Proposal: Player is Only Eligible for NBA Draft If Age is 21 or Older

[dannyboy35]

As a greedy fan I'd say I'd love it but a great point made about how it would hurt some Foreign  players. I never thought of that. I stopped watching college ball because of the talent plummeting so much from earlier years.

[dannyboy35]

Oh, but it would be completely unfair to the players too. I always laugh when someone says someone should have stayed in school. If it was my kid id be like, " don't be crazy. Take the guaranteed millions." Imagine losing out on a multi million dollar contract because of a college injury.

[greece66]

I said this in another post. I've always been for raising the age limit to 21, not just in basketball but in many things in out society. If you are not considered old enough to be responsible with alcohol until 21 why can you go off to war at 18, go to prison for the rest of your live even younger? If you are not adult enough to buy a drink at 18, 19 , 20 than how can you manage millions of dollars? Of course there are always people that can handle this stuff at a younger age, and many others that can't for years later.

More importantly per the discussion as a fan of the C's I'd rather have a draft full of players that have more history on them and easier to gauge how and who they are going to be in the NBA. With all these young 1 and done guys it's a total crap shoot and for a billion dollar business that sounds moronic to me.

Would you consider the possibility of lowering the age limit for alcohol consumption instead of considering it a hallmark for when to start a professional sports career?

Also, the draft is a crap shoot anyway. Teams made mistakes in the 80s too, when players were drafted at an older age.

Finally, for good or bad, a few million dollars is peanuts from a team's budget perspective. Teams are OK with the idea that every year they will waste some money on prospects that will turn out to be busts. I fully understand that for us average Joes the idea of giving away money so easily sounds nuts, but this is irrelevant for professional teams.

Again, what teams really care about is finding the few elite talents among the players drafted even if this means wasting money and resources on a few busts too.

Just think of the second round: thirty players are drafted and only a few of them (usually well below 10) actually go on to have an OK career; many do not even play a single NBA game. I do not recall NBA teams complaining about this, and this is hardly a coincidence. As far as there is a Marc Gasol, Ginobili or IT every now and then in second round, teams consider it fair play despite otherwise 'wasting' millions on busts.

[KGs Knee]

I was originally for a minimum draft age, but now think no sports should have it.  If a player wants to try and enter a sport right out of high school, they should be able to.  If I graduated high school and had developed "the next great idea", I wouldn't have to go to college or wait a couple of years, no I could go right into whatever industry it was for and make as much $ as possible.  We shouldn't tell some 6'10" stud that they can't begin their after high school life because they aren't "old enough".

Yet for almost every other high paying occupation, training of some sort is required past high school.

Yeah, but the criteria aren't really age based, age is more of a coincidental aspect. There's nothing stopping a gifted young person from gaining employment in a particular field at a younger age than typical if they have the skills required.

[Moranis]

I'd have no real issue with the following proposal.  You can declare out of high school but if you go to college you have to stay there for 3 years (or something like that).  That way those players that are truly ready can enter the league (I mean did Lebron James really need to go to college), but those that need seasoning get at least 3 years at college.  To do this, the NBA would need a real minor league system though as some of those 18 year olds wouldn't be ready for the NBA immediately, but might be ready in a year or two and thus would want to forego the college route (they also might want to get paid).  I know that would create some of the issues they tried to avoid with the age minimum rule in the first place, but if you had a real minor league (and worked the contracts accordingly to account for it) I think it would help both the NBA and college basketball.

[PhoSita]

My preferred fix is this:

- Players are eligible for the draft as soon as they graduate high school or earn their GED

- Players that choose to attend college are not eligible to enter the NBA until they have played three years in the NCAA. Players that leave school sooner must wait a year.

- Players that are drafted out of high school may choose to attend college anyway. Getting drafted no longer affects amateur status. Drafted players in college are required to remain in college the same as undrafted players. Players drafted while in college must stay also.

- NBA teams may now carry up to five players under contract on their D League affiliate without using NBA roster spots.

[greece66]

I was originally for a minimum draft age, but now think no sports should have it.  If a player wants to try and enter a sport right out of high school, they should be able to.  If I graduated high school and had developed "the next great idea", I wouldn't have to go to college or wait a couple of years, no I could go right into whatever industry it was for and make as much $ as possible.  We shouldn't tell some 6'10" stud that they can't begin their after high school life because they aren't "old enough".

Yet for almost every other high paying occupation, training of some sort is required past high school.

would you consider a college degree training for the nBA?

[greece66]

My preferred fix is this:

- Players are eligible for the draft as soon as they graduate high school or earn their GED

- Players that choose to attend college are not eligible to enter the NBA until they have played three years in the NCAA. Players that leave school sooner must wait a year.

- Players that are drafted out of high school may choose to attend college anyway. Getting drafted no longer affects amateur status. Drafted players in college are required to remain in college the same as undrafted players. Players drafted while in college must stay also.

- NBA teams may now carry up to five players under contract on their D League affiliate without using NBA roster spots.

now we are talking. if the aim is to allow teams to draft players without having to give up roster spots this is an entirely different (and IMO more interesting) story.

[PhoSita]

Yes, my idea is that players should stay in college longer without jeopardizing their ability to get drafted.

On the other side of things, teams should be able to maintain control over drafted players and see them develop without having to use roster spots and nba minutes to do it.

A big problem as I see it in the NCAA is that so few of the better teams have a core of players who have played together multiple seasons.

A problem at the NBA level is that too many teams use roster spots and minutes on guys who are learning on the job.

If teams could develop players in the d league or in college while maintaining control, they could give roster spots to veteran players instead and field more experienced and competitive rosters.

[wdleehi]

I was originally for a minimum draft age, but now think no sports should have it.  If a player wants to try and enter a sport right out of high school, they should be able to.  If I graduated high school and had developed "the next great idea", I wouldn't have to go to college or wait a couple of years, no I could go right into whatever industry it was for and make as much $ as possible.  We shouldn't tell some 6'10" stud that they can't begin their after high school life because they aren't "old enough".

Yet for almost every other high paying occupation, training of some sort is required past high school.

would you consider a college degree training for the nBA?

I would consider playing three years at a college, overseas or in the NBDL as training for the league.



Just look at Football, the only other sport without the minor league.   Notice how their players are better prepared to contribute to a team early on because they have to spend three years after high school to learn, prepare, and allow their bodies to mature.


The NBA is not going to have a developmental league like Baseball or Hockey.  The NBA should not be compare to individual sports. 


I think it would be better for the league and the fans.


Oh, and by the way, the year they add this rule will actually help the low end players in the league have a slightly longer career as some of the top talent (that need to develop) will not be coming into the league.   

And once the ages catch up, the number of players entering and sticking with the league should balance back out to now. 

[BDeCosta26]

My preferred fix is this:

- Players are eligible for the draft as soon as they graduate high school or earn their GED

- Players that choose to attend college are not eligible to enter the NBA until they have played three years in the NCAA. Players that leave school sooner must wait a year.

- Players that are drafted out of high school may choose to attend college anyway. Getting drafted no longer affects amateur status. Drafted players in college are required to remain in college the same as undrafted players. Players drafted while in college must stay also.

- NBA teams may now carry up to five players under contract on their D League affiliate without using NBA roster spots.

TP. This is right on line with what they should be doing.

I'm not sure about the plausibility of that draft set up. The colleges might not go with the idea of having their players under contract with professional teams. But I really like the idea of having a fully developed, legit minor league system and giving people the choice of going professional or going to school, but putting a stop to the one-and done's. Plus, it's important to allow the elite players to earn a real living playing in the Association.

I also think we should expand the draft an extra round, to stock up the D-League with the best of the undrafted instead of letting them go overseas and give them a chance to earn a shot in the NBA they might not get otherwise. Maybe we should limit each team to a couple under 21 players or something. Expanding the roster spots is really important too.

[Donoghus]

Against it. 

Professional athletes have much smaller windows to maximize their earning potential.   They have a very unique skill set that is different than most careers out there.  They also have a career that is much shorter than most occupations out there.

If a kid is ready to play professionally at 18, so be it. 

[spikelovetheCelts]

btw, is such a measure being considered by the NBA or discussed in a major site? if so, a link would be appreciated.

This is major site it is Celtic Blog.

[mef730]

Why shouldn't athletes have the same right to screw up their lives as the rest of us do at 18?

Mike

[PhoSita]

Why shouldn't athletes have the same right to screw up their lives as the rest of us do at 18?

Mike

I think the proper solution has to address the issue you raise, ie the ability of players to make money and focus on going pro from a young age if that's what they want.

At the same time, I think it is good and reasonable for the leagues to be concerned with the product on the floor. That's a big priority for the NBA, and presumably for the NCAA as well, though it's tough for them to admit it if they don't want to have to pay their players.

Keeping NCAA teams together longer, and giving nba teams the ability to wait until guys are developed before using a roster spot at the NBA level to keep young guys under control, would go a long way to make the basketball at both levels much better.