They need a real minor league and at least 1 more round, maybe 2.
Agreed. The players are coming way too raw to play any kind of role in the NBA. It's why I like older guys that have worked on their skills coming in: Bane, Pritchard, Hauser... were all guys I wanted us to pick... Up side for starts but developed skills for role players. Sometimes you get lucky and get both.
I find the prospect age debate interesting. Out of curiosity I looked up last season 1st, 2nd, and 3rd team all nba players their ages at the draft and what pick they where selected with.
pick age at draft
Giannis 15 18.5
Tatum 3 19.3
Embiid 3 20.2
SGA 11 19.9
Luka 3 19.3
Jokic 41 19.3
Mitchel 13 20.7
Curry 7 21.2
Butler 30 21.7
Brown 3 19.6
Sabonis 11 20.1
Fox 5 19.5
Lillard 6 21.9
Randle 7 19.5
James 1 18.4
The oldest players are still all under the age of 22 at the time of the draft.
Looking at the Cs current rotation Tatum, Brown, KP, and Holiday where all 19 when drafted. Al was 21, White + Pritchard + Kornet where all 22, and Hauser was 23.
My thoughts are that in general if a team drafts a player over 22 they should be confident that he can fit a role very early in his career and his ceiling is likely low. Development may come in the form of transitioning into a role player as opposed to a high usage college role but large developmental leaps should not be expected. When drafting younger players there seems to be more room for larger jumps in development. This may come in the form of physical development from still teens ( Tatum is a prime example) or skill development (Jaylen browns 3pt shot from high school to college to not is a prime example).
BS has favored the young raw developmental prospects in his 3 drafts as GM. Begarin, Davison, and Walsh all where drafted as teens with + physical and athletic profiles who needed/need to be developed to reach their high ceilings. Based on the Walsh and Davison picks I would wager that BS has a preference for blue chip prospects (both where highly ranked out of HS) who have the physical tools to reach an all-star or near all-star level this includes outlier length.
This draft in the late 1st / early 2nd really seems void of the young athletically gifted raw prospects.
I do think the older prospects are very valuable and may see their value in the current CBA. However this value will probably come for teams who have a set top 5-6 man rotation that's eating a large junk of their cap and they need to round out roles 7-12.
Players like Terrence Shannon 23, Tyler Kolek 23, or Cam Spencer 24 could all potentially plug into rotational roles and help teams next season.
