G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

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Duck07
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G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by Duck07 »

Calling it a Select Contract and making them eligible for the following years draft. Takes effect next Summer so every elite HS prospect this year has a choice to make and this may very well impact us.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2501 ... route-ncaa
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Merganzer
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by Merganzer »

Yeah, looks like it could be a league full of 5*, with some 4* sprinkled in. Kentucky & Duke would definitely have to adjust their model.
northbeachsf
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by northbeachsf »

Interesting. Just because the G League is offering to pay players out of HS, doesn't mean that colleges will stop paying for players too. I don't really see how this solves the issue unless the NCAA does a major overhaul.

Plus, I wonder how many kids will take the $125k from the G league and go with little to no TV exposure? If it was clear that you are a Top 5 pick in the NBA draft out of HS, then this seems like maybe a viable option. However, if you feel like you need some exposure to get into the first round, then college is probably still the better option, especially if you are getting paid anyways.
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Phalanx
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by Phalanx »

Wow. On one hand, it seems like this has the potential to turn college basketball into college baseball, with most of the best players turning pro to get paid. On the other hand, College Baseball has nothing like the NCAA tournament to boost profiles. I wonder if the model is to gradually increase the G-League's popularity and then be able to increase salaries over time. It could really erode at the talent level in college.
Merganzer
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by Merganzer »

Phalanx wrote:Wow. On one hand, it seems like this has the potential to turn college basketball into college baseball, with most of the best players turning pro to get paid. On the other hand, College Baseball has nothing like the NCAA tournament to boost profiles. I wonder if the model is to gradually increase the G-League's popularity and then be able to increase salaries over time. It could really erode at the talent level in college.
This is my concern. Abstractedly, a lot of 5* would definitely take getting paid to going to school. But, nortbeachsf brings up some good points as well; certainly in the start of this experiment. He talks of the exposure factor, and I also think looking at that in the other direction is valid. The Cameron Crazies are going to want to keep seeing the Blue Devils, Arizona, Oregon. Who are the fans going to be that will spend their money to watch G League games?
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by Duck24 »

Are they able to sign sponsorship deals in this model? If so, those contracts will likely dwarf the $125K.

On top of that, I’d be curious what other kinds of terms would be in the contracts. Are they guaranteed, what if a guy sucks/gets hurt, if they don’t get drafted etc. $125K is a lot of money but are they really going to be much more prepared playing in the G-League as opposed to going to a Duke, Kentucky, UNC etc?
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DuckNV
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by DuckNV »

Duck24 wrote:Are they able to sign sponsorship deals in this model? If so, those contracts will likely dwarf the $125K.

On top of that, I’d be curious what other kinds of terms would be in the contracts. Are they guaranteed, what if a guy sucks/gets hurt, if they don’t get drafted etc. $125K is a lot of money but are they really going to be much more prepared playing in the G-League as opposed to going to a Duke, Kentucky, UNC etc?
According to the article, the players can hire agents and sign sponsorship/use of likeness deals so there's a lot more money beyond the $125k in salary for some. Hopefully this will lead to an end of the one-and-done, but hard to tell if this will cure anything except for a relatively small number of HS players skipping over the college route.
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Duck07
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Re: G League to offer 125K to 18 year old "1 and dones"

Post by Duck07 »

Potential downsides for a top recruit could be lack of playing time going against veteran players and dealing with the physicality. Last season we were talking about Caleb Swanigan learning from Kendrick Perkins in the G-League.

Instead of going to a team that runs a scheme that fits your particular skill-set you may end up choosing between several teams with varying skill sets and competing playing-time etc. There's over 340 D-1 BBall teams and right now 26 G-League teams but my understanding is every team will be operating their own soon for 30.

You're going to play more games with a longer schedule and more difficult travel adjustments than the easy pace of college.

Now the top players will look at some of those things and think its far better to use that year for a better acclimation to what the Pro game will be like so that they come into their rookie season more prepared and with more money in their pocket. Teams might have more information on a player after having them in their program for a year or competing against them (or they could decide they player isn't worth drafting too).

For the truly elite players, they will likely sign shoe contracts worth far more than what the G-League will pay them. Can you imagine what Nike would offer LeBron in 2019 when they signed him to 7 years and 90 Million before he was drafted by Cleveland. Of course its off-set by playing in the G-League with its limited exposure but having a high profile player or two like that will also make the league more desirable to watch and broadcast.
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