Eliminating Age Restrictions On Drafting Would Eliminate Tanking

[PhoSita]

JSD, I just have to thank you for the laughs.  This thread is great.

I sure hope you're not serious.

[JSD]

JSD, I just have to thank you for the laughs.  This thread is great.

I sure hope you're not serious.

I sprinkled in some jest, but yes, for the most part I'm serious. It would deemphasize the draft. You never hear of tanking in Hockey and Baseball where drafted players play college ball.  Something needs to be done. Basketball has come to the point where real reform is needed to establish a true minor league.

[rondoallaturca]

Still don't understand why some people here feel it's an urgent need to get rid of tanking. The current system is perfectly fine.

Makes the league less about tanking (and occasionally rigging) and more about good GMs doing their jobs right.

The current system is set up to do exactly that. Not only does tanking involve a lot of luck as it is, but if you're a bad GM, the chances of you making out with a stud from the draft is even less.

[LooseCannon]

JSD, I just have to thank you for the laughs.  This thread is great.

I sure hope you're not serious.

I sprinkled in some jest, but yes, for the most part I'm serious. It would deemphasize the draft. You never hear of tanking in Hockey and Baseball where drafted players play college ball.  Something needs to be done. Basketball has come to the point where real reform is needed to establish a true minor league.

Some college-age players can step in and play in the NBA immediately, so if you wanted a true minor league in basketball, you should hope for the development of NBA-affiliated youth teams like they have in European soccer.  You'd need kids playing for a few years in something like an under-19 league to get what you want.

[pp34isthe1]

Eliminate age restriction and rookie scale contracts. Add a max salary cap for rookies, let teams/agents decide market value.

Honestly some of these guys are getting screwed over and everyone knows it. Missing out on alot of cash that just goes to the university/ncaa. If you can play, you should be able to get paid. It's a terrible system and I really think it's gonna take a high court decision to correct.

Edit: sorry to the OP but yes it would defiantly help on eliminating tanking by alot. I don't think it's something you can get rid of however, someone has to suck.

[PhoSita]

JSD, I just have to thank you for the laughs.  This thread is great.

I sure hope you're not serious.

I sprinkled in some jest, but yes, for the most part I'm serious. It would deemphasize the draft. You never hear of tanking in Hockey and Baseball where drafted players play college ball.  Something needs to be done. Basketball has come to the point where real reform is needed to establish a true minor league.

Basketball is nothing like baseball or hockey in really any way.

There are many, many reasons other than the existence of an age limit on drafting that things work differently in the NBA than in those sports.

[RebusRankin]

Hockey teams tank, see Penguins in 83/84 to get Lemieux, Tampa Bay to get Stamkos, Quebec City to get Lindros.

[furball]

The reason teams tank is because one guy changes your franchise.  It doesn't work like that in baseball or hockey.  Thus, no, or very little, tanking.  It's the same reason teams emptied their pay role for three years so they had a chance to sign LeBron James.  If you lower the age limit teams would still tank they would just be taking a much bigger risk.  All you would get is terrible basketball.  Any particularly tall guy or particularly athletic guy is going to light up high school kids.  You cannot judge them.

 That's why they put the rule in.  Kobe Bryant went 13th and was traded.  No GM wanted to pass on the next Kobe so they all started drafting high school kids and most of them sucked.  Kendrick Perkins (who is a high school success story) averaged 27 points per game in high school.  I'm not sure he scored 27 point this season.  Kobe averaged 30 points.  Is he only 3 points better then Perk?   

[Yogi]

The only solution I see is Doc's solution.  30 teams 30 ping pong balls.  Every team has an equal chance, so no incentive to tank, only to win championships.  Downside is of course there is little compensation for large markets, low taxes, social hot-spots and warm weather winning in free agency.  But that problem will never be solved. 

[Celtics18]

it would increase tanking and middle schoolers would fill up the top 20 picks.

I don't think so, it will depend on team need, approach, strategy. There would a whole lot less emphasis on the draft and a whole lot more about the system, scouting and development.

Agreed.  I hate the 19 year old rule.  I'd love to see teams be able to draft players as young as sixteen or seventeen.  I don't think that's realistic, though, and would be happy to move the age back to eighteen.

The nineteen year old rule is a farce designed to protect GMs from themselves, and probably also to some extent designed to help the big time college programs out by ensuring they get at least one year's worth of top level talent.

When the rule was first introduced, I remember it being bogusly sold as a way to protect the players.  Nonsense.   

[PhoSita]

it would increase tanking and middle schoolers would fill up the top 20 picks.

I don't think so, it will depend on team need, approach, strategy. There would a whole lot less emphasis on the draft and a whole lot more about the system, scouting and development.

Agreed.  I hate the 19 year old rule.  I'd love to see teams be able to draft players as young as sixteen or seventeen.  I don't think that's realistic, though, and would be happy to move the age back to eighteen.

The nineteen year old rule is a farce designed to protect GMs from themselves, and probably also to some extent designed to help the big time college programs out by ensuring they get at least one year's worth of top level talent.

When the rule was first introduced, I remember it being bogusly sold as a way to protect the players.  Nonsense.

Eh, I think there's got to be something to be said for letting teenagers just be teenagers, to the extent that it's possible in today's AAU world.  Bad enough that guys already get YouTube-hyped in middle school.

Opening up the draft as you suggest would make it a lot worse, I think.

[jambr380]

it would increase tanking and middle schoolers would fill up the top 20 picks.

I don't think so, it will depend on team need, approach, strategy. There would a whole lot less emphasis on the draft and a whole lot more about the system, scouting and development.

Agreed.  I hate the 19 year old rule.  I'd love to see teams be able to draft players as young as sixteen or seventeen.  I don't think that's realistic, though, and would be happy to move the age back to eighteen.

The nineteen year old rule is a farce designed to protect GMs from themselves, and probably also to some extent designed to help the big time college programs out by ensuring they get at least one year's worth of top level talent.

When the rule was first introduced, I remember it being bogusly sold as a way to protect the players.  Nonsense.

Eh, I think there's got to be something to be said for letting teenagers just be teenagers, to the extent that it's possible in today's AAU world.  Bad enough that guys already get YouTube-hyped in middle school.

Opening up the draft as you suggest would make it a lot worse, I think.

Yeah, I don't know about the whole thing. It really gives kids who develop [physically] earlier a humongous advantage. Unless you open up the draft to like 6-7 rounds and have a strong minor league for each team, you are going to have a lot more Kwame Browns kicking around the league and even fewer Olynyk's (I understand Kelly has done nothing yet in the NBA, but his substantial physical development occurred mid-way through college).

[Celtics18]

it would increase tanking and middle schoolers would fill up the top 20 picks.

I don't think so, it will depend on team need, approach, strategy. There would a whole lot less emphasis on the draft and a whole lot more about the system, scouting and development.

Agreed.  I hate the 19 year old rule.  I'd love to see teams be able to draft players as young as sixteen or seventeen.  I don't think that's realistic, though, and would be happy to move the age back to eighteen.

The nineteen year old rule is a farce designed to protect GMs from themselves, and probably also to some extent designed to help the big time college programs out by ensuring they get at least one year's worth of top level talent.

When the rule was first introduced, I remember it being bogusly sold as a way to protect the players.  Nonsense.

Eh, I think there's got to be something to be said for letting teenagers just be teenagers, to the extent that it's possible in today's AAU world.  Bad enough that guys already get YouTube-hyped in middle school.

Opening up the draft as you suggest would make it a lot worse, I think.

It's not possible in today's YouTube hyped AAU world.  If a kid looks ilke a basketball phenom at an early age, he's not going to be able to just be a "normal teenager." 

I really can't understand what's so laughable about eliminating the mandatory one-year, unpaid basketball apprenticeship in the NCAA for young players with potential NBA talent.

[Celtics18]

it would increase tanking and middle schoolers would fill up the top 20 picks.

I don't think so, it will depend on team need, approach, strategy. There would a whole lot less emphasis on the draft and a whole lot more about the system, scouting and development.

Agreed.  I hate the 19 year old rule.  I'd love to see teams be able to draft players as young as sixteen or seventeen.  I don't think that's realistic, though, and would be happy to move the age back to eighteen.

The nineteen year old rule is a farce designed to protect GMs from themselves, and probably also to some extent designed to help the big time college programs out by ensuring they get at least one year's worth of top level talent.

When the rule was first introduced, I remember it being bogusly sold as a way to protect the players.  Nonsense.

Eh, I think there's got to be something to be said for letting teenagers just be teenagers, to the extent that it's possible in today's AAU world.  Bad enough that guys already get YouTube-hyped in middle school.

Opening up the draft as you suggest would make it a lot worse, I think.

Yeah, I don't know about the whole thing. It really gives kids who develop [physically] earlier a humongous advantage. Unless you open up the draft to like 6-7 rounds and have a strong minor league for each team, you are going to have a lot more Kwame Browns kicking around the league and even fewer Olynyk's (I understand Kelly has done nothing yet in the NBA, but his substantial physical development occurred mid-way through college).

Absolutely, a strong minor league system is key.  They are already working towards that.  Hopefully, before too long they'll have a full 30 team D-League. 

[PhoSita]

it would increase tanking and middle schoolers would fill up the top 20 picks.

I don't think so, it will depend on team need, approach, strategy. There would a whole lot less emphasis on the draft and a whole lot more about the system, scouting and development.

Agreed.  I hate the 19 year old rule.  I'd love to see teams be able to draft players as young as sixteen or seventeen.  I don't think that's realistic, though, and would be happy to move the age back to eighteen.

The nineteen year old rule is a farce designed to protect GMs from themselves, and probably also to some extent designed to help the big time college programs out by ensuring they get at least one year's worth of top level talent.

When the rule was first introduced, I remember it being bogusly sold as a way to protect the players.  Nonsense.

Eh, I think there's got to be something to be said for letting teenagers just be teenagers, to the extent that it's possible in today's AAU world.  Bad enough that guys already get YouTube-hyped in middle school.

Opening up the draft as you suggest would make it a lot worse, I think.

It's not possible in today's YouTube hyped AAU world.  If a kid looks ilke a basketball phenom at an early age, he's not going to be able to just be a "normal teenager." 

I really can't understand what's so laughable about eliminating the mandatory one-year, unpaid basketball apprenticeship in the NCAA for young players with potential NBA talent.

I'm not suggesting that eliminating the college requirement is laughable.

Drafting kids in middle school, though, is laughable.


I think players should be able to get drafted out of high school, but I also think that if players decide to go to college, they should be ineligible for the draft until they've played in college for 2-3 years, or until a full year after their most recent year of college (if they dropped out or something).

If the NBA had a legitimate minor league system instead of just the D-league, I might feel differently.  I'd be perfectly okay with seeing a lot of the guys who are just interested in becoming professional basketball players skip college and go straight to working towards that dream in a league that pays them a bit of money and specifically aims to teach them how to be professional ball players.

That's not the reality we live in, though.