a couple years learning the game from JuwanâŚwhich is free to them (or maybe with NIL they get a little money).
That nBA team can draft three guys like that and see how they develop.
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So are you saying that first round picks wouldnât come with garaunteed contracts then?