Fixing Minor League Basketball
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:29 pm
There are just some things I like about baseball. Other than maybe the Cubs I really don't watch a lot, but I just love the system. You start in rookie ball as a teenager and then you move up through the ranks until you hit triple A. If you are lucky you get a shot in the big leagues.
I'm not a big fan of NCAA basketball. The only reason I watch it is to check out the various prospects and to support the local teams a little. I don't think it prepares players for pro basketball like the NBDL or old CBA and IBA could do for players. If you are not playing with pro rules and a 24 second shot clock it is a lot harder to evaluate you and figure out how you will do as a pro.
The problem I have with David Stern is that he is in bed with the NCAA. NCAA basketball should be more like NCAA baseball. Sure there will be some talent but lots of young prospects will go the minor league route. First Stern has to get out of bed with the NCAA. If I was advising some kid ranked say 40th in the nation as a high schooler I'd tell him to go sign a contract to play in the LEB Gold over in Spain or something like that. Sign a 3 year deal with an out after the 2nd year for the NBA. You won't make Brandon Jennings money but you might still pull down 6 figures a year. Plus you get free housing and transportation. If you aren't projected as a first rounder just sign with a team in the ACB for half a million euros or something. By that time you would be automatically draft eligible. You'd have your option of staying in Europe or trying the NBA.
To avoid this the NBA should fix their illegal age rule and the draft. First the NBA should put together a 7 day predraft camp for players in early June (after graduation) for all graduated high school seniors and all early entry college candidates and seniors. The camp should be set up to gather the measurements and run the tests, but then the focus needs to move on to drills and actual scriminaging.
The top 200 ranked high school players should get an invite to attend along with all 18 year old international prospects that choose to attend (and have at least one NBA team interested in watching them). After the camp the high schoolers (and internationals) get to decide if they want to stay in the Rookie Draft. At the end of June the NBA should set an entire day (start at 10am) for draft day. They should start the morning with the rookie draft and end with the regular 2 round NBA draft.
The rookie draft should be 3 rounds deep (would likely include a pool of up to 250 players when you consider all the high school and international players that stay in). Only 90 players total get drafted in the rookie draft. The remaining go on to various colleges and international teams.
The standard NBA draft should remain the same. Like college baseball there will be some talented sophmores and freshman coming out but it won't be the same as before. I'd keep the draft lotto system for this draft. But with the rookie draft I would do it a little differently. I would reward the NBA champions with the first pick in the rookie draft. Then I would change the lotto system to be more random. I'd treat all lottery teams the same (no rewards for losing) and all playoff teams the same. With a playoff team you'd designate two balls with their logo on it. And with a lotto team only one. So playoff team has twice the chance of getting pulled out than a lotto. But the great thing about it is that a playoff team could get a high pick if it lasts long enough. There are no guarantees even with the worst record that you don't get the last pick.
So assuming no teams trade their picks and own the rights to all their own picks... each team will get a a first, second, and third round pick in the NBA rookie draft... and they will get a first and second round pick in the standard NBA draft. (5 picks total)
The new collective bargaining agreement should reflect salary structure changes because teams are drafting more players. First round standard draft players should start on a lower scale. The first pick might start out making $2.5 million a year over 3 years and the 30th might start at 800k over 3 years. The second round should allow 2 year deals from the min. up to 500k a year.
The rookie draft 1st overall pick might start out as a 4 year contract starting at 3 million a year with a 5th year team option of 4.5 million. The bottom of the first round might look like a 4 year deal starting at 800k with a 5th year option at 1.5 million. The second round might start at 500k a year and end at 250k a year (with 5th year team options). The third round would be 100k a year with a 5th year team option.
Once players are actually in the NBA they at least must make the NBA min. rate until their contract runs out or they are sent back down to the minors. So if a 3rd round rookie draft guy came up to the NBA in his second year he wouldn't be making 125k or something... he'd make the league min while in the NBA. The NBA should keep the 15 man nba roster with 12 allowed to be active during the game. But they should allow teams to hold the rights to all players they draft or trade for in the minor leagues. However once the original contract runs out NBA teams cannot re-sign players to minor league contracts under 350k. After the original contract (upon being drafted) runs out the player must either make the 15 man NBA roster (and agree to a contract) or he becomes an unrestricted free agent who can sign with a NBA team, go overseas, or sign a minor league contract directly with a minor league team. Signing a d-league or cba level contract might be worth 15k to 40k a year and a summer league contract with the USBL or IBL between 1k and 5k... so ideally if these vet players aren't in the NBA they'd want to go overseas. Also veteran NBA players on the NBA roster should be allowed to go down to rehab an injury. Each team should be allowed to send a veteran outside of their rookie contract down after an injury for up to 5 games a year (but of course being paid at their NBA contracted rate).
The salaries actually start out lower but the pool of players is deeper. This is good for the players union because it allows a lot more guys to be getting paid even while in the minor leagues instead of not making anything with the NCAA. It is good for the NBA because they only offer big contracts to guys that prove themselves. There are less busts. And players develop faster for the NBA game.
The NBA should cotinue with their D-league model only trying to limit costs more. Ideally teams should play in venues that seat 3500 to 6000 and not 17,000. They should have games spread out so they can always travel by team bus. They should play a lot more cluster type games to keep travel expenses down (basically not very many Maine vs. Bakersfield games). The NBA should focus on developing only profitable NBDL teams. The NBA can then use these profitable teams to help subsidize minor league player salaries. Like if the player is down in the minor leagues the minor league team would be responsible for paying say 30k of his 125k salary. Outside of teams designating players to the NBDL the NBDL should continue with its draft and individual team try-outs to keep rosters full.
Shortly after the NBDL season starts the NBA should have a recognized affliate AA type season start. They should develop the CBA to create profitable franchises (in places like Minot) in venues that will seat at least a few thousand. The CBA should take trickle down players that were cut from the NBDL along with players from individual team try-outs. The league should also be used for NBA teams to send say a 3rd round rookie draft guy down to get lots of PT.
That's how I'd fix the minor leagues. I'd also replace the NBA summer league with the USBL/IBL type situation and send all the young developing talent to play there over the summer. Those leagues would also help subsidize salaries. So Minot might pay 30k of a player's 100k salary while Salina, Kansas (exposure league team of the IBL/USBL) pays 10k. The NBA team would only be responsible for 60k of the 100k salary.
I'm not a big fan of NCAA basketball. The only reason I watch it is to check out the various prospects and to support the local teams a little. I don't think it prepares players for pro basketball like the NBDL or old CBA and IBA could do for players. If you are not playing with pro rules and a 24 second shot clock it is a lot harder to evaluate you and figure out how you will do as a pro.
The problem I have with David Stern is that he is in bed with the NCAA. NCAA basketball should be more like NCAA baseball. Sure there will be some talent but lots of young prospects will go the minor league route. First Stern has to get out of bed with the NCAA. If I was advising some kid ranked say 40th in the nation as a high schooler I'd tell him to go sign a contract to play in the LEB Gold over in Spain or something like that. Sign a 3 year deal with an out after the 2nd year for the NBA. You won't make Brandon Jennings money but you might still pull down 6 figures a year. Plus you get free housing and transportation. If you aren't projected as a first rounder just sign with a team in the ACB for half a million euros or something. By that time you would be automatically draft eligible. You'd have your option of staying in Europe or trying the NBA.
To avoid this the NBA should fix their illegal age rule and the draft. First the NBA should put together a 7 day predraft camp for players in early June (after graduation) for all graduated high school seniors and all early entry college candidates and seniors. The camp should be set up to gather the measurements and run the tests, but then the focus needs to move on to drills and actual scriminaging.
The top 200 ranked high school players should get an invite to attend along with all 18 year old international prospects that choose to attend (and have at least one NBA team interested in watching them). After the camp the high schoolers (and internationals) get to decide if they want to stay in the Rookie Draft. At the end of June the NBA should set an entire day (start at 10am) for draft day. They should start the morning with the rookie draft and end with the regular 2 round NBA draft.
The rookie draft should be 3 rounds deep (would likely include a pool of up to 250 players when you consider all the high school and international players that stay in). Only 90 players total get drafted in the rookie draft. The remaining go on to various colleges and international teams.
The standard NBA draft should remain the same. Like college baseball there will be some talented sophmores and freshman coming out but it won't be the same as before. I'd keep the draft lotto system for this draft. But with the rookie draft I would do it a little differently. I would reward the NBA champions with the first pick in the rookie draft. Then I would change the lotto system to be more random. I'd treat all lottery teams the same (no rewards for losing) and all playoff teams the same. With a playoff team you'd designate two balls with their logo on it. And with a lotto team only one. So playoff team has twice the chance of getting pulled out than a lotto. But the great thing about it is that a playoff team could get a high pick if it lasts long enough. There are no guarantees even with the worst record that you don't get the last pick.
So assuming no teams trade their picks and own the rights to all their own picks... each team will get a a first, second, and third round pick in the NBA rookie draft... and they will get a first and second round pick in the standard NBA draft. (5 picks total)
The new collective bargaining agreement should reflect salary structure changes because teams are drafting more players. First round standard draft players should start on a lower scale. The first pick might start out making $2.5 million a year over 3 years and the 30th might start at 800k over 3 years. The second round should allow 2 year deals from the min. up to 500k a year.
The rookie draft 1st overall pick might start out as a 4 year contract starting at 3 million a year with a 5th year team option of 4.5 million. The bottom of the first round might look like a 4 year deal starting at 800k with a 5th year option at 1.5 million. The second round might start at 500k a year and end at 250k a year (with 5th year team options). The third round would be 100k a year with a 5th year team option.
Once players are actually in the NBA they at least must make the NBA min. rate until their contract runs out or they are sent back down to the minors. So if a 3rd round rookie draft guy came up to the NBA in his second year he wouldn't be making 125k or something... he'd make the league min while in the NBA. The NBA should keep the 15 man nba roster with 12 allowed to be active during the game. But they should allow teams to hold the rights to all players they draft or trade for in the minor leagues. However once the original contract runs out NBA teams cannot re-sign players to minor league contracts under 350k. After the original contract (upon being drafted) runs out the player must either make the 15 man NBA roster (and agree to a contract) or he becomes an unrestricted free agent who can sign with a NBA team, go overseas, or sign a minor league contract directly with a minor league team. Signing a d-league or cba level contract might be worth 15k to 40k a year and a summer league contract with the USBL or IBL between 1k and 5k... so ideally if these vet players aren't in the NBA they'd want to go overseas. Also veteran NBA players on the NBA roster should be allowed to go down to rehab an injury. Each team should be allowed to send a veteran outside of their rookie contract down after an injury for up to 5 games a year (but of course being paid at their NBA contracted rate).
The salaries actually start out lower but the pool of players is deeper. This is good for the players union because it allows a lot more guys to be getting paid even while in the minor leagues instead of not making anything with the NCAA. It is good for the NBA because they only offer big contracts to guys that prove themselves. There are less busts. And players develop faster for the NBA game.
The NBA should cotinue with their D-league model only trying to limit costs more. Ideally teams should play in venues that seat 3500 to 6000 and not 17,000. They should have games spread out so they can always travel by team bus. They should play a lot more cluster type games to keep travel expenses down (basically not very many Maine vs. Bakersfield games). The NBA should focus on developing only profitable NBDL teams. The NBA can then use these profitable teams to help subsidize minor league player salaries. Like if the player is down in the minor leagues the minor league team would be responsible for paying say 30k of his 125k salary. Outside of teams designating players to the NBDL the NBDL should continue with its draft and individual team try-outs to keep rosters full.
Shortly after the NBDL season starts the NBA should have a recognized affliate AA type season start. They should develop the CBA to create profitable franchises (in places like Minot) in venues that will seat at least a few thousand. The CBA should take trickle down players that were cut from the NBDL along with players from individual team try-outs. The league should also be used for NBA teams to send say a 3rd round rookie draft guy down to get lots of PT.
That's how I'd fix the minor leagues. I'd also replace the NBA summer league with the USBL/IBL type situation and send all the young developing talent to play there over the summer. Those leagues would also help subsidize salaries. So Minot might pay 30k of a player's 100k salary while Salina, Kansas (exposure league team of the IBL/USBL) pays 10k. The NBA team would only be responsible for 60k of the 100k salary.