OT: 5* PG, UCLA commit Daishen Nix decommits from UCLA to join G-League
New normal until one and done go away, then the flakes can go accumulate there.
That’s fine. In a perfect world guys who aren’t interested in college basketball and playing for a team don’t play in college and go straight to the minor leagues.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:05 PM ^
Get over yourself...
I agree with this 100%. It's better for them to go pro and not have to "play school".
As if playing one year CBB means a huge bond, it doesn't
Seems obvious the NBA is doing this instead of ending the one and done rule.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^
Flakes? WD, they have to make the best decisions for themselves. I’m bummed about Todd as well but these things happen
It’s a no brainer. If I were to go to a college kid today and say hey - I’ll give you in the job training and you can still get a college degree from somewhere else, and here is 1/2 the salary you’ll make for the next few years, kids will do it. Why hold athletes to a different expectation? Schools need to figure out what to do next because it’s only time that football does the same.
It'll be nice to get endeared to the players who stick around 2,3, even 4 years. Anything that makes John Calipari, Coach K, and Bill Self win less is probably for the best.
Except Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas are probably already paying kids as much as the G-League is.
Not anymore. They may match the G-League next year, though. And we'll all know they did the second a 5* turns down the G-League's public offer to go play 'college' ball.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:38 PM ^
No they will still be successful. It instead of getting the top 1-30 high school seniors, they’ll get the top 30-60 seniors. Everyone will move down a peg and college basketball will keep on keeping on. The Blue Bloods were great before and during the one and done era and they will still do work on the trail in the G League era
April 29th, 2020 at 10:16 PM ^
But the gap between Duke, Kentucky Et al and other programs will narrow. The further away you get from the top level recruits, the less distance separates them
NCAA is a joke. Those running it should be sent to Bolivia
The NCAA has no power. Member schools have power. The NCAA cannot make rules, only member schools can make rules. The biggest misconception is that the NCAA makes rules and the schools follow it, but really they only "enforce" what the schools pass.
I have to imagine that covid-related uncertainty plays into the wave of guys going G-league this year. It's one thing to leave six figures on the table to play for a year in a typical high-level NCAA environment, with all that means for your enjoyment of that life and for future endorsements. But if there's a good chance you're playing in an empty gym either way, it's gotta be a lot harder to say no to the money.
Yeah, I think you're right. It's possible there's no season at all! In which case, take the guaranteed G-League check and spend all your non-playing time (and that of your agent) figuring out how to build a draft resume rather than going to college and praying there's a season where you can build your rep.
It has nothing to do with the Rona. This is the first year they had the option to do this. More will follow in the coming years.
Do you ever wonder what having all the top talent skip college altogether will do to basketball's popularity in the long run? TV ratings are now less than half what they were 25 years ago. Back then, America became familiar with every star in the league when they were in college (usually for three or four years). And those players tended to stick with one franchise unless they got traded.
Now, everything is different, and it's all about "ME!" "I want to get paid NOW, so I'm going right to the league! I don't like my coach or my teammates, so I demand a trade! I want to sign with my buddies with a new franchise, until I get sick of them and demand another trade!"
It's becoming a harder sport to love, IMHO.
Kevin Garnett went direct to the pros in 1995. There's been a long, long time to accept that there are high school kids ready to play at the highest level right away. It's only in team sports where this is an issue. Kids go pro as teenagers in golf and tennis constantly.
If anything, 1-and-done made things worse by forcing kids who were ready to go to school anyway, just so the NBA could mitigate some draft risk.
Things were find in the decade or so between KG and LeBron. Going to 1-and-done did nothing to reverse the ratings slide. Removing those players from the pool might actually improve the game, as there would be more 2, 3, and 4-year players.
Very few male golfers turn pro on the big tour as teens. Reason being you have to earn your way onto the tour. It happens, but it is rather rare. Ladies is a different story.
I'm not talking about forcing the players to go to college. I'm talking about the "me first and always me" attitude that I fear is permeating throughout the sport. It's not just about players doing everything they can to avoid playing in college. It's demanding trades. It's buddying up with your "rivals" to create a super team. It's Lebron and KD hopping from city to city, leaving crushed fanbases in their wake. This is not a sport I can care about much longer, and the ratings numbers suggest that less people in America care than just about ever.
Ratings are fine. They're lower than they were in the 90s, but that's true for everything that's not football. 27 million watched the NCAA final in 1995, and 20 million watched it last year. And the numbers have been in that low 20 range (except for TBS games, natch) for a while now.
I agree that there's an aesthetic penalty for the sport with the way players change teams more often, but that doesn't mean that it's a problem with the players. The NBA enforces a pretty solid salary cap, and guys like Lebron make way less than they're worth. Why shouldn't they move around? Teams and fans don't show that much loyalty, and neither should they. Just ask Andre Drummond, who felt singed after getting traded out of Detroit. I mean, I really wanted the Pistons to move on from him. If a guy winds up being a salary drag, their franchise will turn on them, why not move themselves?
Don't get me wrong, the NBA was really interesting a couple of years ago when there were legitimately multiple teams that could win it all, but it has become more of a superteam-primary league and the style of play has quickly gone to an iso-heavy efficiency mix that I don't like. But things will change again and it will be fine.
Don't think for a second they wouldn't have done same thing 30 years ago. reason they couldn't not cause they were better people etc.... Look at how awful the bird rules were then as NBA superstars more or less couldn't leave their teams without making a ton less if doing so. Plus the horrible way they set up their salary cap right now is why the super teams have come together. The top guys don't get most money as it's capped at top something NFL doesn't do.
I assume you're also taking shots at guys for leaving in CBB to transfern without sitting out. All of this stuff you mention comes from the rules and has zero do with anyone being a so called better person back then
And frankfurters used to cost a nickle.
What are the odds Josh Christopher does the same thing? He can really get started on "his brand" now.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:44 PM ^
I still have a hard time understanding that. Michigan’s brand is far bigger than ASU’s, especially with Juwan running the show. The stuff about the school having the adapt to Josh is so vague that I don’t know what it could consist of. Clearly not something that Juwan didn’t offer since he thought he had him in the bag. I suspect it’s mostly about his brother and the brand stuff is a distraction
April 29th, 2020 at 12:05 AM ^
Nah, he can play one year with his brother and be on a college campus that will further inflate his very large ego even more.
I've been expecting to see this happen too. Now thats an announcement! Commit to a school that wasn't the expect one, and then flip from them to a G-league contract a couple weeks later! In fact I'm hoping that's the case this for my own entertainment!
Man, the G League really tore into UK, Duke and NC this year! Of their 17 recruits, 16 are top 50 and the other is number 54. Sure hope this G League doesn't keep becoming such a thorn in their side going forward.
My crush: (summer before heading to college) Imma goin' to Eas' Lansin'. Wanna... (kisses me right there)
Me: (thinking) God, please let me say no to this. But her body's saying heck yes.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:04 PM ^
I have been expecting Josh Christopher to get offered. I thought he was NBA ready.
Maybe he still will.
Great, I hope all do that. I want to watch players develop over a couple years. I don't want to watch one and dones.