Only one Freshman per year should enter the NBA

[KG Living Legend]

 If this were made a rule I think the results would be positive for the quality and maturity of the NBA game.

 Here are the freshman lottery picks are past drafts and there is usually one bright shining prospect that is ready for the NBA. 

 I feel some teams would have really benefited from one extra year of scouting and experience.

 2014 freshman

 Wiggins
 Parker
 Embiid
 Gordon
 Randle
 Vonleh
 Lavine

 Everyone could have used year two except Wiggins.

 2015

 Town's
 Okafor
 Russell
 Lyle's
 Stanley Johnson
 Winslow
 Booker
 Turner

 Easy to argue only Town's was pro ready, though Russell is looking better still could have got stronger in college with another year. Okafor needs to mature.

 In 2013 Bennett went number one, and Noel went #6 Noel was the prize prospect of that draft but he really needed year two of college.

 2012

 Anthony Davis
 Beal
 Kidd Gilchrist
 Drummond
 Austin Rivers

 Easy to argue three guys are pro ready, but Davis was the clear guy where Drummond looked pretty raw and Beal has looked good.

 2011

 Irving
 Derrick Williams
 Tristan Thompson
 Brandon Knight
 
 Again only one clear cut star here.


2016

 Ben Simmons and everyone else. Ingram is the clear cut #2 prospect and its easy to see he could definitely use a second college season.

[TheFlex]

There shouldn't be any collegiate requirement to enter the NBA Draft.

[ederson]

If this were made a rule I think the results would be positive for the quality and maturity of the NBA game.

So to protect the teams you are punishing the players.... Nobody forces a team to draft a player that needs time to mature.

Drafting is gambling

[KG Living Legend]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

 I want all kids to go for two years, but from the league's standpoint of making money I can see allowing one to two freshman that are stars.

 Also if you only allowed one Freshman It could make for great theatre and Battles with the top freshman.

[Smartacus]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

 I want all kids to go for two years, but from the league's standpoint of making money I can see allowing one to two freshman that are stars.

 Also if you only allowed one Freshman It could make for great theatre and Battles with the top freshman.

It's a lot to ask the kids. Essentially give up a year of their professional life which for many of them could be as shot as 3-5 years, risk injury, risk falling off once NCAA as film of their game starts piling up, all the while making them deal with the stress and risks of College life.

A lot of them try to get in as early as they can to support their families many of whom live in poverty,  From a fan perspective I agree it'd be great for the game but overall think it's too much to ask. These are people too after all.

[slightly biased bias fan]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

 I want all kids to go for two years, but from the league's standpoint of making money I can see allowing one to two freshman that are stars.

 Also if you only allowed one Freshman It could make for great theatre and Battles with the top freshman.

This idea is ridiculous. The only reason they invoked this rule is that the NBA is in bed with the NCAA and they were unhappy about losing star players that they couldn't take advantage of. Look at Kobe, KG, Lebron, Howard, T-Mac...the list is endless of players coming straight out of high school and they have turning into stars with very long careers. If a player isn't ready to make the jump, its simple...draft them and put them in the d-league (all in the name). Im sorry for the abruptness of my post but this whole idea bugs me, forcing young stars to stay in college unpaid is a 3rd world corrupt idea. The players I'm talking about aren't the academics using their athletic ability to help them get a free education, its the kids who have no interest in college and being forced to starve and be sponged on by the NCAA. A kid like Lebron would have had no time to develop his game with attending classes and studying and if by chance he servilely injured himself while playing college ball he wouldn't be adequately covered by insurance and wouldn't have a NBA size contract to support himself for the future. If these guys really want an education they can simply pay for it after their career because THEY ARE MILLIONAIRES

[KG Living Legend]

 Yeah but you made my point for me about one player per year Kobe, Lebron, Garnett were all by far the best Young player from there class, even though back then they can from HS.

[obnoxiousmime]

Fans once again taking the side of billionaires over millionaires. The one-and-done rule should be illegal and is borderline racist. Unfortunately the player's union does not have enough leverage to change it because they have bigger fish to fry.

People need to be more skeptical whenever they hear the words "for the good of the game." The translation is almost always "for the good of the owners over the players."

Besides, what's wrong with players coming out when they're not "ready"? Due to the rookie salary scale, the ones who are worth anything are still making less than they're worth over those four years.

There's no evidence that a player who came out earlier than was expected ended up having a bad career because he missed out on a year of college. Chances are that player was evaluated incorrectly to begin with and wasn't ever going to be that good regardless. Yes, there isn't any way to verify that for sure but the demand for talent is so great in the league that anybody with promise is usually given ample opportunity to succeed.

[Sketch5]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

 I want all kids to go for two years, but from the league's standpoint of making money I can see allowing one to two freshman that are stars.

 Also if you only allowed one Freshman It could make for great theatre and Battles with the top freshman.

It's a lot to ask the kids. Essentially give up a year of their professional life which for many of them could be as shot as 3-5 years, risk injury, risk falling off once NCAA as film of their game starts piling up, all the while making them deal with the stress and risks of College life.

A lot of them try to get in as early as they can to support their families many of whom live in poverty,  From a fan perspective I agree it'd be great for the game but overall think it's too much to ask. These are people too after all.

It's not a lot to ask. It's one more year. Why do they get to be one and done when people who are too poor and have families to support have to go to school for 4 to 6 years? I get those people career span will be longer, but they still have to earn their spot. One year, some times lucky year of good basketball doesn't prove anything.

Yes they could get hurt, they could get hurt in the NBA first week, look at Oden, Embiid. They were lucky that they were top picks, take a kid in the late teen mid 20's, it's not that much money and wont last long.

As for film to pile up and loose their rank, well maybe they should practice harder. How many teams draft a kid off of one good year, and they end up being a bust? This helps teams draft better.

I also think the NBA should push to have kids finish their schooling over the summer's, and the college they went to should supply that. That way if something happens they still have a degree to fall back on.

[slamtheking]

premise is foolish.  who would choose that 1 player?  nevermind the lawsuits from those players that were passed over who thought it should be them either based on talent or hardship.

better option is to allow players to bypass college and go for a season in the D-league instead.  structure the D-league to be more like a true minor-league system akin to baseball.  The NBA club can call up any player at any time (1st year player or not) but once that player is in the bigs, they get paid the pro-rated league min.  3 call-ups in a season gets that player the full year paid at the NBA-minimum.   no more than 3 years allowed in D-league under club control.  if player isn't on NBA team's big-league roster going after their 3rd season, they're a UFA free to sign with any team in the league (including D-league).  The payment structure details can be worked out separately.

Allow teams to have separate drafts for high school and college/overseas players.  2 rounds max for each.  kids can declare after high school but are automatically committed to D-league to start their careers.  with the ability to call that player up at anytime after the start of the season, the talented kids can get right into the league if the parent club thinks they're ready.


obviously needs tweaking but it benefits pretty much everyone -- except the colleges that thrive on the one-and-done players.
NBA Teams-->less $ committed to players that aren't talented.
NBA Players-->more $ available to the players already in the league with slightly better job security
NBA Fans --> less teams relying on players who aren't ready to play
High School kids --> choice of college or NBA minor leagues.  NBA minor league pays better than any regular job they'd be likely to get OR they could actually go to college to get that degree that they could use to get them through life when their basketball dreams burst.

[obnoxiousmime]

A couple more points:

The reason some young players don't seem "ready" for the NBA is because the way the draft system works, the teams drafting the best players (and youngest, since the top prospects usually leave early) are the worst teams. This thrusts the player into playing significant minutes immediately because:

1) The team doesn't have anyone better.
2) Rebuilding teams are selling their fan base on hope - there is a lot of pressure to play the young potential star early.
3) Since they're not going to be any good anyway, letting the young player accumulate experience and "learn the hard way" doesn't cost them anything, in fact it likely helps them tank.

This is why the draft system must be changed if we're going to help solve this issue, if you even consider it an issue (which I don't). People never bring up the players who go to the good teams in the second half of the draft when talking about "unreadiness" because the good teams don't need their draft picks to contribute right away.

Regarding the NBDL, it's still a very imperfect thing. Each NBA team doesn't own and run their own NBDL team, so you're giving away your player and having no control over him. The system, training, instruction, might all be different from what your organization teaches.

Not to mention basketball is different from baseball in that it's a very team-driven sport. In baseball it's harder to be selfish because usually what's good for your stats is also what's good for the team. The NBDL is basically a league of players trying to put up numbers to attract an NBA team, and chasing stats to the detriment of team play is common. It's not an ideal situation for developing your players, but there isn't any better option right now.

[BballTim]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

  Mainly because they want to save money. Andre Drummond is averaging 18/16 for $3M a year. He wants to get out of that contract as quickly as possible, the owners want to keep him on those "low" wages for as many productive years as possible.

[BudweiserCeltic]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

  Mainly because they want to save money. Andre Drummond is averaging 18/16 for $3M a year. He wants to get out of that contract as quickly as possible, the owners want to keep him on those "low" wages for as many productive years as possible.

Not really saving money... it simply gives them more buying power to allocate their resources better, elsewhere. I'm all in favor of limiting money given to young players. I do side with veterans being able to have a bigger piece of the pie. But the main problem will still reside with limited roster space and the lack of an appropiate farm system that doesn't penalize active roster spots.

[RockinRyA]

And who gets to decide who that Freshman is? As we all know, Success in the college level isnt a guarantee a player is going to be a good pro.

[BballTim]

 Hogwash. Why did the league envoke the you must play one year rule. Mainly to improve the game.

  Mainly because they want to save money. Andre Drummond is averaging 18/16 for $3M a year. He wants to get out of that contract as quickly as possible, the owners want to keep him on those "low" wages for as many productive years as possible.

Not really saving money... it simply gives them more buying power to allocate their resources better, elsewhere. I'm all in favor of limiting money given to young players. I do side with veterans being able to have a bigger piece of the pie. But the main problem will still reside with limited roster space and the lack of an appropiate farm system that doesn't penalize active roster spots.

  Clearly they save a lot of money with rookie contracts. Whether they spend the money elsewhere is another issue.