5 Things The NBA Should Do

Here are my concerns:

1. A mandatory 3 years in college is not why the NFL has such useful talent that falls into the 3rd and 4th round. There are several much more important factors. It’s because there are 53 players on an NFL team. An NFL team has players that play only on offense, defense, and special teams. That’s a lot of specialized positions. With so many needs talent falls to the 3rd, 4th and 7th round. On top of that a lot of the talented players would go overseas. . .

3. What happens when a small market team that struggled the year before, has cap space? ? If Sacramento wanted to sign someone from Memphis or even LA they have to give up their early lottery pick? ! 

With 3 making no sense that means 2 would be extremely harmful for the league, especially considering the state the L is in right now.

4. Each team does have it’s own affiliate in a way. A team sends a recently drafted 2nd round pick down to that affiliate and can bring him back up whenever they would like because he is under contract. The entire team D league team is not filled with their players, but I think that is a good thing. It allows a PG playing in the D league to join any team in the NBA that needs him. The NBA is not MLB, they do not have roster expansions or 162 game seasons where you rest one of you 8 position players because they play 6-7 days per week, so it is a lot rarer for a D-leaguer to catch on. The players can’t be hindered by which affiliate they play for. 

I like #5 buts that’s it

Points #1, 3, and 5 are all things that the leage should adopt.  Players should have to stay in college for at least three years (or play overseas).  This gives them a chance to develop.  When I say develop I mean mentally not talent wise.  Players make way too much guaranteed money these days and end up not producing the numbers revelant to their fat contract so  the incentive based system would work.  I’ve always been a fan of the D-Leage team for each team. 

Points #2, 4 are a stretch, the leage needs a salary cap and I don’t like the idea of losing a first round pick just because you sign another player.  In the NBA your 1st round picks are a lot more valuable than they are in MLB which is where you must have gotten the idea.

1. The NFL and NBA draft as I figured out a while back, have fewer parrallels than one would think. First of all, their are 22 positions to think about on defense and offense compared to 5, not to mention special teams. Also, while this has never been proven in the NFL, it is widely expected that if a player came out after less than 3 years of post HS play, they would more than likely be destroyed. The NBA on the other hand, has a proven precedent that players can contribute quite well at the age of 18-20. While the process of physical and mental maturation would definitely make for even greater first year pro contributions, I just do not think it is just to deny the players the right to play in a league where they can make contributions. That is why the "one and done" rule, to me, is about as much of a limit that should be drawn on early entrants.

2. Having no salary cap would crush small market teams. Football has a lot of parity, and still has an equal footing salary cap. One thing I do not want the NBA to follow though, is baseball. Yes, their are smaller markets that have keen eyes for scouting talent, that keep themselves at a reasonable level financially, but baseball is where the juggernauts win constantly. If the NBA did this, their would be even less parity than their is already, even with your suggestion in #3.

3. The factor that ultimately does not work is your thought process that signing a major player away from a team by offering a tender would lead to an even close to fair trade. I guess you are just hoping it would be an appeasement, and a way to help rebuild, but the factor I think you are leaving out is that an NBA draft pick is not worth as much as a pick in the NFL or MLB. Odds are, if the Knicks signed Marc Gasol, they are giving up a late first round and second round pick. The odds of that pick turning into even an average player are stacked against that happening. The drafts in professional football and baseball are much deeper, because there are many more positions and variables that need filling. Football has a 53 person roster, not to mention a practice squad. Baseball has I believe 27, and a minor league farm system. Basketball has a 15 person roster, and the D-League is just never going to be the minor league system one would think.

4. I just do not think it would be financially feasible. The D-League probably loses as much as it makes, and to have a 30 team D-League would even further thin the talent of the league. Their are potentially 450 players in the NBA, having around half of that in reserve seems to be working out just fine. I know, people would like to see the D-League have more credibility, maybe turn into a farm system for young talent much like the minor league is for baseball. Well, it is not going to happen. As much as playing makes one better, it is also much easier to play basketball in practice situations and improve than one would in baseball. Yes, practice and games are different, but you are not telling me that going up against lesser talent in extended minutes makes one better than going up against a seasoned pro in practice. Plus, making a guy play double duty is pretty much unfair. They are not horses and their bodies need rest at times as well.

5. How would it help small markets exactly? Players would just sign with whatever team gives the most money upfront. Incentive laden deals are fine, and maybe a truly competitive player would want one, but their is so much risk involved. The NFL’s system works for it, because the shelf life of an NFL player is so much shorter than that of an NBA player. Their is a much greater risk of serious injury. It of course is awful when a player is hurt and you have all of this money left on the table, but that is the risk you take. Their could be something instituted to help teams with injured players, their is too a small extent in trade and roster exceptions, but I think this would make things further in the favor of major market teams willing to spend money.

Ultimately, I see all five of these things being complete dreams. They rely too much on the structures of other leagues, that are far different from that of the NBA. Do not see any of them  happening, and if any other than #1 happened, it would more than likely make the league far less competitive and move talent up top at a rate not seen since the early days of the NBA.

1. Why wait until guys are 21years old, Blake Griffin for example would not have been allowed into the NBA until this summer.

2. There is no hard salary cap look at the Knicks up to $134 million a few years ago but the cap for signing FA’s is there to protect the smaller teams. Imagine Dallas, Knicks, Lakers, Chicago able to spend what they like on players and teams having all 5 starters on well over $10 million a year, it would crush the smaller teams.

Personally I don’t like the salary cap as teams who generate revenue should be able to spend it and why should teams that can get 20,000 a game and sell loads of merchandise have to suffer because other teams only draw 13,000 to 15,000 etc. But I can see why the NBA needs it.

Why should you force players to stay three years? How is it fair to keep players like Blake Griffin, Rose and Lebron and tell them they cant play in the league until their third year of college when they are good enough to make the league at 18. As for football, yes there is more rounds because there is a hell of a lot more football players on a team and a lot more positions to fill. Also with such a high risk of injury you need more depth.

Making the top young players wait till their third year is just straight up age discrimination. If your good enough to play in the league, then I believe you should have the right to be rewarded for your talents and what you can bring to an NBA team. Rose would of been a Senior in college right now, and he just won the MVP of the league. Do you think if Rose was in college for 3 years he would of been as good as he is now? Colleges has a limit on how much they can practice and why force players who are already good enough for the league to do school work which to them is just busy work.

Forcing kids to stay three years would be a huge mistake. This would start an even bigger trend of kids leaving for Europe like Jennings. Its these kids dream to play in the NBA, let them chase after it in whichever way they want. We shouldn’t delay or We shouldnt force players to be slaves to the NCAA, but thats a different story for another day.

i agree with number 1 to a certain extent…i think the nba should adopt what the MLB does…this allows high school players to go straight to the NBA if they want but if they dont then they have to be in college at least 3 years…but maybe the nba can change it to at least 2 years…this will eliminate are that one and done progress that nba gms, and college coaches hate..

i also agree with number 4…each team should have a d-league team because this will allow the young players on each team who are not getting playing time to learn their teams style and plays while playing in the d-league..