NBA Expected To Lower Age Limit

[jwin]

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2018/07/nba ... limit.html

what's everyone's opinion on this? does it improve the league in any way? are kids going to over evaluate themselves only to be disappointed? is it going to bump college players who stay a few years farther down the draft boards? what do you guys,and girls, think?

[Andrew]

I'm in favour of doing away with the age limit. We had a topic some years back where we looked at all the players who had come out of high school, and there were really only a few complete disasters. The major flops weren't really any worse than college busts, and some of them still had respectably lengthy careers. In fact, a majority of them fared OK, even if they didn't live up to the hype. Again, that happens just as much with players coming out of college.

Also, the G-League is now well-established as the official minor league and development system for the NBA. If players out of high school aren't quite NBA ready, they can be assigned to the G-League. There they can start earning money, further develop, and be properly prepped for the big time. While there was an obsession with drafting players out of high school and it led to a few high profile busts, it was never really that much of a problem back in the day, and should be even less of an issue now that there's a proper development league in place.

I think it's good for college as well. One-and-done didn't do anything for college programs, and probably led to more than a few instances of shady stuff going on with the SATs to get players into college. I imagine that was happening anyway, but once high-school-to-the-pros was prohibited, players who might have otherwise made the jump because college wasn't for them probably got involved with that just so they could be one-and-done. I'm not saying it'll clean everything up with the NCAA, but it'll surely help a little, if only weeding out players who were never serious about college and only went to mark time until they could declare for the NBA Draft.

[jwin]

those are really good points, especially about going to the g-league if they're not ready yet. one of my thoughts was that the draft was going to become a showcase of available mcdonalds all-americans basically, and that ready now players would be pushed to the later 1st and 2nd round for players with more potential upsides and if that does happen, how will bench depth and quality be affected.

but i do lean slightly more to allowing high schoolers in being good for the league, and the potential teams will have in molding players in the g-league to playing in their specific systems while they improve and hone their skills. i just think of a guy like mikal bridges and wonder how much farther down the draft board would he go, and the earnings lost.

[[Q]]

It's also stupid to force kids to play a year of college just for the sake of doing it, especially if they are going to make it anyways. Imagine if Ben Simmons had a career ending injury at LSU. You can already see how it's affected Michael Porter. They are adults now, they can decide how they want to make money

[jwin]

It's also stupid to force kids to play a year of college just for the sake of doing it, especially if they are going to make it anyways. Imagine if Ben Simmons had a career ending injury at LSU. You can already see how it's affected Michael Porter. They are adults now, they can decide how they want to make money

i agree, especially the risk of injury, but i'd be lying if i said i wasn't happy in ben's case. him going to college for a year fell right in line with philly's flops and the ping pong balls so it benefitted all of us sixers fans that time.

[Andrew]

I don't think it'll affect the Draft that much in terms of seasoned college players sliding, though it really all depends on the players involved. I doubt we'll see high schoolers outnumber prospects from college, as not everyone is going to have the talent and maturity to make the jump, and some players will want to get their foot in the door for a university education they can finish later (or they'll follow the advice to do so, even if they don't think it's important at the time). Players who slide down the board because a high school player (or two, or three) declares were probably going to slide anyway.

[Kenny]

I like the move. I understood why they implemented the one year removed rule, but it was ultimately a waste of time for players who didn't take the academic side of college seriously. Also, if a player is good enough to play professionally straight from high school, why should they have to go through a year where they get their brand exploited by the college system, without earning a cent themselves?

Edit: damn you, Grammarly

[Jeffx]

I like the move. I understood why they implemented the one year removed rule, but it was ultimately a waste of time for players who didn't take the academic side of college seriously. Also, if a player is good enough to play professionally straight from high school, why should they have to go through a year where they get their brand gets exploited by the college system, without earning a cent themselves?

This.