End of Age restriction

[Eja117]

I'm against any age restriction. You're good enough and dunking on everyone at 14? Lace em up.

Heres the thing though, would you like to be the one paying Millions of dollars to the 14 year old, and hoping it ends up as a good investment?  These rules allow the league to protect themselves from having to make that decision, and allow them to limit their risk.

In my opinion, the market and philosophy of the GM should dictate what kind of a contract that kid gets.

Agree to disagree.  I personally think when you don't have regulations on a market like that, it becomes a slippery slope, and suddenly teams need to sign kids younger and younger in order to get anyone with any sort of talent.  And I think that would ultimately kill the economics of the league, because they will have way too much money and roster spaces in young projects that are nowhere near producing at the NBA level.

Now, I absolutely think these kids have the right to make money playing basketball, I just think it is bad business for the NBA to be the place, based on the way the current CBA is constructed, and particularly that they don't have a true minor league. 

With certain tweaks to the system, it could certainly work, but based on the system now, I just don't think it works.

You're ignoring the role of market leaders. 

That's probably because I have no clue what your talking about.  Please elaborate.

Essentially a good organization steps up and publicly takes a stand.  There's more than one way to do it.  For example, I guarantee if Mac comes out with a great computer tomorrow for $700 you'd see instant responses from its competitors, because a standard gets set.
Otherwise everything would always just degenerate to the lowest common denominator.

I don't believe these doom and gloom scenarios of the league ruining itself with willing employees being matched up with willing employers.

Well, I am not talking about the league ruining itself.  I am talking about them losing money, and then being forced to pass those losses on to the consumer, or more likely just correcting it in the next CBA (just like they did by putting in the age limit in the first place after enough teams got burned by highschool kids and young Euros).

Of course the other thing that could happen would be a major backlash against highschool kids, and suddenly these kids would no longer be drafted because they would be seen as too much of a risk, and a lot of them would be left inneligible for college, but without a job in the NBA either.

They put the age limit in for a reason.  The influx of highschool kids (which was absolutely a slippery slope), was getting worse and worse.  It was hurting teams financially, because there was too much pressure to draft them, and they were expending way too much money to try to develop them without enough payback.

I disagree. There's no guarantee whatsoever that the team dumb enough to draft Ndudi Ebi and get caught breaking rules would have somehow made great decisions that would have made them successful because of an age limit. 

That's a different thing.  Its not about guaranteeing they make good decisions.  However, if they can make a rule that eliminates the chances of a bad decision that many teams have made, with very minimal negative side effects, then it is good for the business.

What players came straight from highschool, and made a significant contribution their rookie year, relative to their draft position?

Lebron
Dwight Howard

KG and Kobe were pretty mediocre as rookies. 

Who am I missing?

Basically, for most of these players, if the teams lost their production their rookie years, it would not have been a loss at all.  So, it would have been highly beneficial to get that extra year of development on someone elses dime.

Well Amare, right?

This is sorta philosophical. Another way to look at it is how would the Celts have gotten Al Jefferson had he developed for another year? If he had developed another year then he would have been a top 5 pick and they never would have gotten him. Same thing for Perk.  Yes, they also drafted Gerald Green, but that's a pretty small price to pay for those guys.

Not to mention the age limit isn't working.  There's still tons of players that are just one and done potential picks. Look at Avery Bradley. He didn't even get that great of averages in the Big 12 last year but was a top 20 pick.  So now what? Now they have to raise the age limit again? When does it stop?

Teams have to stop drafting on potential, and I don't think that'll happen

[GKC]

A few things:

1. This is good for scouting
All scouts admit it is much harder to scout high school games, which means you draft on potential, or unknown potential, since there's a lot more talent dilution. We don't want teams having draft busts. money going to over-valued players = bad for the league.

2. This is (somewhat) good for injuries.
Granted, for those who are naturally blessed like Lebron, Dwight or Amare, this doesn't matter, but for most players, if you look at their senior year high school film vs their college freshmen year highlight tapes, the biggest difference is their physical size. Carter comes to mind, though it's somewhat true for Pierce too. Weights and getting into physical shape has much more of an emphasis on it in college than in high school, so it reduces the likely hood of injury. Guys like Sean Livingston would've been helped a lot by this. This is somewhat minor, but it does help.

I know the main argument, that stems from a lot of people that because kids can get injured, they should go to college and "make their money now" because it's much harder in the future, and they could blow it by getting injured in college. However, playing in the NBA is a privilege, and not a right. NCAA (as crappy as they are) do try to put as many measurements in place to make sure these kids don't get injured. The big picture however, is that it is better for the league to draft better players, make slightly better decisions, and have less wastage.

We can keep giving examples of one and done busts v high school busts, though sample size really isn't big enough. If the scouts say it makes an easier job for them, I mean, whose to disagree?

[ballin]

As a fan of the NBA, I hope they raise the requirements so that a player has to play 4 years in college before being drafted. I'm so sick of

1)enormous busts being drafted in the lottery, and all the money + time that's wasted on them

2)all of the players getting drafted after 1 year of college that are COMPLETELY unpolished. because of the 1 and done rule, I'm forced to suffer through watching these unpolished players with loads of "potential" attempt to develop in the NBA, regardless of whether or not they ultimately end up getting better and earning their draft position. well i'm sorry, but i didn't pay for tickets to watch kwame brown learn how to not suck. i paid to see a game played by top-tier professionals. the 1 and done rule conflicts with my viewing experience.

lastly, i could give two hoots about the "right" of 18 year olds to make millions from playing basketball. playing in the NBA is a privilege, not a right. virtually EVERY profession has rules that limit entrance into it, and i don't see why the nba should be the exception.

[EmilioBonilla]

As a fan of the NBA, I hope they raise the requirements so that a player has to play 4 years in college before being drafted. I'm so sick of

1)enormous busts being drafted in the lottery, and all the money + time that's wasted on them

2)all of the players getting drafted after 1 year of college that are COMPLETELY unpolished. because of the 1 and done rule, I'm forced to suffer through watching these unpolished players with loads of "potential" attempt to develop in the NBA, regardless of whether or not they ultimately end up getting better and earning their draft position. well i'm sorry, but i didn't pay for tickets to watch kwame brown learn how to not suck. i paid to see a game played by top-tier professionals. the 1 and done rule conflicts with my viewing experience.

lastly, i could give two hoots about the "right" of 18 year olds to make millions from playing basketball. playing in the NBA is a privilege, not a right. virtually EVERY profession has rules that limit entrance into it, and i don't see why the nba should be the exception.

i agree completely TP

[Celtics18]

As a fan of the NBA, I hope they raise the requirements so that a player has to play 4 years in college before being drafted. I'm so sick of

1)enormous busts being drafted in the lottery, and all the money + time that's wasted on them

2)all of the players getting drafted after 1 year of college that are COMPLETELY unpolished. because of the 1 and done rule, I'm forced to suffer through watching these unpolished players with loads of "potential" attempt to develop in the NBA, regardless of whether or not they ultimately end up getting better and earning their draft position. well i'm sorry, but i didn't pay for tickets to watch kwame brown learn how to not suck. i paid to see a game played by top-tier professionals. the 1 and done rule conflicts with my viewing experience.

lastly, i could give two hoots about the "right" of 18 year olds to make millions from playing basketball. playing in the NBA is a privilege, not a right. virtually EVERY profession has rules that limit entrance into it, and i don't see why the nba should be the exception.

Very few of the top players in the NBA went to college for 4 years.

[Jon]

Well, I suppose there's some good argument on both sides.  However, I still don't think the NBA Player's Union really cares.  I think they're just doing this as a bargaining ploy. 

I also don't like the notion that college basketball is something worth being saved.  It'd been a sham for a long time and is getting worse.  Some would argue that student athletes are closer to athlete students.  I'd argue that the whole "student" notion should be dropped given the caliber of classes and number of classes the average "student athlete" takes or attends.  I'm sure Allen Iverson really picked up a lot at his three years at Georgetown. 

I personally would rather see the NBA get a minor league team for every NBA team.  No one bats an eye when great high school players get picked in the MLB and NHL draft.  As a teacher with a masters, I certainly understand the value of an education.  However, college isn't for everyone and it certainly doesn't do anyone any good if people aren't actually majoring in anything legitimate or attending classes.