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Message: [QUOTE="joct, post: 1015257, member: 2001"] 1994 was the tail-end of the NBA's expansion from 23 to 29 teams. That created 6 more lottery picks every year, 90 more roster spots and at the same time the rookie pay scale was improving. Think of it this way, that was about 30 more first round picks that didn't exist just 5 years earlier. The NBA had to get the players from somewhere, so they gradually went younger and younger rather than keeping journeymen on longer. Once that happened, by the late 90s, the classes ahead were mostly cleared out (exceptions like Duncan), so underclassmen became by default best draftable players, especially with the NBA's philosophy of drafting talent. The NBA created this mess by over expanding...then had to put rules in to save themselves with the one and done rule. When they expanded by roughly 33% overnight, where did they think the players were going to come from? [/QUOTE]