Mark Cuban solves the Underclassmen to the NBA problem

[MrBug708]

How to keep young NBA players out of the NBA

If the NBA and NCAA want to keep young players out of the NBA, the answer is so simple. Stop guaranteeing rookie contracts.

As it is right now, if a player is drafted in the first round, their salary is set by their draft position, we are REQUIRED to guarantee that salary for at least 4 years. Given that the last pick in the draft makes more than 600k per year, for 4 years, the money to tempt the high school or underclassmen is there.

Then there is the agent pitch. I can hear it in my sleep. Come on now….Leon, you know how good you are. You know what your coaches have told you. How could you not be one of the top 29 players in this draft? Just get picked in the top 30, and the money is yours…Guaranteed. Best of all, you have at least 4 years to get ready for your next contract.

That is tough to turn down.

Add the fact that the agents collect their 4 pct on those guaranteed contracts whether the guy can play or not, and you have more than a little incentive from agents to get the guy to declare for the draft.

Get rid of guaranteed rookie contracts and all that changes. Then all of a sudden the odds come into play. So few players drafted in the 20s actually play in the NBA past their rookie contracts. They go from prospects to trade fodder to out of the league. Instead of hearing about busts on the bench collecting millions of dollars, with just anecdotal Lenny Cooke and Kenny Satterfield, expect to be 1st round picks and weren’t stories, the stories would be about how the majority of players drafted in the first round don’t make it through their rookie contracts.

That is exactly what would happen. If rookie contracts were not guaranteed, more than half of first round picks would be cut before the end of their contracts. Those are the odds that every high school and underclass college player would hear about. The question wouldn’t be about draft position, it would be can they play.

I also don’t understand why the players union allowed the rookie contracts to be guaranteed. That was one big mistake on their part. Four year contracts means teams that draft in the 20-29 multiple years, perennial playoff teams, probably have 3 of their last 4 draft picks taking up roster space. Or they traded those picks as throw-ins and they are taking up space on other rosters.

Those are roster spots that I’m sure those teams and a whole lot of veterans without jobs wish were available.

Rookies who can’t play, getting paid to not play, taking jobs from vets who can.

So why are rookie contracts guaranteed? No idea, it happened before I got to the NBA. Hopefully it will change. There are a lot of Ced Ceballos’ and other guys who have paid their dues in this league who could help a team, while the young guys learn the game in college.

[henry296]

The logic works for me.

Todd

[Samdari]

I think guaranteed contracts are just as bad for vets as for rooks. There are quite a few vets in the NBA who sign fat, long term contracts and then get fat themselves.

The thing that bothers me is the part about players developing in college. If the NBA wants young players developed, they should be willing to pay the expenses for it themselves, which is common in pro sports leagues across the globe.

[RainRaven]

Exactly Samdari. The NBA loves having the High Schools and Colleges churn out the talent without them spending the money. If they don't want to spend the money then all well they can keep whining about kids wanting big money when if they had that chance when they were young they would leap at it as well.

[henry296]

I think what Mark Cuban is proposing is guaranteed contracts for vets, just not rookies.

[ScottVib]

This won't solve the problem.

Why wouldn't a rookie still come out? Teams are drafting prospects they know won't be able to perform for 2 or 3 years with all the high schoolers in the draft. If anything if you stop guarenteeing the money you make it easier for the NBA to take a chance on a high school kid, because if he doesn't pan out, you cut him and owe nothing.

Every year that player sits on the NBA bench while the team tries to decide if he'll really turn into the player they thought he might have been in college will still be paid... and they'll be paid quite well. In fact because of the lack of a guarenteed contract you'll see NBA signing bonuses go up... meaning more upfront money to the rookie who declares for the draft.

Non-guarenteed contracts are fine... but it won't solve the issue of underclassmen going in the draft. The only way that issue gets solved is for NBA teams to decide that they want developed talent that can help immediately in the draft, and not people they can hide on the bench for a few years.

Unfortunately the NBA teams aren't likely to learn anytime soon, and unless you do something drastic (like say shorten the bench so you can't hide a kid who should be a freshmen in college as the 12th man); that the NBAPA won't go for; you won't be able to legislate intelligence into the league.

[Vince]

But Scott...I think it'd be a huge detriment to the underclassmen to make that choice now. Sure the NBA doesn't mind wasting a pick on them...but the kid realizes if they come out, that's their one shot...if they blow it, it's over, for the most part.

[ScottVib]

Why? Right now they get 4 years of money and then are gone if they suck.

This way they get 1 year of good money and a big signing bonus and are gone. I don't see any deterient.

If you pull in a million dollar signing bonus and one year of a salary and then are cut... you aren't any worse off, except that you got all your money in one year.. and still are young enough to be considered a prospect and potentially make a living playing hoops overseas... or even to do something else with your life.

I don't see this as a real deterient. You don't go to the NBA thinking your going to flame out after 4 years, and that you better milk it for all it's worth immediately. They are going to make the big bucks now, if they were willing to wait to improve their draft position, they'd go to college..... if your picked in the first round say you don't get the 4 year 600k contract... instead you get 4 year 500k and a 1 million dollar signing bonus... so your getting 1.5M guarenteed for one year (with more to come if your good) as opposed to getting 2.4M guarenteed over 4 with the old system.

Underclassmen declare for the draft for one reason.... they know they'll get picked and start making money. Making the contracts non-guarenteed doesn't make them any less likely to get picked.. and they'll still get money, teams don't pick high schoolers expecting them to play the first season or two.. so your going to make money for the first season or two after your picked.. in fact they'll get more of it upfront then they otherwise would have gotten.

I fail to see what would deter me... if I'm getting picked I'm getting more upfront money. woo hoo!

[Daimyo]

Sure, if you can get the team to agree to give you a signing bonus. But the way rookie contracts are right now I didn't think they had a lot of room to negotiate things like that?

[Daimyo]

http://www.nbpa.com/cba/articleVIII.html

Rookies may not receive a signing bonus (except for $350k in payments to buy their rights from a foreign team or as an "assignment" bonus - whatever that is)
They may not receive less than 80% or more than 120% of the rookie scale salary in any of the seasons

Hard tell for sure, but it looks like the drafting teams holding the players rights for 3 full seasons after the draft and if they holdout, they basically start over at year 1 of the rookie scale. It doesn't look like the players would have much leverage to to make demands and they can't get a signing bonus at all.

[ScottVib]

I was operating off of the assumption that if the rules governing the guarenteed nature of the contracts was to change the NBAPA would get the consession that would allow signign bonuses.

To give up guarenteed contracts for nothing would be idiotic, which is why I made that assumption (essentially they'd shift to a more NFL-esque salary structure)

[Daimyo]

I think the NBAPA has shown in the past they're more than willing to give up rookie rights in negotiations. It makes sense since they won't be the ones affected by the concessions. As pointed out above the change definately favors vets.

[Leonidas]

Mike Wilbon made the point the other day the union should team up with the owners like in football and put age restrictions into the CBA. It would be in their clients' best interest too because they would be saving the jobs of veteran players. And the courts have proven it is mighty tough to overturn a union sponsored arrangement like the CBA as shown in the Maurice Clarett trial.

[miami_fan]

How about not picking the players who are not ready to play in the league? The age restrictions, non guaranteed contracts etc are all designed to protect NBA executives from themselves IMHO. There is absolutely nothing preventing the supposed "experts" from picking players who are capable of playing REAL basketball. If NBA scouts start drafting quality players, the underclassman/high school players who do not meet the standard will fall by the wayside.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by ScottVib

I was operating off of the assumption that if the rules governing the guarenteed nature of the contracts was to change the NBAPA would get the consession that would allow signign bonuses.

To give up guarenteed contracts for nothing would be idiotic, which is why I made that assumption (essentially they'd shift to a more NFL-esque salary structure)

Why would it be idiotic for the current members of the NBAPA to give up guaranteed contracts for rookies? If it would indeed open up jobs for veterans it would be protecting the current members at the expense of those not in the union, which as we who follow the Maurice Clarett case have learned, is what unions do.

[Gary Gorski]

Actually, I kind of like the guaranteed contract - as it is you have a player on a three year trial with a team option for a fourth year and then after that you have the bird rights to the player and can offer him a max contract so in essence, if the good player wants to make the big bucks he's got to stick with you.

I think the best way to make everyone happy is to use the NBDL. Expand it so that every team has a club and make it a minor league for the NBA. Then make it so that rookies playing in the NBDL under their guaranteed contract get like 10% of that contract and when you are called up to the NBA team you get 100% of the rookie contract you signed.

The NBAPA should be happy because it will open up jobs for vets and the NBA teams should be happy because they can not only pick prospects to develop but can actually develop them by letting them play in games and at a fraction of the cost it costs now to "develop" a kid. Plus it will be good for the league itself because they could televise the NBDL games on like ESPN2 or something - people would be interested in watching them if they were like college all-star teams pretty much. I know I would like to see some of these kids play, especially guys like Darko Milicic.

As for the players, its still not a stopper to them leaving early but at least maybe something to think about. Would you rather play for two or three years in college and be able to live for free while developing your skills or do you want to go play in the "minors" without the glitz and glamour and without a massive amount of money to live on? Yes even the last pick would still make 70k for playing a year in the minors but 70k is alot different than 700k and 70k isn't going to buy you a house, cars and the NBA lifestyle.

It's hard to say that these kids shouldn't have the right to play in the NBA if the NBA team wants them. You can't tell some college kid that if Ford came an offered him a 150k job that he can't leave school early to do it. Its a job and if the employer feels they are the best person for the job then why shouldn't they be able to hire them? The only thing you can do is make it less appealing to leave and the only way to do that is offer less money if you can't hang with the big boys.

[BreizhManu]

I like the idea of having a real minor league for the NBA but it would prevent many Europeans from declaring early for the draft since they'd better play in Europe instead (bigger salary, assuming they'd earn 10% of an NBA contract, and competition if they play in an Euroleague team)

[Airhog]

Something I wonder, Does it really hurt lebron james to goto college and play for 4 years? What about other high school studs. Maybe some of these kids are worried that when they go and play at a higher level they wont hack it.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Airhog

Something I wonder, Does it really hurt lebron james to goto college and play for 4 years? What about other high school studs. Maybe some of these kids are worried that when they go and play at a higher level they wont hack it.

I think fear of injury would be the number one reason to declare ASAP. One bad injury in college and a guy won't see any money, ever. Another reason would be to go while they are the 'hot' guy. Sports media are constantly hyping people, but the hype can move on to someone else just as fast as it appeared.

[Gary Gorski]

Agreed - between the threat of injury and hype there's too much to risk to not take the chance of going early and getting your million whether you are good enough or not. But if you end up in the "minors" and only get 10% of that money it may not be a worthwhile jump even if you are risking injury and not being on the hype machine by sticking around in school - at least your'e living for free there and working towards a degree (or should be) - you might actually be better off proving you're worth drafting for the NBA squad by staying in school and graduating and if you still arent good enough then at least you can go get a job with your degree as opposed to playing three years in the "minors" and not being good enough and have no degree and no millions stashed away from your stint in the minors either.

As for the foreign players - that wouldn't affect them for the most part. True they would stay in Europe and play for more money than play in the NBA "minors" but other than just recently with Milicic and maybe two or three others what foreign players have been drafted that have just sat on the bench waiting to develop? The NBA already uses the foreign leagues as a minor league system - they draft players, let them stay over there if they aren't ready and bring them over when they are. Why not have the same system here?

[Tasan]

MrBug706, you should list the source for this, its a great site!

hxxp://www.blogmaverick.com