As we wrote about earlier today, Adam Silver has an interest in raising the NBA’s age limit from 19 to 20. The commissioner says that the current system in place hasn’t done enough to adequately prepare prospects for life in the pros considering how many simply use the NCAA as a one-and-done launchpad for the NBA Draft.
The player’s union, however, is opposed to the age limit just as they were when the original was implemented over 10 years ago. Doing so restricts young players from dictating when and how they begin careers even though they’re legally old enough to vote or enlist in the army.
Essentially, the two parties have every reason to disagree but sooner or later they’ll have to agree on something. If this is a battle that Silver ultimately wins, we could see players waiting two years before declaring for the draft. The question is, would that be any better? Would student athletes end up being significantly more motivated to see their college programs through to completion if they’ve already logged two years as opposed to just one?
Alternatively, it’s hard not to empathize with the player’s union when they talk about players running the risk of injuring themselves in college and jeopardizing million-dollar careers all because of an arbitrary decision that some young prospects aren’t prepared enough to succeed in the pros.
A compromise would be ideal but it’s hard to gauge what that may look like. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer recently suggested that the league could follow Major League Baseball’s lead and let players choose one of two paths. On one hand players could opt to jump straight out of high school, on the other they could commit to playing at least two seasons of college ball if they choose to accept an NCAA scholarship.
What do you think about all of the options presented? Are there any other compromises that could give all parties what they want?
Weigh in with the comments section below!
They have a choice to do college for a degree they can get later when their career is diminishing as they get older, or they can join in the NBA right away. For me it’s a no-brainer. If they aren’t developed enough for the NBA, then they can use the perfectly good D-league, made for just that reason, or even go overseas. I get staying in college for an extra year or two to get drafted higher, but if you’re at your max and not going to get any better, you can bet you take the chance and enter the NBA. I think that sticking with the one year college rule is enough for players to show their skill and enter the NBA, and that’s enough, no more or less. Scouting can be hard if all the top prospects are scattered at different high schools, not able to play against each other because area issues. While NCAA have double headers featuring NBA prospects headed against each other, televised. And on top of that if all the players skip college, it diminishes the NCAA tournament. And like I said too long is just wasting time for NBA players. So I personally hope they keep this format, but we’ll see.
I wish they would just go closer to the MLB.
Get rid of the salary cap. Which will make the players happy. And in exchange for the removal of the salary cap, teams retain longer control over players in two levels. The D-League and the NBA.
For an example. You could keep a player in the D-league to develop him for up to 4 years. And in the NBA for up to 6 years.
Allow players to come straight out of high school still. The special kids like Garnett and LeBron that are NBA ready, teams won’t send to the D-League because they are ready. But other kids who aren’t, teams will send there to develop them, instead of having them rot as an 8th man on a lottery pick level team.
This will create more specialized role players who are developed, and delay free agency for superstars before they can jump to other teams.
And to keep competitive balance, have a beefed up luxury tax and revenue sharing system that allows teams like Minnesota to extend Wiggins and Towns when they exhaust their service time. And not have it so the Lakers and Knicks can just buy everybody.
This solves so many issues it’s not even funny.
The whole system needs to be revamped. Model it after the MLB, and the NBA would see significantly better parity, but can still enjoy the special 18 year olds that exist.
With this system, the 18 year old J.R. Smith isn’t going to go straight to the NBA, because he is a mid to later round draft pick. Whoever drafts a player like this isn’t going to waste his service time in the NBA, so he knows he’s going to the D-League. He’s better off going to college until he is either a top 5-10 pick who would go straight to the NBA, or finish four years in college.
This helps literally everybody.
Players aren’t getting paid in college
And they don’t have to. The D-League wouldn’t pay any more than the minors in baseball.
So nobody gets paid until they’re a pro for 10 years? That doesn’t work in a sport like basketball. I’m a huge baseball fan, and have thought about it before, but I think the best thing you can take from it is the no salary cap and each organization having a minor league team. Even then, there would have to be restrictions b/c then teams like the knicks and lakers would own the league
They still get paid arbitration level salaries.
You could balance this in a lot of ways.
Say signing bonus on draft signing, then league minimum for 2 years, then 20, 40, 60, 80 percentages of their free agency values, disputes determined by an arbitrator.
So you’d still see some special players making around 15-20 million at the end of their team control (more than they are making now).
Let’s use Wiggins as an example:
Signing bonus for going 1.1, call it 6.5M
Then 600k for years 1 and 2. Then 4ishM for year 3, 8ish for year 4, 12ish for year 5, 16ish for year 6. And he’s a free agent at 25 or whatever and has made around 50M.
You could adjust in a lot of ways. Longer control, higher arb rates etc. they would just be collectively bargained.
But if you are going to be a mid to late first rounder, you are better off going to college for awhile then to make the jump earlier because the team is going to just send you to the D-League to polish you and extend their control.
And if you are a late first or second rounder, but have played 4 years of college, you can start a pro career with the chance to become a valuable role player. But, you won’t see free agency for a long time.
You could also get rid of the declare for the draft phase. And just do that similarly to the MLB as well. Where the player doesn’t have to sign. He can refuse and go to college instead.
The financial system in baseball is antiquated garbage, but aside from that, I don’t disagree with a lot of your ideas here.
Nobody should tell someone when they should or shouldn’t try to make a living in something people want to pay them for. Are there times when people leave school too early? Absolutely. But, maybe teams should pass on those guys in the draft, if they don’t want to develop them. There are also plenty of other avenues to getting paid in basketball, besides the NBA, which is always an option. They also have the new rule of being able to test the draft process and go back to school, which is a good addition and helps with this age and readiness question. Honestly, I’d prefer them be allowed to come out of high school if they’re ready, but the idea of getting rid of that is so there isn’t so much scouting in high school gyms, while there are kids there. Ultimately, it’s up to the players to decide what their priorities are, and you still see some good young players stay in school for more than a year
The zero and two system that’s been floating around for a while now, makes a lot of sense to me, but the real problem isn’t the NBA, it’s the NCAA. Why shouldn’t you be able to draft a player, give him a nice signing bonus, and let him stay in college for another year or two for personal development? It takes the immediate need for money that many players face off the table, and provides an opportunity for the player to develop. Literally everyone benefits in this arrangement, unless you somehow think that the NCAA would be ruined by players who weren’t strictly “amateurs”
I agree with the MLB plan. 0 & 3 is what I would do for the draft though, that way even the best players would have only one year left until their eligibility is gone and would be more likely to stick around thus helping the NCAA. Also those players would be insanely developed and would be more like the NFL where 1st round picks would be starters and stars immediately instead of waiting until their rookie contract is almost up. Now that every team will have a D-League affiliate it’s also time to expand the Draft to 3-5 Rounds so teams will have players under contract for those teams. I would have the control of players be 2 D-League Option Years where you can send them back and forth with no penalty than you either have to put them with the big team or lose them on waivers. Also 6 years is too much control for the big teams I’d go 4 years with the ability to extend to 5 years max after year 3. So theoretically you could draft someone out of High School in Round 5 and have them for 11 max years and they would still get to FA before age 30. The top players would exhaust their time sooner and would be free agents at age 23 or earlier. Get rid of Restricted Free Agency as well.
Make contracts for 1st round Draftees,18 and 19 years of age, seven years in length for their first deal, with two team options at the end. Make contracts for 1st round draftees, 20+ years of age, five years in length with the current QO setup. This enables players to enter when they are adults, the union still gets its younger base, the teams can “gamble” on younger players but get a better return on investment with 7 year deals, all players essentially get their first major pay day around age 25. Players who stay 2-3 years in college are not penalized for doing so necessarily since they will be getting the standard 5 year deal.
Pretty much every job there is has prerequisites (degree, relevant experience, etc.), but it boils down to money. Owners want a higher age limit so they don’t have to pay players to develop their skills and can maximize their return on those athletes. Players want no age limit so they can get paid quicker.
I would say if a player wants to be draft-eligible and gets drafted in the lottery then they have to go pro. Mid to end of first they can elect to go to school but the team that selects them keeps their rights for two years. If the player elects to end their college career during that two years they negotiate exclusively with that team (or can have their rights traded like international players). After that two years they can re-enter the draft but the team that selects them doesnt recoup any make up picks. Second round same thing as late first but those teams get rights for 3 years. If a player chooses to go straight to school and not be draft eligible they can leave whenever they want but dont keep any college eligibility. Truly great players get drafted highly, players who misevaluated their stock can choose to go to school, and I dont have to watch every team run out high ceiling high schoolers who havent developed their shot yet.
Not a perfect idea, certainly, but closer to a compromise than the league is today.
In every other walk of life, once you are out of high school, you can do anything you want. You can go into the military, get trained, and sent off to kill people but they can’t handle the NBA???? What a laugh.