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NBA G League adding "one and done" players


TheGrimReaper

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The G-League $125,000 proposal is a good idea and might appeal to non-qualifiers or an occasional player. But most top talent will choose NCAA. Better travel/lifestyle, far easier competition and more money, albeit "secret."

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/DanWetzel/status/1052987059244331010

 

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I have doubts about how many top players will go this route. Some, yes. But G-League is full of early connecting flights, long bus rides, small gyms. It isn't glamorous. Big-time NCAA ball still has the trappings of exposure, packed houses, private jets. You'll get paid there too.

A top HS player would be wiser to take a year away with a trainer prior to entering Draft than wander into G-League with far more fully developed men. Most pre-college teens will be overwhelmed there. Wouldn't be a pre-draft showcase. Still, it's an alternative worth examining.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/wojespn/status/1052959247305080832

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I like that in 2018, NCAA players getting played isn't even a hush-hush thing. What a stupid charade the NCAA is.

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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There's only one thing besides money that drives most top athletes, and much more of that is available to college players than to G-leaguers.

 

They need a "Pre G" league, just for 18-22 year-olds.  Make it professional, and make players draft-eligible after a year or two.  

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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The week of the Final Four, former Ohio State commit, decided he wasn't going to Ohio State or his later verbal commitment school, Syracuse and would go pro. 

 

He didn't go overseas and in August, he and his family told the media he wasn't going to the G League, rather he'd work with a trainer for the 2019 Draft.

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5 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

There's only one thing besides money that drives most top athletes, and much more of that is available to college players than to G-leaguers.

 

They need a "Pre G" league, just for 18-22 year-olds.  Make it professional, and make players draft-eligible after a year or two.  


Essentially, what basketball needs is a multi-tiered minor league system like baseball and hockey.

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22 minutes ago, NicDB said:


Essentially, what basketball needs is a multi-tiered minor league system like baseball and hockey.

NO.

For who and for what?

 

Basketball needs to be rid of dirty collegiate coaches and then have the collegiate system actually pay players something more than Cost of Attendance.

 

Zion Williamson has 1.4M Instagram followers well before he enrolled at Duke yet he cannot monotize on that. Duke is making money off him.

 

Why shouldn't he make $50K from a comment?

 

 

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1 hour ago, dfwabel said:

NO.

For who and for what?

 

Basketball needs to be rid of dirty collegiate coaches and then have the collegiate system actually pay players something more than Cost of Attendance.

 

Zion Williamson has 1.4M Instagram followers well before he enrolled at Duke yet he cannot monotize on that. Duke is making money off him.

 

Why shouldn't he make $50K from a comment?

 

 


Kat Dennings needs to come to my house and blow me too... and that actually has a better chance of happening than getting the dirty money out of college ball.

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3 hours ago, NicDB said:


Essentially, what basketball needs is a multi-tiered minor league system like baseball and hockey.

 

Not realy. I’m not advocating for “drafting” high school kids and just assigning them to teams. Rather just replicate the college system but without any of the bull :censored: of the ncaa. Have 20 teams, 300 players (are there really more than 300 college players than move the needle in terms of revenue for their schools?) but it’s an all FA league, so players can be recruited and choose just like today, and make the choice that’s best for their career goal. 

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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6 hours ago, NicDB said:

Essentially, what basketball needs is a multi-tiered minor league system like baseball and hockey.

 

6 hours ago, dfwabel said:

NO.

For who and for what?

 

Basketball needs to be rid of dirty collegiate coaches and then have the collegiate system actually pay players something more than Cost of Attendance.

 

Zion Williamson has 1.4M Instagram followers well before he enrolled at Duke yet he cannot monotize on that. Duke is making money off him.

 

The quesiton you should be asking is: why does this need to be attached in any way to a university?  The answer is: it doesn't.

 

For people who intend to make basketball their career, playing the sport is not an extra-curricluar activity comparable the chess club; it is their full-time job.  Let these adults elect to start their careers without going throught the charade of a sham enrollment at a university — and then becoming subject to criticism when they take easy courses or don't show up for classes, because their attention is (rightfully) on the sport that they are trying to make into their livelihood.

 

A minor-league system, in which players can move up to higher levels based on their progress while earning whatever salaries their talent can demand on the market, is in the interest of everyone who matters, namely players, those coaches who are geniuinely interested in developing players, and fans.  The only party which such a system leaves out is the universities, which have been benefitting from free labour, and the group of parasitic coaches who have earned millions while the members of their work force earn nothing and risk injuries that could scuttle their futures.

The only obstacle to this sort of thing is momentum.  Generations have grown up thinking that the only route to a pro basketball career is through the major universities; and this is a difficult perception to break.  A new multi-tiered basketball minor league would have to somehow stock itself with coaches who have a good reputation for knowing the sport and for player development, and who are at the same time willing to turn their backs on the NCAA.  And this league would also somehow have to persuade several years' worth of high-school players to forego the schools whose names they know and to trust this new league with their futures.  Imagining such a system after it is already up and running is easy; but imagining how to get it started is almost impossible.

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13 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

There's only one thing besides money that drives most top athletes, and much more of that is available to college players than to G-leaguers.

 

They need a "Pre G" league, just for 18-22 year-olds.  Make it professional, and make players draft-eligible after a year or two.  

 

I think if you combined this idea with the ABA model of putting teams in underserved markets like San Diego, Baltimore, St. Louis, San Diego, Seattle, Cincinnati, Tampa, Pittsburgh, etc. You could have a profitable league.

 

Another alternative would be to just film everything in-house in a TV studio rather than going on tour across the country in front of half-empty arenas. (aka what Lavar's league should be doing)

 

A third alternative would be to combine this with Ice-Cube's league. Every team would get assigned "a legend," and you fill out the remainder of the roster using the 18-22-year-old roster pool. The only reason I suggest this is to help give the league some name value.

 

The biggest hurdle I see with any league like this would be attracting quality coaching, especially out of the gate.

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On 10/19/2018 at 11:33 AM, pmoehrin said:

Another alternative would be to just film everything in-house in a TV studio rather than going on tour across the country in front of half-empty arenas. (aka what Lavar's league should be doing)

 

That's an idea I hadn't thought of.  I think that the travel and being away from home is a big part of development, so I still think that's a better option, but if building out the infra for a full traveling league is more daunting than anticipated, then this might be a good way to start.

 

 

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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You CANNOT have a multi-tiered system in basketball.

 

You're not going to have A, AA, AAA, then NBA (or even two and then NBA).  Guys just don't develop like that.  It's not baseball, where you can be a fat 40-year-old and still be a 300 hitter.  It's an athletic game where youth is your advantage, and they're not going to accept being "promoted" over years into the NBA (nor would teams want a 25-year-old rookie.)

 

Players and the PA would not accept being "drafted" and "assigned" to the G-League for $150K when they feel their guy is worth millions today on an active roster.  

 

I don't think it works if the teams have the control right away.  There needs to be a league that's independent (even if it's run by the NBA, the teams themselves couldn't be involved) where players can play, get paid, and then declare for the draft when they feel they're ready - meaning, when they feel they're good enough to play in the NBA immediately, or are willing to accept that if they get drafted, they may end up in the G-League for a year before getting paid an NBA deal.

 

So you'd have this "Anti-College League", which is 18-23 year-olds, then the NBA (which includes the G-league, but most draftees from the Anti-College league would probably go straight to NBA.)

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

That's an idea I hadn't thought of.  I think that the travel and being away from home is a big part of development, so I still think that's a better option, but if building out the infra for a full traveling league is more daunting than anticipated, then this might be a good way to start.

 

 

The goal is to make money. If you can develop players in the process to better ready them for the NBA, fantastic, but if the league isn't profitable, none of this matters.

 

The biggest hurdle with any league like this that nobody considers is the coaching. The main reason more players don't follow the Brandon Jennings route aside from having to go overseas is that the quality of coaching you get in Europe isn't as good as what you get in the NCAA.

 

It doesn't mean the gap hasn't closed, but even average D1 programs have coaches who either played in the NBA, played at a high-level NCAA program or served as a multi-year assistant for a big name program. The difference regarding coaching quality between the NCAA and the NBA is almost negligible.

 

You ask college players what the most significant factor was in deciding on their school; I would guess at least 70% of them would say who the head coach of the program was. And this is coming from someone that worked as a student manager for two years under Travis Ford, the current head coach at St. Louis. I would speak with players on a daily basis, and these topics would come up all the time.

 

Finding quality coaches capable of teaching NBA level prospects who aren't already employed by the NBA or NCAA is not going to be easy. It's the main reason why I would say Lavar's league is doomed to failure no matter what he does. You're just not going to be able to convince big name players to come in with crappy coaching.


The sad part is I like the idea of Lavar's league. But to make a league like this work, you're going to need to bring in someone who has a lot of established connections and is willing to take a chance on a renegade league. There's probably only a dozen or so people who fit that bill and Lavar Ball isn't on the list.

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