There is plenty of meaningful change on the way for top NBA prospects in the next decade, but the NBA G-League took a strong first step towards appealing to top high school talent this week. Jalen Green, ESPN’s No. 1 prospect for the 2020 high-school recruiting class announced he would be declining several scholarship offers in order to sign with a newly unveiled G-League team for top high school prospects.
“We’re thrilled to welcome a player and a person of Jalen’s caliber to the NBA G League,” said G-League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim. “He represents the next generation of NBA players, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him develop his professional skills in our league. Jalen will learn from an NBA-caliber coaching and player development staff as he begins his professional basketball journey in the NBA G League.”
Currently, players are not eligible for the NBA Draft until they are a year out of high school or 19, which has led to countless one-and-done college athletes over the past two decades since the rule changed. In recent years, some first-round prospects have elected to forego that one year in college in order to start the clock on their earnings early. Darius Bazely (New Balance scholarship) and Anfernee Simons (post-grad year at IMG Academy) are two recent examples of first-round picks in that mold. Top 2020 NBA Draft prospects such as LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton played as pros in Australia’s NBL this year before their seasons were suspended.
None of those players have quite the same cache as Green who earned gold medals at the 2019 FIBA Under-19 and 2018 FIBA Under-17 Basketball World Cups and the 2017 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship as a consensus five-star recruit. The bigger story here though is how Green and another top-15 prospect (Isaiah Todd) will be joining the G-League with far different parameters than the rest of the league’s talent
Per multiple reports, Green will earn over $500,000 in salary and close to $1 million total when including endorsement and appearance deals. Todd will get closer to $250,000 on that front, numbers that are competitive with some overseas leagues and far higher than the current max G-League salary ($125k).
The other key for elite young talent like Green and Todd is that an unaffiliated G-League team is currently being created for them that will be based out of Southern California. Instead of long trips around the country to small market areas, their year in the G-League will be specifically tailored to prepping them for the NBA in a number of areas. A few key details of the arrangement that the G-League is touting.
—Play in only 10-12 games during the season (50 is usual length)
—Team based in Southern California
—Veteran G-League players as teammates with a focus on helping the elite talent develop
—G League will pay for scholarship if he wants to go back to school
—Top tier NBA coaching talent and development
That’s a lot of appealing upside for young American talent that doesn’t want to go overseas for a year out of high school to start earning a paycheck right away. There is some risk for slippage in the draft when playing against better talent in the G-League than they would have for a year in college but the league is trying to sell a better development environment than what most top college programs present.
The bigger question now from my standpoint is whether a program like this in the G-League can have real staying power given the expected change in NBA Draft rules in 2022. The league and union are expected to agree to allow high schoolers to immediately declare for the NBA Draft in 2022, which will lead to a huge draft that season because of a combination of top one-year prospects out of college as well as the best high school players that can converge on the NBA at the same time.
While the current G-League program will hold appeal for the next two seasons, will any top high school talent elected to forego the NBA Draft in 2022 and beyond just to get a year of development in the G-League? A potential top-5 pick like Green would seem highly unlikely to go that route given the risk/reward involved. That might make a program like this to be short-lived after the next two seasons.
However, there may also be mid-tier prospects (mid first-round or below) that may want to build on their stock before declaring for the NBA Draft at 18 years old. A successful launch of this program in the G-League over the next two years could still make it a compelling alternative for those players over top college programs. It will be interesting to see just how much the G-League is eventually willing to pay for mid-tier prospects in this realm but some positive developmental stories with Green and Todd would be a huge boost on that front.
Either way, this will be a fascinating experiment for the league in the next two years. Plenty of team sources around the league remain adamant to Bostonsportsjournal.com that they aren’t fans of removing the age restriction since they would much rather prefer a young player to develop on a college team’s dime rather than on their payroll at such a young age. This G-League developmental team is a clear attempt to bridge that gap while providing NBA-level developmental and some security for young players with some money right away. Whether it can sustain beyond 2022 remains to be seen.
Adam Silver remains uncertain about NBA season
After holding a virtual Board of Governors meeting with owners around the league on Friday, Adam Silver held a conference call with the media late Friday to highlight the latest developments surrounding the potential resumption of the NBA season. A few key quotes along with takeaways from his comments:
On whether regular season games will be an option: “Everything is on the table. All rules are off at this point given the situation we find ourselves in, that the country is in. If there is an opportunity to resume play, even if it looks different than what we’ve done historically, we should be modeling it.”
On setting a deadline to resume games: “We’re just not ready to set a date yet in terms of how long we could wait before we no longer would be able to continue this season. I would just say everything is on the table, including potentially delaying the start of next season. Again, we just need more information.”
On playing games at one location: “We’re looking at all of those things right now. In terms of bubble-like concepts, many of them have been proposed to us, and we’ve only listened. We’re not seriously engaged yet in that type of environment because I can’t answer the first part of your question, which is, what precisely would we need to see in order to feel that that environment provided the need health and safety for our players and everyone involved?”
Takeaways
It’s really hard to take much substance away from this beyond the fact that it feels like the NBA is taking a cautious approach and there felt like a little more pessimism about the possibility of returning this season in this latest interview. Clearly, with the amount of money at stake for all parties involved, the willingness to shift future seasons to create a window to finish out the 2020 campaign is prevalent. However, whether the moving parts involved make that feasible by the end of the summer is unclear. All things considered, I’d be surprised to see the NBA be the first league to ultimately return to action.
Other NBA News and Notes
—Cool program announced by the Celtics and Vistaprint this past week which involves purchasing food from eight small businesses owned by Celtics Season Ticket Members. The meals will be prepared by those businesses and delivered to frontline essential workers and those most impacted throughout their respective communities during this COVID-19 pandemic.
—Currently serving as the Nuggets assistant GM, Calvin Booth will be promoted to replace Arturas Karnisovas, who was named as executive VP of basketball operations with the Bulls.
—The Last Dance documentary on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls begins its 10 episode run at 9 p.m. tonight on ESPN with the showing of two episodes.
