State of the NBA draft and the D League

[HearMeRoar]

My first post on celticsblog.com in about 4 years. I read the site daily, and like some of the changes that have been put in place. Lot better than listening to Michael Felger talk about michael jackson on eei. Anyway-

I can really see the NBA making some changes after the last few drafts. They appear to be adding new franchises in the D League yearly. Right now with the current 2 round format there are plenty of talented college players (mostly seniors) that are going drafted. Take Tyrese Rice for example- could have been a first rounder a few years back, but he waits until his senior year and goes undrafted. NBA teams are taking unproven Euros instead of college talent just so they can hold their rights with slims hopes the kid pans out(smeith Eriden will never wear green, and can barley get into a euro game). This trend will continue to make guys rethink staying for 4 years.

NBA teams invite players to camp/summer leagues, so I feel that they should make the draft larger again. Add another 2 rounds, and let each team have one D-league affiliate. That way a team can have their minor league coaches in place with their players. No reason the celtics d leaguers should be on the same unit as guys from the bobcats. That way it is easy to make a call up. Just a thought, but I think it we might see a similar scenario if the D league continues to expand.

[Kwhit10]

I have doubt of this ever happening (in a way that Baseball uses minor league anyway).  But I really hope the D league can succeed and be used as a farm system for the NBA teams.

Welcome back to the site!

[jdpapa3]

I agree and I was thinking about this the other day. Teams aren't going to carry 15 guys this year because it is just too expensive, and a lot easier to just call up a guy from the D League in case injuries deplete the team too much. Teams have more of an incentive to draft those international players in the second round instead of taking an American college player that they will have a 99% chance of cutting. It has messed up the draft a little bit. A bunch of decent college players dropped fully out of the second round, even though they were more talented than some of the European players.

When stuff like that happens, a change needs to be made. More and more DL teams are popping up, and it seems the NBA is going in the direction of a minor league. Instead of a guy being completely lost on a call up, their 10 day contract guys would have a good feel of the offensive and defensive schemes.

Guys like Abrams, Rice, Adrien, Matthews, McNeal, Christmas are all pretty good. I bet there was an absolute scramble shortly after the draft to get them on SL teams and into camps.

An exclusive minor league team would at least give us more interesting prospects to argue over.

[bobdelt]

With the 1 and done rule how does that affect the D league? Instead of going to college or one year you chose the d-league, does that mean you get drafted after a year in the d-league, and so the team that you were playing for has virtually no chance of keeping you? Just seems odd to me, you should be drafted first.

[HearMeRoar]

My take was similar to Jdpapas. For instance say the celtics retain powe and davis and sign another pf/c FA, it would be nice to have some "minor leaguers" to call up in case of injury. We already know that Powe is out for a bit, so to have the ability to have a guy like jeff adrien in their system waiting in the wings would be nice. They would not be on a full rookie season salary, but would get d league pay and nba min if called up per game. The system works for MLB so why not NBA?