One & done, 2 & thru, 3 and away? My plan for fixing this...

[DSouthr]

Yeah, I know, most want a baseball rule in place, I don't like that for a bunch of reasons but I want to see some discussion more on what I would like to see as opposed to what I am not in favor of.

First let me define the problem as I see it, kids are entering the NBA not ready for that level of competition. The effect has been to dumb down the NBA game as well as leave the college game with out its better talents for more than just a single season now. To me, to really have a fair fix in place all 3 sides have to be helped, 3 sides being the players, the NCAA game, as well as the NBA game. To do all of that folks have to begin thinking outside of the little box everyone seems drawn in to.

Next, lets define exactly why kids are going to the league faster now than ever before, most fans only seem to want to look at just one side of the problem. BUT there are 4 specific reasons kids are entering the NBA draft at earlier ages than before.

1) The top stars of this generation went to the NBA directly out of high school, the breaking out stars of the NBA most all only played 1 season of college ball. Now you are considered damaged goods if you stay in the college game for more than a single season, what top talent wants to be thought of as damaged goods? Unfortunately the NBA draft re-inforces this by consistently shuffling one & doner's in line above those kids that played in the college game for more than a single season. It is ego but ego matters big time when you are 19yrs old.

2) Risk of injury ending your playing days, does not happen often but when it happens one time these kids realize it could have been them. I better go make my money, take care of myself and my family financially for the rest of our lives, and I better go do that now BEFORE a career ending injury happens. A million dollar insurance contract does not replace a $50 million dollar playing contract.

3) The one & done means I can not play pro ball unless I want to go over seas where I know no one and don't understand their culture. I want to play here so my family and friends can see me play either in person or at least on TV. I can not enter the NBA draft right out of high school, I should be able to but they will not let me so I am going to have to do the next best thing and waste a season playing for some college. Could care less what school that is cause I ain't there to do anything other than play ball. I will play for a college coach that will show case me and not hender my getting in to the very next NBA draft.

4) The rookie contract structure, I am going to be locked in to cheap money for my first 3 or 4 yrs so I have to get that clock ticking as soon as I can. I am lebron James, you want me to spend 4 yrs in college not getting a pay day and then 4 more years playing for cheap? I mean the average NBA career is a little over 3yrs, I am past the average career age before I get a contract that reflects my value? I may have to play that one season in college for the "education" but I don't have to like it. But I have to get that rookie contract signed and finished as soon as possible before I get paid what I am worth, sucks but it is what I have to do.

..........................................................................................................................................................................

If you are going to fix the problem then you have to address all 4 of these things, just adjusting the one & done rule does not fix anything, it does risk forcing these kids in to options like the NBADL or playing outside the country and that could draw in even marginal talents that today are staying for 4yrs.

I have shared what I would do several times but not lately, I would love to see some discussion of my plan to fix this. First I would do away with the one & done or any version of delays to entering the NBA draft. If a kid wants to I am all for him entering the draft right out of high school.

1) Allow kids to enter the NBA draft after graduation from high school AND being at least 18yrs old.

2) Allow the kid the option, once drafted to play for any college team, other than a stipend as well as money held out to pay for their college tuition, the remaining money is held in a trust account or gurenteed annuity. Money could be accessed for family emergency or for child care or child support but not for the bling or the decked out ride ect.

3) This is a key point, for each season the kid plays NCAA ball one year of the rookie contract requirement is waived (he is ALREADY playing thru his rookies contract for a college team). Meaning a kid could play 4yrs of college ball, already know what NBA team has his rights, be having his financial future taken care of, and when he graduates be able to to negotiate a contract day one that reflects his real value as opposed to the rookie salary limits. This gives the kid the ability to develope his game in college where coaches are already more teachers than what they get in the NBA. College coaching developes and are established as being great at teaching and ingraining fundementals of the game, so the NBA game would not have to be dumbed down. Clearly college fans would love to see their great talents for more than just that one season. And the kid could start the clock ticking away on that rookie contract clock while still playing for your favorite school.

4) Develope a more athlete friendly college cirriculum that would be a standard across the entire NCAA. Call it a professional sports degree, taking in things like what to watch out for, how to manage your money, nutrition for the world class athlete, several aspects that are things that take pro athletes a lot of time & money to learn and in some cases forcing them to loose most of those millions. Prepare them better, isn' t that what college is supposed to do, prepare you for your future career? Oh, did ya notice my point that the drafting NBA team paid for the college tuition and NOT the school? Give these kids college classes that interest them, stop trying to force feed them classes they could care less about because doing so bores them and opens the door for issues like the NCAA has us on as well as what is going on at Auburn right now. Kid should be able to fulfill a lab requirement for example playing in a college game, it is implementation of what they were taught. Is that not what college is supposed to do after all?

This is the path I prefer and I have not seen anyone else thinking in this direction. Everyone wants a quick fix like a baseball rule. But folks forget that EVERYONE and I mean everyone calling themselves a college basketball fan LOVED the one & done deal when it was first put in place. But the majority of those same fans today hate the one & done deal. I do not believe that a kid that wants to enter the NBA and it is only after a soph season the NBA is willing to take him that he should be forced to play in college or sit out, that would not make sense to you if it was YOUR son involved.

By the way, of course the NBA would love to get a longer look while still being able to get their prized talent locked up for them. But the NBAPA would love this as well because now those roster spots going to kids that would be staying in school could be filled by more NBA vets. The rookie contract program was put in place to limit the NBA vet being cut for this new rookie that has not proven anything other than he is better than most high school boys. More vets would be retained, the NBA teams would have a great long look at their future players, and the NCAA game would see most of the best talents play much longer than a couple semesters.

The damaged goods stigma would go away on its own with the plan I suggest because it would make more sense to play for the mega fan popular NCAA game and really build their brand and most would get a ton more playing time than they would sitting on a NBA bench. They would be able to play the less college slate of games and have more time to develope physically, skill wise, as well as mature as adults.

Of course the NBA teams would be able to see THEIR player and could even work with him in off seasons if they wanted. This would allow the NBA team to get a very clear look at their future player to see if they made a good or bad decision, to see if the kid can be developed, to see how he takes to coaching, and to see what kid of representive of their brand they are getting. And kids would have to actually decide on what college program they play for based on the school and the academics, not just where they can survive for a couple months of college play. And if college just is not your thing then by all means go ahead and play for that NBA team and get paid for it with the rookie contract scale. Just don't be upset when that kid that played 4yrs in college enters the draft 4yrs after you entered the league and is able to command more money than you because you spend most of those 4yrs sitting on the bench and not playing, not getting the exposure that kid in college got (and don't forget, he earned the same thing you did for those years he played in college) LOL.

. I think this is a win/win/win situation but I want to see others people's input on this plan and maybe get a little fly wheel momentum started about this or at very least get folks to start thinking outside of the tiny box everyone seems drawn in to.

 

[poppycat]

So you want college athletes to play for a pro's salary that is paid by the Pro team instead of by college boosters or stiffens paid from institution's funds........I think if a NBA team is paying rookie salary, they would demand the right to the coach of their choice. (a minor league)

Just use the baseball rule and turn the DLeague into a true minor league same as baseball. Maybe the top 25/30 would go pro each year and the OAD is done for good, If forced to a three year term, many more would go direct pro. Off course, all of this and your plan would have to endorsed by all parties.........not gonna happen.
(NBA loves loves the free minor league that is college and the colleges loves the free labor from the OAD,s and the million $'s made.)

Cal and UK has done well with the OAD, but did ok before OAD. We have also loss out in the FF more times to teams who weren't dominated by OAD and when we won, upper class men contributed much.

 

[Nick Horvath]

No offense OP, but that is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.

The answer to the problem IS the baseball rule, just with a slight caveat. Instead of it being 3 years until you can enter the draft if you don't go out of high school, it should be 2 years. Either go pro out of HS if you want, and if you go to college, you must stay at least 2 years.

I'm curious what your many problems are with this type of rule? There will never be a perfect rule that prevents busts. Some kids will make questionable choices to enter the draft out of high school and some teams will make questionable choices on said high school kids.

By far the most logical (and fair) rule is to make it go out of HS or stay at least 2 years in college. This would actually make it EASIER for the NBA to scout its prospects. You would have the obvious special talents that you could take out of high school (such as Okafor or Towns), but for everyone else, you get an extra year to evaluate them. It's a complete joke that the NBA takes so many freshmen in the draft every year. One extra year wouldn't make them "damaged goods". This is your perception DSouthr... most basketball people don't consider 20-year-olds "damaged goods" you moron.

And not only would it not make them "damaged goods," NBA teams would be making a much more educated choice on who they were taking in the draft with one extra year to evaluate the guys who aren't "slam dunk" pros. Instead of half of these 1-and-dones wallowing away on NBA benches or in the D-league, and making their NBA teams look stupid for taking them, they could be developing over an extra year in college. That's better for college and in the long run it's also better for the NBA.

It would be way better for the college game (and the NBA), in my opinion, if only about 3-5 guys made the jump from HS every year (on average), and the rest of the guys in every class were in school for 2+ years. Instead of having 15 1-and-dones every year (which is what we're approaching), you'd have maybe 5 or so guys make the HS-NBA jump every year, and get a lot more combined years from the slightly lesser prospects. It's a psychological fallacy of the "slippery slope" variety to assume that we'd have 10+ guys jumping from HS every year or guys going overseas in droves. That would not happen. There's only a handful of players or so per class, on average, that NBA teams would even consider taking out of high school. My point is... only a fraction of the "1-and-dones" recently would have been taken out of HS. It's not like all 1-and-dones would have been taken out of HS if they had that choice.

It is a complete joke that these guys aren't allowed the opportunity to go to the NBA out of high school. Baseball does it right, and basketball should follow suit. Just with a slight caveat of 2 years vs. 3 in baseball.

No need to over-think this one, folks. DSouthr has already done enough of that for everyone. The baseball rule is by far the smartest change to make to this structure, except it should just be 2 years. If kids who aren't ready for the league make dumb choices to enter the draft out of HS and if teams are dumb enough to take them, that's the kids' problem and the teams' problem. But at least a few guys each year have no business playing college hoops at all, and most of the rest of them should be spending multiple years in college.

Very few players actually "develop" into a pro after their freshman year of college. It's usually a case of... they were already a pro before they stepped a foot on campus, or they're delusional about how good they are and think they've turned into a pro in 1 year when they're really not that good. There's only a very small slice of basketball players that are right on that cusp as a HS senior and it "clicks" their freshman year, and they become a pro.

 

[Nick Horvath]

So you want college athletes to play for a pro's salary that is paid by the Pro team instead of by college boosters or stiffens paid from institution's funds........I think if a NBA team is paying rookie salary, they would demand the right to the coach of their choice. (a minor league)

Just use the baseball rule and turn the DLeague into a true minor league same as baseball. Maybe the top 25/30 would go pro each year and the OAD is done for good, If forced to a three year term, many more would go direct pro. Off course, all of this and your plan would have to endorsed by all parties.........not gonna happen.
(NBA loves loves the free minor league that is college and the colleges loves the free labor from the OAD,s and the million $'s made.)

Cal and UK has done well with the OAD, but did ok before OAD. We have also loss out in the FF more times to teams who weren't dominated by OAD and when we won, upper class men contributed much.

See, this line of thinking is absolutely ridiculous. I agree with your post in general, but do you really think there is ANY chance of the top 25-30 players from each class, on average, going pro each year? There is not a single chance of that happening. NBA teams are dumb, but they're not that dumb.

What do people think, that there's suddenly close to 25 NBA-ready players now as opposed to 10 years ago? Hell, even 20 years ago. We aren't dealing with a new breed of basketball player here. The majority of 1-and-done players today, if they'd come around in the non-1 and done era, would be multi-year college players. The guys who are 1-and-done players today that would have gone straight out of HS pre-2007 are in the vast minority.

I think people have gotten way too carried away with thinking and perceiving how good the average 5-star prospect is these days. It's not like they're better than just 10-15 years ago, and it's also different for each individual class. Sometimes there's a class with a legit 7-8 or so guys that could make the HS-to-NBA jump. Sometimes a class may only have like 1 or 2 of those guys. Outside of Ben Simmons and maybe Labissiere, I don't really look at any 2015 players and think "wow, he's a pro right now." It just depends. To act like all of these 5-stars are the same caliber and lumping them all together is ridiculous and simple-minded.

Somewhere around the top 10-15 or so each year, you "drop off a cliff" in terms of players' professional prospects and ability. A guy who was ranked #7 in his class could be an exponentially better pro prospect than the guy who was ranked #20 in the same class. It just depends on the player, and I don't think people evaluate players very honestly these days. For the most part, I think the perception of most players is extremely inflated. And people aren't willing to admit when a guy was overrated out of HS. It's usually that they're overrated as opposed to underrated, but people's perceptions of players gets way too skewed by the damn number beside their name in HS. In the grand scheme of things you basically have groups. There's the ready-made pros, the potential pros, and then everyone else. The size of each group each year is debatable, but that's pretty much what you're looking it.

All of these kids are idiots and think it's a race to the NBA, but it shouldn't be looked at as simply a race to the NBA. They should be shooting for that $100 million 2nd contract, which you have virtually no chance of getting if you're a 1-and-done player and you aren't one of those "ready-made" talents ala Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker. If you're not a "ready-made" talent and you jump to the NBA after 1 year, you're basically relegating yourself to a career role player at best. Which is fine. You'll live comfortably. But I think a lot of guys (the ones in the "potential pros" group) actually compromise their ultimate potential by being 1-and-done, as opposed to many people thinking that going to the NBA ASAP is automatically "maximizing" their potential. Many disagree with me, but I think dominating the college game does more for your development than putting up 1,000 shots a day in an NBA practice but never playing in the games.

Back to the original point... there ain't no chance in hell we'd reach the point of the top 25-30 players each year choosing not to play college basketball, if HS players were given the opportunity to go pro out of HS. That's what I meant in my last post about the "slippery slope" fallacy. Some kids would make dumb decisions, no rule will prevent that, but it wouldn't cause nearly as many kids to look elsewhere as people believe.

 

[poppycat]

TO NICK:
Key words.........Maybe.......... could ....3 years
Just a number 25/30........to emphasis a purging of all who don't won't to stay 3 years.
Neither of us know how many would try to go direct to NBA. I did endorse a true minor league system for those who weren't ready for NBA. Rookie salary for three years would appeal to a great many who have no desire for a college education.

Might lessen the quality of college bb, but those who win will still fill the arena.
Rupp and Smith bb was great.........Hall and Pitino , also..........Crum at UL good
'K" at Duke, excellent. Knight, Go way back Wooden at UCLA. All great bb with
mostly 3/4 year players.

 

[jchammock]

Like the poster above said, 2 years or go pro out of High School.

There would only be a handful of players every year (5 or 6) that would go pro. And a kid can get his degree in 3 years. It happens all the time.

The upside is if that rule was passed there would actually be "student" athletes. I would assume a lot of these kids that were forced to go 2 years would actually come back for a 3rd year to get their degree. And some may not. But it would make it easier after their career was over to go back to school and get it.

With that being said, everyone knows this is the NBA's decession and not college. College is the NBA's D League to evaluate talent for 1 year to see if these kids can play at a high level. The NBA "Wants" that 1 year evaluation period.

The actual D League is for players that screwed up and left early or are not good enough yet to make it in the NBA. It's not the NBA's true evaluation tool. College is!!!!

My opinion is go out of H.S. Or stay 2 years. After 2 years every kid will really have to weigh their options. Leave and hopefully get drafted and make a NBA roster with the option of coming back later in life to get his degree which would be a lot easier with how many credits they already accumulated.

Or come back for that 3rd year and graduate. It would make kids work harder in the classroom.

Now, back to reality!

 

[DSouthr]

No offense OP, but that is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.

You are a classic example of someone unable to think outside of a tiny little box and any one that challenges your tiny little box is automatically guilty of saying something dumb in your little mind. I offerred this to drive discussion, but rather you elected to childishly insult.

The answer to the problem IS the baseball rule, just with a slight caveat. Instead of it being 3 years until you can enter the draft if you don't go out of high school, it should be 2 years. Either go pro out of HS if you want, and if you go to college, you must stay at least 2 years.

I will be more than glad to share my reasons for dislike of the baseball rule however that was not the discussion point. Can you not discuss the point I was making, is that outside of your ability?

I'm curious what your many problems are with this type of rule? There will never be a perfect rule that prevents busts. Some kids will make questionable choices to enter the draft out of high school and some teams will make questionable choices on said high school kids.

By far the most logical (and fair) rule is to make it go out of HS or stay at least 2 years in college. This would actually make it EASIER for the NBA to scout its prospects. You would have the obvious special talents that you could take out of high school (such as Okafor or Towns), but for everyone else, you get an extra year to evaluate them. It's a complete joke that the NBA takes so many freshmen in the draft every year. One extra year wouldn't make them "damaged goods". This is your perception DSouthr... most basketball people don't consider 20-year-olds "damaged goods" you moron.

If you do not understand the perception is VERY real today that more than one season in college ball carries the "damaged goods stigma then before you discuss this you need to learn the facts. IT has been discussed many many many times by experts coast to coast.

And not only would it not make them "damaged goods," NBA teams would be making a much more educated choice on who they were taking in the draft with one extra year to evaluate the guys who aren't "slam dunk" pros. Instead of half of these 1-and-dones wallowing away on NBA benches or in the D-league, and making their NBA teams look stupid for taking them, they could be developing over an extra year in college. That's better for college and in the long run it's also better for the NBA.

It would be way better for the college game (and the NBA), in my opinion, if only about 3-5 guys made the jump from HS every year (on average), and the rest of the guys in every class were in school for 2+ years. Instead of having 15 1-and-dones every year (which is what we're approaching), you'd have maybe 5 or so guys make the HS-NBA jump every year, and get a lot more combined years from the slightly lesser prospects. It's a psychological fallacy of the "slippery slope" variety to assume that we'd have 10+ guys jumping from HS every year or guys going overseas in droves. That would not happen. There's only a handful of players or so per class, on average, that NBA teams would even consider taking out of high school. My point is... only a fraction of the "1-and-dones" recently would have been taken out of HS. It's not like all 1-and-dones would have been taken out of HS if they had that choice.

Yet again, you ignorance is showing, the one & done came to be after that last NBA draft took 10 players right out of high school, not the 2 or 3 you suggest would be the case. Not only did that draft take 10 it was increasing each year. The NBA owners and GMs could not control themselves, could not stop taking kids right out of high school and the rule was put in place to stop what they could not seem to stop on their own. You may be one of the few fans on the planet that did not know that.

Your "psychological fallacy" is total comedy considering it not only actually happened but happened top the extent that the NBA had to pass a rule to stop it. You need only now look at the numbers of one & done kids that now days enter the draft every single year, and even that does not reflect the kids that play for a college team that end up disappointing that would have been i8n the NBA draft right out of high school. Examples Harrison twins...WoW, you just got caught with your pants down didn't there horvath...LOL

Then ya double down your ignorance by sharing not all one & dones would have gone NBA right out of high school, well OK then, show me proof of that, share what players you know for a fact would not have gone direct to the NBA out of high school that became one & dones? Oh I know, as a duke fan you will try to give me Ty Jones. Jones made his decision to play college ball because he could actually not enter the NBA draft out of high school but would he risk being exposed by playing college ball if he did not have to, he sure didn't risk getting exposed on a team without Ochafor/Winslow/Cook/Thorton, he sure didn't risk that did he? I give you fact, Jones did not risk coming back to duke and not have those big time talents did he, fact, you give me what you wish hope & pray would happen, now you tell me what is more truthful; and accurate, fact or your hopes & dreams? LOL And yet you called me the moron? LOLOL

It is a complete joke that these guys aren't allowed the opportunity to go to the NBA out of high school. Baseball does it right, and basketball should follow suit. Just with a slight caveat of 2 years vs. 3 in baseball.

WoW, in all of this reply you actually do find room to say one correct thing, it is a complete joke that kids can not enter the NBA right out of high school.

No need to over-think this one, folks. DSouthr has already done enough of that for everyone. The baseball rule is by far the smartest change to make to this structure, except it should just be 2 years. If kids who aren't ready for the league make dumb choices to enter the draft out of HS and if teams are dumb enough to take them, that's the kids' problem and the teams' problem. But at least a few guys each year have no business playing college hoops at all, and most of the rest of them should be spending multiple years in college.

No, DSouthr thinks, you blindly follow what you think will happen, I give you facts and a thought of how to deal with the situation. But I want to ask you a serious question, you make a lame case but a case none the less that kids should be able to enter the NBA directly out of high school. Now I do agree they should be allowed to. Now kindly explain why it should be the kids right to enter the NBA draft right out of high school but they should not be allowed to enter the NBA draft after a freshman season? Another serious question, if the NBA really wants a kid that lets say blows up after his frosh season in college like the Skalskas kid did a couple years ago you would take away his rights to make a financial decision about his future when the iron is hot for him, you would have mandated Ty Jones to "serve" duke like a military stint? I gurantee you that you would see that much differently if you were Ty Jones dad.

You the last guy to get the memo? NBA teams ACTUALLY WERE DUMB ENOUGH to take kids directly out of high school, again, that is EXACTLY why the NBA PASSED THE ONE & DONE RULE! A dumb rule you do not fix by making it any dumber, you fix a dumb rule by eliminating it.



Very few players actually "develop" into a pro after their freshman year of college. It's usually a case of... they were already a pro before they stepped a foot on campus, or they're delusional about how good they are and think they've turned into a pro in 1 year when they're really not that good. There's only a very small slice of basketball players that are right on that cusp as a HS senior and it "clicks" their freshman year, and they become a pro.

I agree but thank you for actually admitting that K did not really develope Irving/Ochafor/Winslow/Parker/Jones.

The problem is the baseball rule would take away any hope of being able to enter the draft for even those marginal guys, you can define those as pretty much the top 50 kids in most classes. Kid ranked #49 feels he will be a NBA player and if anything has more reason to prove his worth in a freshman season under the current rule than the every one knows one & doner. You force that #49 kid to be in college for 2 or 3 years and his decision to actually play college ball is much harder.

You are a proponents of the baseball rule for basketball, tell me, I actually do not know the answer to this, how many of the top 50 high school baseball talents each year elect to play baseball in college and not take the pro baseball bonus money and enter the baseball farm leagues? I do not know what that number is but I can gurantee you one thing, it is a heck of a lot more than just 2 or 3 kids each year that enter pro baseball. And how is the funding for college baseball by the way, once America's sport, I know how well loved college basketball is, is there ANY comparison to the fan support of the 2 college games? Can you even name for me the duke baseball starting line up, I bet you can tell me about every kid on your basketball team and do so in depth.

 

[DSouthr]

So you want college athletes to play for a pro's salary that is paid by the Pro team instead of by college boosters or stiffens paid from institution's funds........I think if a NBA team is paying rookie salary, they would demand the right to the coach of their choice. (a minor league)

Just use the baseball rule and turn the DLeague into a true minor league same as baseball. Maybe the top 25/30 would go pro each year and the OAD is done for good, If forced to a three year term, many more would go direct pro. Off course, all of this and your plan would have to endorsed by all parties.........not gonna happen.
(NBA loves loves the free minor league that is college and the colleges loves the free labor from the OAD,s and the million $'s made.)

Cal and UK has done well with the OAD, but did ok before OAD. We have also loss out in the FF more times to teams who weren't dominated by OAD and when we won, upper class men contributed much.

Poppy, the problem is in baseball there is a farm league team in just about any decent size city in the country. There are 3 or 4 here in SC and consider that each of those farm teams carries a large number of players on their roster. How many NBADL teams would the NBA have to support in order to stash their future players for developement? IN basketball the NBA has and has always had the greatest farm system ever, they get their players developed in a place dedicated to teaching the fundmentals of the sport and it does not cost them one red cent.

With the NBADL, which has not exactly been embraced by the fans, lets see cut the grass or watch a NBADL game, do I need to make a gas run before I crank up the mower? Minor league baseball has been ingrained in society, minor league hockey is strong, minor league basketball not so much. If you tell me that in a true 3yr baseball rule many would turn pro out of high school then the same logic has to be applied to a 2yr rule. Kids are already considering playing over the water to avoild a 1yr rule, more would look harder at that if the manditory time line is increased. There are already attempts to form a club team format here in the states that would give kids an option to playing college ball and wil be looking to draw in top 10 talents. The longer you mandate kids stay out of the draft the more legs are given to formation of club teams that wil take even more kids away from the college game.

Don't forget, the entire college basketball fan base LOVED THE ONE & DONE FORMAT when it was put in place, it was almost like Christmas because the next Lebron could be playing at a college near you. But it really has not worked out like so many fans thought it would, now it is pretty much universally hated amoung college fans with the potiential exception of the limited number of programs that have benifitted by having the one & dones every season.

Personally, I would be just fine if the one & done rule were eliminated and NOTHING take its place. I would love to see the market correct itself, maybe after tossing millions at so many busts the NBA owners and GMs would finally realize that they are killing their sport. The rule was never really needed, all the NBA owners and GMs had to do was not draft kids right out of high school but they were not able to control themselves.

Understand, what I propose it not that far out of what the NBA is already doing with euro players, they draft euro's all the time and stash them back to a euro team, a similar process for kids in this country is what I am talking about. Someone please tell horvath that the NBA is already doing this with euro players cause he does not seem to understand anything that has happened in the last 50yrs...

 

[Grayhead]

Simply put, its the NBA that created the mess drafting soley on potential. The college game has suffered greatly. Now with coaches seeking one and done only, waters the college game down even more. Ops fix is not a fix. It allows the NBA more say in the college game when they created the mess in the first place. Baseball rule is the way to go. It a kid does not want to play for a major university for 2-3 years, then so be it. I promise they won't be missed

 

[DSouthr]

Like the poster above said, 2 years or go pro out of High School.

There would only be a handful of players every year (5 or 6) that would go pro. And a kid can get his degree in 3 years. It happens all the time.

The upside is if that rule was passed there would actually be "student" athletes. I would assume a lot of these kids that were forced to go 2 years would actually come back for a 3rd year to get their degree. And some may not. But it would make it easier after their career was over to go back to school and get it.

With that being said, everyone knows this is the NBA's decession and not college. College is the NBA's D League to evaluate talent for 1 year to see if these kids can play at a high level. The NBA "Wants" that 1 year evaluation period.

The actual D League is for players that screwed up and left early or are not good enough yet to make it in the NBA. It's not the NBA's true evaluation tool. College is!!!!

My opinion is go out of H.S. Or stay 2 years. After 2 years every kid will really have to weigh their options. Leave and hopefully get drafted and make a NBA roster with the option of coming back later in life to get his degree which would be a lot easier with how many credits they already accumulated.

Or come back for that 3rd year and graduate. It would make kids work harder in the classroom.

Now, back to reality!

JC, hey bud been a while! First, I am all about doing what makes sense to keep kids in college for as long as possible, the one & done format sure does not do that. But I prefer kids have logical reason and make the decision to stay in school because they want to, not because they feel they have to. You have to give them more reason to stay in school and develope not just athletically but academically as well as the time to mature in to adulthood.

Most fans only want to look at the impact of the one & done rule but the rookie salary structure is at least as much of the problem and IMO even a larger part of it. These kids know, they have ot get that clock to tick away on that rookie contract structure as soon as possible. Delaying it further by a baseball 2 or 3 yr rule because these kids do not want any delay for that clock, they want to speed it up if anything.

Ask these kids why they are entering the draft so quickly today they will tell ya, I have outlined what they will tell ya. Kids know there is a limit to their playing career, they can go to college any time, they can play 2 or 20yrs in the NBA and most not have any problem paying college tuition out of pocket. You have to give them more reason to play in college because for many of the top 50 and for most if not all the top 20, college today is a one season stepping stone to the NBA draft.

To solve this problem there really are only 2 options that make any sense, either totally do away with the one & done and replace it with NOTHING or do away with it and replace it with something that makes these kids want to be in that college program while allowing the rookie salary clock to begin ticking. A baseball rule at very least risks more kids shying away from the college game t0o the harm of both the NCAA and the NBA game.

 

[Archer2]

Restore freshman ineligibility. Only kids interested in attending college will enroll, and it will give them a year to get acclimated to college life. Everyone else will either go to the NBDL or overseas. It would put an end to the growing farce that is OAD basketball.

 

[ACokeForRoy]

If I were the NBA commish, I would allow up to 3 kids to be drafted out of HS in each draft.. If your name isn't called in those three then you need 2 years of college, or 1 yr of DL or overseas play. So as a high school kid coming out, you have to decide to A. go to college where you can get a education for two years, develop your skills while having most of you means taken care of (room, board, meals, tuition). B. go to the DL and develop your skills there while being on your own, making little money and developing under NBA level development and hope for the best in the draft 1 year later or C. go overseas and play for decent money but deal with the lifestyle change in a foreign country which isn't bad if your family is willing to allow there 17-18 yr old to take on this journey. Not every kid is mature enough for this option.

 

[Ozheelfan]

If I were the NBA commish, I would allow up to 3 kids to be drafted out of HS in each draft.. If your name isn't called in those three then you need 2 years of college, or 1 yr of DL or overseas play. So as a high school kid coming out, you have to decide to A. go to college where you can get a education for two years, develop your skills while having most of you means taken care of (room, board, meals, tuition). B. go to the DL and develop your skills there while being on your own, making little money and developing under NBA level development and hope for the best in the draft 1 year later or C. go overseas and play for decent money but deal with the lifestyle change in a foreign country which isn't bad if your family is willing to allow there 17-18 yr old to take on this journey. Not every kid is mature enough for this option.

I suggested this, or a variant of this idea a while ago.

As several posters mentioned above, the mess is the NBA's to clean up. I even posed my suggestion to an NBA staffer I met on holidays earlier this year.

Basically the NBA opens up the draft to all players 18yrs and over. This would happen in early April and last for less than a week. The NBA would then give it's teams till the end of April to evaluate the declared players.

They then take a poll of all teams, asking them to rank the declared players.

Based on the poll, players ranked in the top 30 (first round) are endorsed to enter the draft, all other HS players, Frosh and Sophs plus U21 overseas players are not endorsed and thus cannot be drafted, nor picked up as a free agent for a minimum 12 months.

A player could then declare 3-4 times before being drafted, that's OK, they can work towards getting to the league.

Note, I feel once a player has reached Jnr year of college they should be able to enter the draft and be picked up in the second round if they wish.

By ending the process before May it gives College coaches security, eliminating the questions of whether a player will come back or not.

As for the OP, I agree, the NCAA needs to come on board too - players have to be able to declare with impunity and the option of playing in college needs to be made more attractive. I agree totally with incorporating the players training into degree credits. I also like the idea of creating curriculum which would be more useful for professionals.

On that note, I believe all 18-20yr olds would benefit from courses which teach them simple, sound financial and life management skills - managing bank accounts, budgeting your first pay, investment strategies etc. So such a course wouldn't be the exclusive domain of jocks, future doctors, lawyers etc could benefit too!

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

If you are pursuing a degree in chemistry or most other sciences, you take a lot of lab courses. You get in there and "do" the science, practicing the principles, working through actual exercises.

Why can't basketball practice count as a "lab course" toward a "sports science" degree?

That's one problem solved.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

With a draft out of HS, the team that drafts the kid should make the call whether he goes to a college, or D League, or even plays right away. If college, the NBA team should pay for the ride. And the NBA team should pick the college.

Obviously some colleges and coaches would become favorites of specific NBA teams.

KIds who aren't drafted out of HS could go to college in the usual way (on scholarship, if warranted). They would be automatically entered in the draft each year and, if undrafted, would play on in college.

 

[DSouthr]

Restore freshman ineligibility. Only kids interested in attending college will enroll, and it will give them a year to get acclimated to college life. Everyone else will either go to the NBDL or overseas. It would put an end to the growing farce that is OAD basketball.

I am maybe one of the very few that would agree Archer but it is a thing that the NCAA could do. The NBA has been calling all the shots and the NCAA has not taken its stand. Freshman ineligibility would force most of the top players out of the NCAA game. I would prefer the threat of it more than the reality of it. But if this were to happen, it for sure would serve the academic roots that the NCAA was orginally founded on and no doubt the players would be kids that want to be there.

This much I do fully believe, it does not matter who wears the jerseys, top 50 in high school or not, fans will still fill the stands and the excitment would be the same no matter if the top 50 talents in each class did not play NCAA ball. Reason being and the largest difference between the NBA and the college game is the fans turn out in the college games for the teams, the college game is about the team and not the individual players. The NBA has lost itself marketing its individual players over its teams.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

This much I do fully believe, it does not matter who wears the jerseys, top 50 in high school or not, fans will still fill the stands and the excitment would be the same....

I agree. I enjoy watching college basketball. I'm not thinking about their pro careers when I watch college ball.

I'm not a big NBA fan (although having UNC players on competitive teams got me to watch some last season). So maybe others feel differently about this.

Sure, having the high flyers on your team makes it more fun. But the truth is that teams that play tactical ball and are well-coached are plenty fun to watch, too.

Those of us who grew up watching Dean's teams enjoyed the talent, of course, but we also got caught up in the chess match. We don't see much of that any more - and may see even less with a shorter clock.

If we went with your solution, Dave, or returned to not letting frosh play, it might be a good idea to lengthen the clock again.

 

[Archer2]

I am maybe one of the very few that would agree Archer but it is a thing that the NCAA could do. The NBA has been calling all the shots and the NCAA has not taken its stand. Freshman ineligibility would force most of the top players out of the NCAA game. I would prefer the threat of it more than the reality of it. But if this were to happen, it for sure would serve the academic roots that the NCAA was orginally founded on and no doubt the players would be kids that want to be there.

This much I do fully believe, it does not matter who wears the jerseys, top 50 in high school or not, fans will still fill the stands and the excitment would be the same no matter if the top 50 talents in each class did not play NCAA ball. Reason being and the largest difference between the NBA and the college game is the fans turn out in the college games for the teams, the college game is about the team and not the individual players. The NBA has lost itself marketing its individual players over its teams.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I agree. If the top 20 players out of high school each year didn't play a minute of college ball, I would still be a happy fan. In the long run, I think it would actually benefit college ball.