Originally Posted by
theAlaskanBear
Sure, the idea is a long shot...but that doesn't mean there is no chance of it happening.
I have been a fan of this model since the NBA banned HS players. There is nothing to stop a team from drafting a kid and sending him to Europe or the D-League to get seasoned. It should function a lot more like soccer where NBA franchises can loan out their players to the Euro-leagues. The NBA can also write a salary-cap exception where rookie/draft contracts dont count against the cap until they play in X-number of NBA games...this would encourage them to develop farm teams.
Also, with many elite players spending 5yrs in highschool (prep school transfers)...age 21 is just two years in school for some of them.
But there's no need for the NBA to develop a farm system. This is not like baseball, where 40-50 players per team end up in the majors every season. Last season in the NBA, a grand total of 442 players logged minutes. That's less than 15 per team - 12 of whom for each team are on the active roster. There's simply no roster need for a stable of players (none of whom are, at present, NBA-level players) at a minor league level. We've seen this with the D-League to date - very NBA players have come up through the D-League. They're either good enough to stick from the get-go, or they simply aren't good enough.
Moreover, the developmental needs for basketball players - particularly those of whom are likely to fall within this rule (i.e., those who would, at 18, choose to go pro over at least 3 years of college) - is different than for baseball players. The top 18-21 year-olds are routinely able to contribute to an NBA team immediately, and are drafted for that purpose. That simply is not true of the top 18-21 year-old baseball players, who need multiple years of minor league seasoning before they're ready. And as long as college basketball stays at all viable, there's minimal incentive for NBA teams to develop farm programs, because the colleges do it better and for less ($0) cost to the NBA.
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