Making NBA D League Mandatory

This topic contains 10 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by TallmanNYC 9 years, 2 months ago.

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Posted on: Sun, 04/16/2017 - 9:43am #66132

valentine
A lot of guys come out early, and they just get buried on the bench which hinders their development. Why don’t they make it mandatory that if you don’t get a certain number of minutes at the NBA level, then you have to go to the D League? Different sport, but in baseball, teams will not keep their top prospects at the major league level if they won’t get playing time. They keep them in the minors.
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Posted on: Sun, 04/16/2017 - 12:16pm #1095810

TallmanNYC
Participant
Why do that? Almost every team in the NBA has a D-league team and they can send their guys down to it if they want. But maybe they don’t want guys risking injury playing in the D-league. Why have the league set a mandatory limit?
Also most development happens during practice and not during the ten minutes per game a rookie typically gets to play.

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- Posted on: Sun, 04/16/2017 - 1:50pm #1095816
  
  Robb_C
  Participant
  BS Tallman.. No player will ever tell you they improve more in practice over playing time.. Learning at game speed is completely different learning in a game setting
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  - Posted on: Sun, 04/16/2017 - 5:11pm #1095831
    
    ph90702
    Exactly.
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  - Posted on: Mon, 04/17/2017 - 1:08am #1095836
    
    TallmanNYC
    Participant
    Yep, no player will tell you that they improve mroe in practice, but they want to play and that idea supports them playing. But we’ve got decades of data that support that young players improve on the bench even with limited playing time. You need some real time experience, of course, before you can reach your potential. But guys overall development doesn’t change that much based on playing time during those first few years. Think about it, you have maybe fifty hours a week of practice (which includes scrimmiges), film study, stratetgy and weight lifting and other working out. While game time for a low level rotation guy is maybe 15 minutes a game for three games a week, so 45 minutes. Your idea is that you can tell the difference in a player’s development between the kids who get 60 minutes a week versus the kids who get 20 minutes. I’m saying there isn’t going to be much difference at all.
    Heck, a ton of the improvement we see from young guys is just that they get older and their bodies get stronger. That would happen even if they didn’t do anything.
    It is better to practice and get minutes in game. But rookies can develop just fine with limited play time their first year or two in the league.
    
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Posted on: Sun, 04/16/2017 - 7:54pm #1095834

jjj10man
Participant
It is actually allowed for HS player to go straight to the D league out of high school still. No one has ever done it (I believe) because $60,000 duke schalarship > 30,000~ D league salary.
The D league salary is still going up rapidly though, and I think the NBA wants all 30 teams to have an affiliate then raise the salary cap to get players to go there instead of college.

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Posted on: Mon, 04/17/2017 - 12:25am #1095835

holefillers1
Participant
New CBA allows for two extra roster spots to be used for designating certain players to the D League. I believe this will have an impact in the draft this year. Teams will essentially have another draft and stash option. I am curious how some of the top teams decide to use these two extra spots.

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- Posted on: Mon, 04/17/2017 - 12:55pm #1095880
  
  TallmanNYC
  Participant
  I’m not sure how much impact. I think teams are still required to give first round picks a guaranteed contract based on a scale that doesn’t go all the way down to league minimum. Second round guys might not get the NBA contract but I think the two swing positions pay far less than NBA league minimum. So I think they will only go to undrafted guys. Telling your second pick at the end of training camp that you believe in them, but not enough to put them on the roster at league minimum is going to be a rough conversation.
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Posted on: Mon, 04/17/2017 - 4:35am #1095847

SwatLakeCity
Participant
Yes, I agree some players enter the league too early. But some players don’t view the NBA as a place where you truly have to be ready before you enter the draft. Some view it as another learning experience. They understand that the game is a team game and want to really help a team. Some players can do that while still playing others can’t. The ones that can’t you send to the D-league. The D-league is not a bad thing. But not all players that join the draft need to go to the D-league, you can learn via practices, and games.
I think every team understands why the D-league is there, and they use it appropriately. So making it mandatory is not necessary.
You don’t force a choice on somebody unless they are a child. These are adults. Adults make their own choices and then live with the consequence. So let them do that.
Entering the draft is a player’s decision that they make on their own with the help of their family and college coach. And once they make the decision they live with it because they are adults. Making the D-league mandatory would send a message to some college players that we think you weren’t ready to enter the draft, so we are going to punish you. Its not up to the NBA to decide whether or not a player is ready. Its the players’ decision.

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- Posted on: Mon, 04/17/2017 - 10:01am #1095876
  
  holefillers1
  Participant
  D-League salaries also rising to $75-90 thousand per. That’s a living wage. Might even keep some guys from signing in Europe.
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  - Posted on: Mon, 04/17/2017 - 1:07pm #1095881
    
    TallmanNYC
    Participant
    I read that it was going to $50k to $75k. It will help a lot, but it is still vastly less than can be made in Europe or China (I believe China now pays the most, but they only allow a few foreign player spots per team). The two-way spots will pay more, but only for players on them who get called up for a bunch of games in the NBA since I think you get NBA minimum on a per game/day basis. Maybe there will be some under the table deals where guys are told that they will spend at least 10 days or something like that on the NBA team’s bench and hence get some extra cash.
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