Silver on age limit

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2014/02/13/adam-silver-commissioner-qa-age-limit/5458701/

Q: Along those lines, what’s your level of optimism when it comes to your goal of raising the minimum age to 20 (years old from 19 when the next CBA is negotiated, likely when there’s an opt-out after the 2016-17 season)?

A: It’s hard to tell. I never quite understood the player opposition. Of course it’s a zero sum game in terms of numbers of jobs, and amount of salary we pay out. We pay out roughly 50% of BRI (basketball-related income), and that’s divided among the players in the league. So there is absolutely, and by definition can’t be, a financial savings to us by increasing the age to 20. It has been our belief that we have a better chance to grow the (financial) pie that gets divided 50-50 if we increase the age and create, in essence, a more competitive league. And it has been our sense for a long time that our draft would be more competitive if our teams had an opportunity to see these players play an additional year, whether it be in college or professionally in the Development League or overseas.

We believe the additional year of maturity would be meaningful. And increasingly, I’ve been told by many NBA coaches that one of the issues with the younger guys coming into the league is they’ve never had an opportunity to lead. By having come directly out of their first year of college, those are the moments in their lives where…they were put in positions as upper classmen, where they first learned how to lead teammates. And ultimately, if you look at our most successful teams, they’re successful because they play as a team and I think that’s one of the beauties of this game is that it’s such an interesting mix of team play and at the same time individual (skill).

A team plays together with individual attributes. It’s that blend that teams are always constantly trying to achieve, the perfect blend. Again though, it’s one of those issues (where) it needs to be collectively bargained, and for good reason. It’s something that during collective bargaining the last time, we had lots of discussions about it with the group of players who were representing the union at the time and I think it’s something that we should continue to discuss. Let me just throw in that at the same time, I think maybe, just to broaden my horizons a little bit, I’m trying to look at it not just from the perspective of the NBA because I believe strong college basketball is also beneficial to the NBA and to the game generally. So even if it’s not terrible for the NBA right now, at least talking to a lot of my college coaching friends and college (athletic director) friends, their view is (that) one and done is a disaster. I think this is one of these issues that the larger basketball community needs to come together and address, not just the NBA owners and our players. Youth basketball and college basketball should have a seat at the table as well.

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A few issues:

If I was to think as the NBPA would be that there needs to be a better supported system within the NBDL for draft-eligible players. If the NBDL-salary cap is $173,000 and a rookie-D-League might make less than $700 a week for a 20-week season, it seems as though it would make sense for the union and league to piece together the relatively small amount of money and fund a team for draft-eligible players to ensure they get coached for the entire season (don’t get waived if injured) and then in the summer league (where the D-League has already entered its select team before). It is hard to argue that players are capable of developing properly when they are with their club for less than half the year, and much of that time is spent going from a hotel in Boise to a hotel in Reno. If Silver and coaches have the understanding that part of the development is having players learn to mix the collection individual skills into a team concept, and then ignore the fact that the one viable minor league option does not really afford that learning opportunity. It is certainly not on the same level as seen in college where teams work together from summer until early April.

Also, people make so much of the one-and-done, but the number of freshmen entrants is not that large. The past three drafts have seen 8 D1 freshmen in 2013, 9 in 2012, and 8 in 2011. There is not a conference in college basketball where coaches do not run off more than 8 or 9 players after their freshmen year. The complaints of college coaches and administrators should not be a part of the equation. The NBA, in collaboration with the players’ union, has the right to put in place employment standards to ensure it remains the elite basketball league in the world. It works against the league when some of its players are entry level players against adults and well-coached opposition. Even though, it was not Enes Kanter’s fault that he did not play at Kentucky, it was not good for the NBA to draft someone in that spot. It is not Chris Walker’s fault the NCAA ruined any chance of him having a productive freshman season. One can argue that is not Dante Exum’s fault that he has the chance to hide out all year and still enter the draft without having to prove himself at a higher level than he has played. It does not benefit the NBA to be in the position of evaluating them with minimal bodies of work. If these loop holes did not exist, it is possible Silver would not be outlining his position so far out.

Third, the path to Europe might be somewhat more viable for players after a year in college. I think competitive teams with money would be much more likely to offer a player a Brandon Jennings-like offer after a good year in college. Whether it is Deshaun Thomas, J’Covan Brown, Sylven Landesberg, Terrell Stoglin, or Nick Calathes, there is a decent track record of productive underclassmen college players doing well in Europe so long as they can handle the differences in culture. We just usually do not see it unless the NBA does not want them (initially at least).