Chaz
observationist
Interesting article today by Sean Deveney. Should the NBA institute a minor league in a similar model to a baseball AAA team?
I think so. I would be great to have the IR actually be for injured players and have somewhere to play young players not able to get time at the NBA level while keeping their rights.
Lack of a true minor league is a major problem
By Sean Deveney -
It is time for the NBA to stop kidding itself.
Its brainchild, the National Basketball Developmental League, simply is not working, which would not be headline material, except that the situation is killing the NBA. As a new batch of teens enters the league after the draft, the NBA is pondering an age minimum of 20 years. That's an oversimplified approach, designed to be union-friendly and relive the days when college basketball was the NBA's developmental league. What the NBA needs, badly, is not an arbitrary age limit but its own minor league system.
On June 11, two months after coaching the Mobile Revelers to the NBDL championship, Sam Vincent was out of a job. The Mobile franchise folded, and the Greenville team was put on a one-year hiatus. That leaves the league with six active franchises, only six opportunities for promising coaches such as Vincent and limited opportunities for the league to develop future NBA referees.
Phil Evans, president of the NBDL, says he believes the league is strong in the remaining six markets -- all in the Southeast -- and that the NBDL will look to expand, possibly into the Midwest and Northeast.
I hope it doesn't, because I hope the NBA sets up a more effective minor league. Until it does, players and fans will lose out. Teams these days are in a nasty cycle of drafting ever-younger players, and they are forced to get those players on the floor before they're ready. When you have a maximum of 15 roster spots, young, inexperienced players naturally will bump veteran players out of the league.
"It affects the play of NBA teams," Vincent says. "All the fundamentals that should be taught, that should be a solid part of your game by the time you get into the NBA, you don't have anywhere to teach those now. Unless you have a strong developmental league situation, it's going to dilute the game. It already is."
There are two main concerns: the players union and finances. The union loathes the idea of a coach manipulating players by sending them to the minors. I talked to five player agents about the possibility of a minor league, and all had reservations. Keith Kreiter, who represents 18-year-old Maciej Lampe, says, "As a fan, and as someone who watches the sport, yes, it needs a minor league. And even for someone like Maciej, he could benefit from being in the minors. But there is also something to be said for being in the NBA locker room, the road trips, the teammates. That's important, too."
Of course, the union is protecting players by opposing a minor league, but what about older, veteran players who lose roster spots to teenage draftees? A minor league would create room for them, too.
Paying for a minor league is another problem, but Jay Frye, a co-owner of the CBA's Fort Wayne franchise for eight years before the league was taken over by Isiah Thomas in 1999, says it could be done with increased local ownership. It's the kind of system the CBA owners thought they were getting when Thomas arrived. Instead, the league folded less than two years later.
Thomas said he could use his connections to smooth the way to a true minor league. Instead, he drove the whole thing into the ground, forcing the NBA to rush the inauguration of the NBDL. When the NBDL started, Frye says he warned its founders that the league could not be successful without local owners. Instead, the NBA owns the NBDL, although, as Evans points out, the league is trying to increase local ownership.
"The CBA lasted more than 50 years because of local ownership," Frye says. "That changed when Isiah came aboard. When it was done by local people, who have ties to the community and were willing to accept a bit of a loss, that was OK."
The way to solve the problem is to have a minor league that consists of 30 teams, each located within 50 miles of the NBA team to which it is affiliated, each locally owned. Limit the amount of time a drafted player can spend in the minors (one season, or one season plus 60 days) to appease the union. No one can be given a mandatory assignment to the minors after, say, his third year in the league.
In this model, young guys can cut their teeth close enough to the NBA club to occasionally practice with the team. Fans outside the city would be able to watch the prospects play as a low-cost alternative to an NBA game. There certainly would be a television market for such a league, helping to defray costs.
"If the Miami Heat had a developmental team in Fort Lauderdale, and you had draft picks playing there, players coming off of injuries rehabbing there, don't you think you would develop some fans?" Vincent says. "Not just for the minor league team, but for the Heat, too. It seems so obvious that the league needs something like this."
Sean Deveney is a staff writer for Sporting News. Email him at [email protected].
I think so. I would be great to have the IR actually be for injured players and have somewhere to play young players not able to get time at the NBA level while keeping their rights.
Lack of a true minor league is a major problem
By Sean Deveney -
It is time for the NBA to stop kidding itself.
Its brainchild, the National Basketball Developmental League, simply is not working, which would not be headline material, except that the situation is killing the NBA. As a new batch of teens enters the league after the draft, the NBA is pondering an age minimum of 20 years. That's an oversimplified approach, designed to be union-friendly and relive the days when college basketball was the NBA's developmental league. What the NBA needs, badly, is not an arbitrary age limit but its own minor league system.
On June 11, two months after coaching the Mobile Revelers to the NBDL championship, Sam Vincent was out of a job. The Mobile franchise folded, and the Greenville team was put on a one-year hiatus. That leaves the league with six active franchises, only six opportunities for promising coaches such as Vincent and limited opportunities for the league to develop future NBA referees.
Phil Evans, president of the NBDL, says he believes the league is strong in the remaining six markets -- all in the Southeast -- and that the NBDL will look to expand, possibly into the Midwest and Northeast.
I hope it doesn't, because I hope the NBA sets up a more effective minor league. Until it does, players and fans will lose out. Teams these days are in a nasty cycle of drafting ever-younger players, and they are forced to get those players on the floor before they're ready. When you have a maximum of 15 roster spots, young, inexperienced players naturally will bump veteran players out of the league.
"It affects the play of NBA teams," Vincent says. "All the fundamentals that should be taught, that should be a solid part of your game by the time you get into the NBA, you don't have anywhere to teach those now. Unless you have a strong developmental league situation, it's going to dilute the game. It already is."
There are two main concerns: the players union and finances. The union loathes the idea of a coach manipulating players by sending them to the minors. I talked to five player agents about the possibility of a minor league, and all had reservations. Keith Kreiter, who represents 18-year-old Maciej Lampe, says, "As a fan, and as someone who watches the sport, yes, it needs a minor league. And even for someone like Maciej, he could benefit from being in the minors. But there is also something to be said for being in the NBA locker room, the road trips, the teammates. That's important, too."
Of course, the union is protecting players by opposing a minor league, but what about older, veteran players who lose roster spots to teenage draftees? A minor league would create room for them, too.
Paying for a minor league is another problem, but Jay Frye, a co-owner of the CBA's Fort Wayne franchise for eight years before the league was taken over by Isiah Thomas in 1999, says it could be done with increased local ownership. It's the kind of system the CBA owners thought they were getting when Thomas arrived. Instead, the league folded less than two years later.
Thomas said he could use his connections to smooth the way to a true minor league. Instead, he drove the whole thing into the ground, forcing the NBA to rush the inauguration of the NBDL. When the NBDL started, Frye says he warned its founders that the league could not be successful without local owners. Instead, the NBA owns the NBDL, although, as Evans points out, the league is trying to increase local ownership.
"The CBA lasted more than 50 years because of local ownership," Frye says. "That changed when Isiah came aboard. When it was done by local people, who have ties to the community and were willing to accept a bit of a loss, that was OK."
The way to solve the problem is to have a minor league that consists of 30 teams, each located within 50 miles of the NBA team to which it is affiliated, each locally owned. Limit the amount of time a drafted player can spend in the minors (one season, or one season plus 60 days) to appease the union. No one can be given a mandatory assignment to the minors after, say, his third year in the league.
In this model, young guys can cut their teeth close enough to the NBA club to occasionally practice with the team. Fans outside the city would be able to watch the prospects play as a low-cost alternative to an NBA game. There certainly would be a television market for such a league, helping to defray costs.
"If the Miami Heat had a developmental team in Fort Lauderdale, and you had draft picks playing there, players coming off of injuries rehabbing there, don't you think you would develop some fans?" Vincent says. "Not just for the minor league team, but for the Heat, too. It seems so obvious that the league needs something like this."
Sean Deveney is a staff writer for Sporting News. Email him at [email protected].
