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NBA Discussion (Official Thread)

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This is coming into play as we discuss recruiting Billy Walker, OJ Mayo, Greg Oden, and any other top-notch player. So, it got moved for some reason....:ohwell: Here's one guy's take on what might happen. Sounds like bad news for the college game. Wouldn't be surprised to see a minimum of fifteen players go to the draft every year out of HS if this type of arrangement comes into effect.


Age minimum will have a maximum benefit

Sean Deveney

<!-- Meta Tag For Search --><!-- meta name="author" content="Sean Deveney"--><!-- meta name="source" content="SportingNews"--><!-- meta name="eventId" content=""--><!-- meta name="contentTypeCode" content="1"--><!-- meta name="editorContentCode" content="15"--><!-- meta name="blurb" content="Barring a breakdown, the 20-year-old age minimum will be a reality in the NBA's next collective bargaining agreement. That's good news for those who care about the league."--><!-- meta name="modDate" content="April 14, 2005 02:34:15 GMT"-->Posted: 7 days ago<script> // front-end hack to remove postedTime from Rumors page until a better way can be determined if (document.URL.indexOf("/name/FS/rumors") != -1) document.getElementById("postedTime").style.display = 'none'; </script>

..........The age minimum is not likely to be quite as simple as it sounds. College basketball junkies who think the rule change will send the country's best young talent back to the NCAA ranks will be disappointed. The NBA is looking out for itself with the age minimum, trying to protect the quality of play in the league — as it should.

The new proposal won't keep kids from turning pro and collecting legitimate paychecks (rather than those shady payments from college boosters and assistant coaches). That's because the league wants to tie the age minimum to an expansion of its developmental league, the NBDL, which will include 10 teams (up from six) next season. Eventually, the league would like to have 15 NBDL teams, with two NBA teams splitting each minor league roster.

The result probably would go like this: Players who want to enter the NBA from high school still can put in for the draft, but they will be required to go to the NBDL first. There they will collect their full rookie-scale salaries — a wrinkle that has made the proposal palatable for Hunter. NBA teams that own the players' rights can let those players develop in the minor league and bring them up when they are ready.

This is an exciting step. Fundamentals will improve as young players get better instruction and more game experience. But this is not going to send kids back to college. In fact, it could encourage more prep players to skip college.

Go back to our 18-year-old star, for example. If you're a G.M. considering drafting the kid, you're more likely to do so knowing you can send him to the NBDL without weighing down your roster or coaching staff. You still get all of his positives and potential, with much less risk.

And if more teams are willing to take chances on raw young players and pay them millions in the minors, then more of those raw young players will come to the NBA through the NBDL. The age minimum is not going to save the college game, nor will it take agents and sneaker companies out of high school basketball. It's simply going to make the NBA better.
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
Two different leagues, two different salary systems. Baseball is the same in that the minor leagues' salaries don't count against MLB salary caps.
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Unless I am mistaken I don't believe that baseball has a salary cap. That certainly would be an interesting consideration from the business end.
 
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We're really going to have a lockout because Isiah Thomas is a lousy general manager? Really?

Also, a little bit about the age limit in here....


The regular season ended a week ago, but there's still no agreement. <OFFER>

Optimism that the league will avoid a lockout July 1 has waned over the past few weeks as the NBA and NBPA have come to an impasse on two key issues – contract length and an age limit.

The league has been pushing to reduce the maximum number of years a contract can be guaranteed from seven years down to four seasons for players who are re-signing with their own team. For players signing with a new team, the league wants the number reduced from six to three years.

The players have been proposing a reduction of one year for each veteran player-signing scenario. In February, both sides felt confident that they would meet in the middle, compromising at a maximum of five years for players re-signing and four years for players signing with a new team.

However, the owners have held firm to the 4/3 plan, infuriating the union. Hunter feels that such a severe reduction is too large a concession. Owners want contract lengths reduced so that they can manage their payrolls better, have more flexibility to remake their rosters and minimize risks on big contracts. Players are, however, very reluctant to give such lucrative guarantees away and are frustrated because the move mainly protects owners from themselves.

This issue is serious enough that Hunter began recruiting player agents last week, asking them to convince their clients that it's an issue worth risking a lockout over.

The other issue, the 20-year-old age limit, is more symbolic than substantive for both sides. Stern has been pushing for it for years, more as a PR tool than an actual device to improve the game. Sponsors and season ticket holders didn't like the influx of young, unknown high school players into the game (though they sure didn't hesitate to get on LeBron James's bandwagon) and Stern has been determined to make a change.

There's a pretty big split within the union on the issue. The rank-and-file players are willing to concede the issue as long as they get back something of value. In a negotiation like this, the easiest concessions to make are the ones that don't affect anyone currently in the union.

However, union leadership, and Hunter specifically, is strongly opposed to an age limit. Hunter agrees with Jermaine O'Neal that there's a racial element to it, and, according to several agents who were in attendance at a meeting with Hunter last week, Hunter was passionate about fighting it.

While no one believes the age-limit issue ultimately will hold up getting a deal done on either side, it's ruffled enough feathers to put its ultimate passage back into doubt.

Other issues haven't been worked out as well, including raises, the luxury tax threshold and a new rookie scale, but sources on both sides said the deal will likely hinge on working out something on contract lengths. If the two sides can't work something out in the next nine weeks, the owners won't hesitate to lock out the players, hoping that they'll quickly concede. No one on either side wants a protracted lockout that would threaten the NBA season, but owners are not beyond locking the players out for a few months if it helps them get what they need.
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An NBA lockout now gives the AFL the opening to be much bigger in making TV deals. IMO, indoor football is essentially what the NBA is now anyway, and some of the scores are higher than NBA games. Keep up the greed NBA. See NHL and add a small amount of relevance, and that's what you are right now.
 
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Heard David Stern on the Celtics' halftime radio show tonight. He was asked about NBA expansion to other parts of the world. Stern basically said that the NBA believes that the NBDL will be the second-best basketball played in the world, and they want to expand the NBDL to parts of Europe and South America. So, basically, if they allow the NBA to draft 18-year-olds, but won't allow them to play in the prime time until they are 20, we are looking at the allure of going "pro" out of High School to play in Paris or Rio or something. The more that comes out, the crazier the stories are getting. I don't know if many Americans would want to go into a foreign-exchange program like that, but if it means millions of dollars in signing bonuses (a la baseball), it will be a strong enticement. The obvious benefit of this proposal is that the NBA wants to attract a lot of foreign talent to the NBDL, so perhaps there will not be enough room for all of the best American HS players to travel the world. Who knows? I wish it was like the old days, but you can't blame the NBA for taking these steps. I'm sensing the death-knell of collegiate, amateur basketball if the NBA and the Union come to an agreement like this. There is no such thing as amateur basketball among the best players in Europe as far as teenagers goes, and we might not be far behind.
 
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I'm in favor of an age limit merely for the naive thought that kids who think they're going to make the NBA but never will... might have to entertain a much more vital college education (NOT the NBDL) to carry them in life...

For the half dozen exceptions who are penalized... I say "so what".. you'll still going to make more money than you, your family and your grandkids will ever be able to spend... so who cares if you lose a few million by having to wait...
 
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