G-League Select Contracts

[JCSunsfan]

NEW YORK -- The NBA G League today announced a Select Contract as part of a comprehensive professional path that will be available, beginning with the 2019-20 season, to elite prospects who are eligible to play in the NBA G League but not yet eligible for the NBA. The contracts, which will include robust programmatic opportunities for development, are for elite players who are at least 18 years old and will pay $125,000 for the five-month season.

https://www.nba.com/article/2018/10/18/g-league-professional-path-official-release

To me. This is a great step. It allows players to go directly to the G-League, get paid a decent salary, and then be eligible for the draft. It is good for young players because the g-league can now offer contracts that compete with division 1 bribes, it is good for the NBA because now they do not have to take huge risks drafting high schoolers, it is good for the G-league because it gives those teams an influx of talent.

 

[Krangodnzr]

Love it. I have no special love for the NCAA.

 

[Dback Jon]

If I was a top prospect I would still go to college for a year

1) If you go to Duke, UNC, etc you become a household name immediately, with fans across the country. Vs toiling in an obscure town with no national media coverage
2) In college you will still dominate, as you are playing against people your own age. G-League has older, more physical players, and you may hurt your draft stock.

 

[JCSunsfan]

If I was a top prospect I would still go to college for a year

1) If you go to Duke, UNC, etc you become a household name immediately, with fans across the country. Vs toiling in an obscure town with no national media coverage
2) In college you will still dominate, as you are playing against people your own age. G-League has older, more physical players, and you may hurt your draft stock.

I get your reasoning, but I think things will change a little.

1. Some players cannot pass entrance requirements or do not like the college atmosphere. Mitchell Robinson this year is a good example.
2. With these contracts, the G-League is going to get more attention than it has.
3. This opens up more opportunities for later developing players to get exposure.

 

[Hoop Head]

I really like how the NBA has tried making the G-League more like a true minor league system and developmental league at the same time but I have to question some of these moves combined with ditching the 1 and done rule in 2022. I would like to see something done to address that better.

Perhaps 2 drafts, now that all NBA teams have a G-League affiliate. Every team can take 1 high school to "pro" player who plays 1 year in the G-League on one of these new deals, if you aren't taken then you get a regular G-League deal, go overseas, or go to college. That might help, it might not. I want to see more talent ready to contribute when entering the NBA and it seems like the G-League is one way that could happen but I'm not sure how to address it.

 

[Dback Jon]

I get your reasoning, but I think things will change a little.

1. Some players cannot pass entrance requirements or do not like the college atmosphere. Mitchell Robinson this year is a good example.
2. With these contracts, the G-League is going to get more attention than it has.
3. This opens up more opportunities for later developing players to get exposure.

G-League is perfect for non-qualifiers.

G-League will take years, if ever to get the exposure college does. Zion Williamson (if eligible) will get more exposure in one televised game than the entire G-League

 

[Hoop Head]

G-League is perfect for non-qualifiers.

G-League will take years, if ever to get the exposure college does. Zion Williamson (if eligible) will get more exposure in one televised game than the entire G-League

This is just a step in the right direction. This move alone won't make the G-League huge but it will help broaden it's fanbase. The NBA has made a few significant moves lately for it.

Last year was the first year that every NBA team had it's own G-League affiliate, which needed to happen, and they instituted the Two-Way contracts. Those allow G-League players to be signed by an NBA team and play with them for 45 days out of the season, and they make NBA money during that time.

All that in addition to killing the stigma of sending rookies, sophomores, and rehabbing players down for assignment will help make the G-League much bigger than it is now.

They're even putting the teams in the right places, almost all are in places without other sports teams to appeal to the cities as THE game in town where you will see NBA talent come through.

The NCAA is busy hurting itself with the paying scandals while the NBA is working on making a true alternative for kids and fans alike. They're already invested in the G-League, why not build it up? If it supplants the NCAA someday, great, if it doesn't? It doesn't matter. It's been around for a good while already and is helping improve things for teams. It was created for that reason, not to be a real #2 league.

 

[JCSunsfan]

If the NBA works it right, they can make the G-league a big deal, maybe not as big as college basketball but still much bigger than it is now.

1. Hire recruiters to go after the best high school players. They can offer them $125 k for five months of work and it does not have to be under the table. Their AAU coaches and controlling uncles don't have to get a cut.
2. Shoe companies can offer contracts to these kids right out of high school. Suddenly their guaranteed pay could go into the millions--immediately. The alternative is going to college, potentially getting injured, playing poorly, playing behind another talented kid and not getting seen, or having to deal with a knucklehead coach. Worse yet, having to deal with stupid NCAA rules and ending up not-eligible to play.
3. When some of the best high school players start going to the G-league, more of us will start watching those games.

 

[Folster]

This is a good move, but temporary as the NBA draft age limit will be changed in 2022 allowing highschool graduates to enter the NBA draft directly from highschool.

This is a good short term solution in the meantime and should provide more exposure to the G league. I think everyone is in favor of a more relevant G league that operates like a true minor league to develop the younger and rehabbing players.

 

[JCSunsfan]

This is a good move, but temporary as the NBA draft age limit will be changed in 2022 allowing highschool graduates to enter the NBA draft directly from highschool.

This is a good short term solution in the meantime and should provide more exposure to the G league. I think everyone is in favor of a more relevant G league that operates like a true minor league to develop the younger and rehabbing players.

The nba has pushed this off until at least 2022. If this works well for the NBA, I can see them keeping the one and done rule in effect. In fact, if they really want to pump the G-league, they could move it to two years, but only require one for the G-league. THAT would really throw a wrench into things.

I would do it if I were Silver, but I am just annoying that way.

 

[SirStefan32]

I maintain that the kids should be required to play four years in college AND get paid a reasonable wage for it.

 

[sunsfan88]

I maintain that the kids should be required to play four years in college AND get paid a reasonable wage for it.

If they do this then colleges would start charging kids for tuition and would make it kinda counterproductive imo.

 

[Folster]

I maintain that the kids should be required to play four years in college AND get paid a reasonable wage for it.

That's not going to happen for a myriad of reasons, Title 9 being one of them

 

[Yuma]

If I was a top prospect I would still go to college for a year

1) If you go to Duke, UNC, etc you become a household name immediately, with fans across the country. Vs toiling in an obscure town with no national media coverage
2) In college you will still dominate, as you are playing against people your own age. G-League has older, more physical players, and you may hurt your draft stock.

There's always some guys who do not have the grades or ability to function in a Div 1 school.

 

[Yuma]

I maintain that the kids should be required to play four years in college AND get paid a reasonable wage for it.

I don't think you can make them go four years, but in college I had roommates that were football players. The argument is they get free tuition and they enjoy the college experience like other college students. That is blatantly false. My roommates day went something like this:

Up early for excercises and training table before class.
Classes, if they weren't on the road. (If on the road they miss the classes we all got to attend)
Weight lifting session.
Film study.
Practice.
Dinner.
Mandatory study hall for 1-2 hours.
Sometimes more film study.
Jump into bed to start the whole process all over the next day.
Saturday nights after the football game, if they were playing at home, guys would go nuts partying because that was their free time all week. Sundays usually started the film study, training/rehab for the upcoming week, etc.

How was that a normal college experience? I agree with SirStefan32 that they should get paid. They are working a job, not really college students.