CBB will change dramatically

[Hoo's That]

Unless and until the Players Association agrees to this plan, it's all just idle talk and click bait with no effect on the status quo.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Move to a modified baseball model and improve it:

- can go pro out of HS
- can enter the draft out of HS, but still go to college. If you go through the process and don't like what you hear, you can go to college. I doubt this would ever actually happen, as kids are either all in or not ready.
- if you elect to go to college, you need to complete two years before being draft eligible again
- after your sophomore year, you can be drafted, but also return to school if you don't like your draft position. I believe this used to be the rule. I remember Voshon Lenard returning to Minnesota after being drafted in the 90's. Of course, kids will have to avoid agents to do this, so that'll be tough.
- Maybe allow contact with agents, or even be able to receive loans from an agent to be paid back once signing a pro deal, even if they go back to school for the year?
- more two way contracts with the G-League

Maybe this won't work because any fringe draftee that thinks 1 year in college is all they need may decide going pro right out of HS is the right move. Then possibly we'll have more Lenny Cooke, Jackie Butler and Robert Swifts.

 

[Jasoncuse]

its possible the g-league could become somewhat high profile, but it will take years to build and market correctly.

a thought I read somewhere about the current fbi/pay s-show in the cbb/aau world suggested that either the NBA or USA Basketball should take over the AAU circuit, which isn't a bad idea. maybe it should be expanded to include a pay option for players who don't want to go college.

USAB could take over the summer leagues and after a player is HS graduation age there could be a paid league where they an play up until 21.

A new start up league sponsored by USAB, and coordinated a bit with the NBA, could actually generate some buzz fairly quickly.

You never know, but it sure seems difficult to build something high profile with locales like Reno, Fort Wayne, Erie, Portland, ME, etc...

 

[Alsacs]

If the NCAA let these kids have advisors like baseball players have they could keep eligibility.

Agents are the main problem right
now.
Plus let HS kids go straight to the NBA.
People don’t talk about this but to be eligible for the WNBA draft you have to be 22 the year of the draft.
Women players can’t leave early if they wanted too for the WNBA and nobody complains about that.

 

[NKR1978]

How do tv contracts, recruiting and fan interest change when the top high school prospects play for pay and colleges are recruiting "the best of the rest" who aren't NBA ready or NBA caliber?

That's my only worry here.

I don't think people follow college basketball for the players or quality of play.

Ultimately, having more 4 year players in programs will help build continuity and fan interest. Watching guys mature from freshman to seniors is one of the best parts of the game that has been kind of lost for programs like ours.

 

[TheCusian]

It's pretty funny that a lot of you seem to think that whatever the NBA does here would benefit college basketball.

The NBA is going to do what's best for the NBA. Any benefit to college hoops is a happy coincidence. I wouldn't count in it though.

The people running the NBA are smarter than the people running the NCAA. Fact.

I don't think they are mutually exclusive at all. In fact - I think any plan that identifies talent and grooms it younger, is good for everyone.

CBB has too many fans to be replaced by the G league. Fans of NBA teams are the target audience for G league.

The choice for kids will be:

1. Go to the G league, make some money, get good NBA level coaching, low exposure
2. Go straight to the NBA because you've been fully vetted for years and teams have more knowledge (This will lower the "bust" factor)
3. Go to college, get an education for free, get good exposure, get noticed (same as it ever was)*

* If the sport gets cleaned up some by this (AAU and all this secret agent/sneaker $) - kids will choose based on the real factors of education, exposure, and coaching. That is *great* news for CBB, and probably us.

 

[Alsacs]

The G League will never matter.
Just like minor league baseball.
It is a niche.
The problem is that minor league baseball is in the summer where there isn’t competition and people like going outdoors for a game.

Minor league basketball will have not draw. TV won’t matter for it.

It’s good for the players though. If they don’t want to go to school like baseball.

College football is popular because the game is a good quality.
College basketball is a one month sport because the quality of play sucks.

It’s not on the NBA though to help college basketball even though the proposed changes probably will help it.

 

[Hoo's That]

{snip}
People don’t talk about this but to be eligible for the WNBA draft you have to be 22 the year of the draft.
Women players can’t leave early if they wanted too for the WNBA and nobody complains about that.

The argument about going pro, paying players, etc. is about all that money the NCAA and the colleges make from these "poor, exploited" players, very few of whom are from Larchmont or Beverly Hills. Women's college basketball doesn't make money, it costs money.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I don't think they are mutually exclusive at all. In fact - I think any plan that identifies talent and grooms it younger, is good for everyone.

CBB has too many fans to be replaced by the G league. Fans of NBA teams are the target audience for G league.

The choice for kids will be:

1. Go to the G league, make some money, get good NBA level coaching, low exposure
2. Go straight to the NBA because you've been fully vetted for years and teams have more knowledge (This will lower the "bust" factor)
3. Go to college, get an education for free, get good exposure, get noticed (same as it ever was)*

* If the sport gets cleaned up some by this (AAU and all this secret agent/sneaker $) - kids will choose based on the real factors of education, exposure, and coaching. That is *great* news for CBB, and probably us.

Why are those the choices that the NBA would put in front of kids?

What if the NBA creates an academy for highschool kids and pays them to attend, meaning a player and their family willingly bypass their amateur status?

People are making a lot of assumptions that the NBA is going to do what they think is best, and on this board that's biased to the interests of college basketball. I'm warning everybody now, the likelihood of this being better for college hoops, or solving the problems in college hoops, is low. The NBA isn't the entity that needs to give or change on this - if they do it is because the NBA benefits. There are a lot of things they'll look at, and my guess is they won't be minor tweaks. If the NBA is going to go full bore into player development they're going to see how the world's best do it. Spoiler alert - they're going to find models they like a lot more than the NCAA.

 

[OrangeFoo]

How will we react when Bazley goes pro this year instead of a year at the Cuse?

Completely fine because it means that all of Duke's and Kentucky's and Arizona's and Kansas's bigger recruits would go pro as well. It would level the playing field a ton and I think we would potentially have an advantage with Frank, Marek and Brisset if we return everyone but Battle and can get Sidibe healthy.

 

[Alsacs]

The argument about going pro, paying players, etc. is about all that money the NCAA and the colleges make from these "poor, exploited" players, very few of whom are from Larchmont or Beverly Hills. Women's college basketball doesn't make money, it costs money.

I agree the men players are exploited by the NCAA but women players should be allowed to leave early if they want.
The WNBA age requirement should go away as well.

I want change for HS players to be able to be drafted. I just think the WNBA rule should be gone as well.

 

[Shark58]

If these kids are looking to get to the next level, they can't get any better exposure than they do in the D league. People from various professional organizations seeing them on a nightly basis. While I know the scouting system and process for identifying potential NBA talent isn't great, I refuse to believe that it has much to do with P5 kids having great tournament runs. That may move the needle on media mock drafts, but I would hope the NBA organizations are doing a bit more research than just kicking back and turning on TruTV in March.

exposure to the NBA types, you are correct
exposure to the world. not so much

 

[chugg21]

Move to a modified baseball model and improve it:

- can go pro out of HS
- can enter the draft out of HS, but still go to college. If you go through the process and don't like what you hear, you can go to college. I doubt this would ever actually happen, as kids are either all in or not ready.
- if you elect to go to college, you need to complete two years before being draft eligible again
- after your sophomore year, you can be drafted, but also return to school if you don't like your draft position. I believe this used to be the rule. I remember Voshon Lenard returning to Minnesota after being drafted in the 90's. Of course, kids will have to avoid agents to do this, so that'll be tough.
- Maybe allow contact with agents, or even be able to receive loans from an agent to be paid back once signing a pro deal, even if they go back to school for the year?
- more two way contracts with the G-League

Maybe this won't work because any fringe draftee that thinks 1 year in college is all they need may decide going pro right out of HS is the right move. Then possibly we'll have more Lenny Cooke, Jackie Butler and Robert Swifts.

So be it, people flame out of all professions in life.

 

[Shark58]

You never know, but it sure seems difficult to build something high profile with locales like Reno, Fort Wayne, Erie, Portland, ME, etc...

relocating some franchises would make sense. Westchester isnt exactly a basketball mecca

 

[Alsacs]

Why are those the choices that the NBA would put in front of kids?

What if the NBA creates an academy for highschool kids and pays them to attend, meaning a player and their family willingly bypass their amateur status?

People are making a lot of assumptions that the NBA is going to do what they think is best, and on this board that's biased to the interests of college basketball. I'm warning everybody now, the likelihood of this being better for college hoops, or solving the problems in college hoops, is low. The NBA isn't the entity that needs to give or change on this - if they do it is because the NBA benefits. There are a lot of things they'll look at, and my guess is they won't be minor tweaks. If the NBA is going to go full bore into player development they're going to see how the world's best do it. Spoiler alert - they're going to find models they like a lot more than the NCAA.

NBA isn’t creating an academy.
It’s too much money.

There are only 5-20 players a year that would go from HS to the NBA.

Let them get paid. Just make it like baseball. You give those kids a signing bonus and Little salary on 2-way contracts.

That would allow the kids who don’t want to play college basketball you go to the minors and work your way up. It will be like baseball prospects. They will be overhyped and fans will follow their teams own prospects but won’t watch the games.

Kids who don’t declare go to college for a minimum of 2 years and college basketball becomes filled with more cohesive teams and can increase its own quality and the tournament is still a moneymaker.

Both NBA and College basketball win.

 

[chugg21]

I'm thinking something like this...

Frequently Asked Questions

 

[OttoinGrotto]

NBA isn’t creating an academy.
It’s too much money.

There are only 5-20 players a year that would go from HS to the NBA.

Let them get paid. Just make it like baseball. You give those kids a signing bonus and Little salary on 2-way contracts.

That would allow the kids who don’t want to play college basketball you go to the minors and work your way up. It will be like baseball prospects. They will be overhyped and fans will follow their teams own prospects but won’t watch the games.

Kids who don’t declare go to college for a minimum of 2 years and college basketball becomes filled with more cohesive teams and can increase its own quality and the tournament is still a moneymaker.

Both NBA and College basketball win.

Suppose the NBA comes out with something like a player's 2nd contract begins 5 years after their highschool, regardless of when the player enters the NBA.

The NBA does it because rookie contracts are cheap and they believe with an exclusive focus on basketball players develop better. The main benefit provided to the NBA by the NCAA (time to see the player develop against a higher competition level than highschool) is reduced as higher level highschool talent floods into the G-league.

This is the kind of stuff I guarantee the NBA would think about.

 

[Chip]

It's pretty funny that a lot of you seem to think that whatever the NBA does here would benefit college basketball.

The NBA is going to do what's best for the NBA. Any benefit to college hoops is a happy coincidence. I wouldn't count in it though.

The people running the NBA are smarter than the people running the NCAA. Fact.

It's easy to seem smarter when you don't have to pretend that money is an 800 lb gorilla in a room.

I don't think forced one and done's is a good thing for college basketball. But the NBA forced that one. Which made the explosion of agent to college unavoidable (even though it wasn't a new phenomenon).

 

[Alsacs]

Suppose the NBA comes out with something like a player's 2nd contract begins 5 years after their highschool, regardless of when the player enters the NBA.

The NBA does it because rookie contracts are cheap and they believe with an exclusive focus on basketball players develop better. The main benefit provided to the NBA by the NCAA (time to see the player develop against a higher competition level than highschool) is reduced as higher level highschool talent floods into the G-league.

This is the kind of stuff I guarantee the NBA would think about.

I have proposed before that nba teams should tie rookie contracts to the player drafted age.
Just so player don’t leave early just to get that 2nd contract earlier.
If a kid enters at 18 the team gets up to 6 years under control for the team that drafts them.
If a kid enters at 21 the team gets 3 years of control.
That way FA for all players is at 24 when they are all worthy of 4 year max or 5 year contracts.

 

[RandygoCuse]

Maybe if the strongest keeps start jumping ship, we get more parity in college basketball.

 

[Newhouser]

I still don't get why this is the NBA's problem to fix. That league is doing just fine, and the product is great. This is an issue the schools need to man up and fix - academically and fiscally.

 

[realorange]

Let them go directly from high school to NBA. Several will try it initially.

After a few of the AAU/high school hot shots get shoved to the side of the road, others following them may think it's a good idea to try the college route first.

 

[SBU72]

Suppose the NBA comes out with something like a player's 2nd contract begins 5 years after their highschool, regardless of when the player enters the NBA.

The NBA does it because rookie contracts are cheap and they believe with an exclusive focus on basketball players develop better. The main benefit provided to the NBA by the NCAA (time to see the player develop against a higher competition level than highschool) is reduced as higher level highschool talent floods into the G-league.

This is the kind of stuff I guarantee the NBA would think about.

I have maintained that the first contarct be 8 years minus each year of college. This lets the drafting teams develop a youg kid and keep him awhile. Now a kid signs after his freshmen year, gets developed and leaves after 3 years. My proposal lets the developing team reap some of the benefits of their traning.

 

[djcon57]

How will we react when Bazley goes pro this year instead of a year at the Cuse?

My man.

 

[dasher]

My man.

How the hell did I know that when I didn't know that?