I watched most of today’s game. The gap between the level of play and the NBA was enormous - not just at the level of talent but defensive awareness and effort.
I think the biggest issue with the G-League is that most players are focused on themselves, not the team. Unless you’ve been dropped down from the NBA on a long term contract, most players are earning absolute peanuts.
This is where I’ve had an issue with term the ‘player empowerment era’. In reality, it’s just the elite players being as greedy as the team owners.
If they truely cared about players, they would have taken a tiny bit less in the CBA to give the G-League guys a living wage. Not only would a living wage help develop late bloomers, but more importantly, no longer force guys to go overseas on their own to support their families.