Phx-Suns.Net

Why?

A guy can get drafted by an MLB team out of high school. I never bought into the anti-high school player argument. It wasn't as if hundreds of players were drafted when the NBA was able to do so.

Mori Chu wrote:I really wish they would set things up where most players stay in college for at least 2 years. An age limit is one such way.

I get it, but what these kids hear is that, "we want the NCAA to make billions from you playing basketball, while you can't make a dime from doing it." It isn't fair to the kids if there is another employer willing to pay them.

Indy wrote:

Mori Chu wrote:I really wish they would set things up where most players stay in college for at least 2 years. An age limit is one such way.

I get it, but what these kids hear is that, "we want the NCAA to make billions from you playing basketball, while you can't make a dime from doing it." It isn't fair to the kids if there is another employer willing to pay them.

Right. Don't see why basketball and football are so different from hockey and baseball. If you can play, you can play.

I just didn't like the way the NBA worked in the late 90s. Guys jumping into the league straight out of HS and GMs more than eager to pick them up. For every Kevin Garnett there was a Kwame Brown. It really hurt both the college and pro game.

Mori Chu wrote:I just didn't like the way the NBA worked in the late 90s. Guys jumping into the league straight out of HS and GMs more than eager to pick them up. For every Kevin Garnett there was a Kwame Brown. It really hurt both the college and pro game.

There was no "class" of amateur player that had a higher success rate in the NBA than the HS Senior. Kwame Brown is the most famous bust case, and there are others like Korleone Young and Leon Smith (both late picks, which rarely pan out anyways), who should never have entered the draft, but by in large, most players drafted out of high school saw some level of success in the league, especially relative to their draft position, and most of the superstars of the last era belong to that group. Take time and go through the list - LeBron, Kobe, Dwight, Amare, KG, McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, Tyson Chandler, Josh Smith, Al Jefferson etc. plus plenty of players that had successful careers as role players.

More accurately, for every Kwame Brown, there's an Adam Morrison and a Michael Olowokandi and a Marcus Fizer and a Joe Alexander and a Rafael Araujo and a Hasheem Thabeet.

seems like i came to the party when everyone's already over the eric bledsoe discussion, but i still want to chime in with some thoughts. i understand the argument that he's not an ideal point guard given the poor decision making aspects of his game. however i think that may very well be why we insist on running a two-pg lineup, so that he isn't always depended upon to make those decisions. now how the situation plays out on the court is different. the guys may be ignoring the coach a bit, or maybe hornacek isn't assertive enough, or i'm just completely wrong about this and the entire organization feels that bledsoe is the pg of the future. none of those scenarios are particularly appealing.

it used to be that players without a clear positional definition were called 'tweeners. now they are "versatile" and "basketball players". whatever. as far as value on the court goes, i think bledsoe is still a good player and one that can potentially improve upon his various shortcomings. as far as my personal discontentment goes, my biggest problem with bledsoe is his apparent lack of passion on the court... he always looks so stoic and doesn't seem to be lighting fires under anybody. i get the leadership by example stuff, but so far his composure looks more of the tmac variety than the tim duncan variety. i prefer my best player (or highest paid if that's easier to swallow) to also be a leader on the team, and i don't think bledsoe is a natural leader. i can't really decide whether this is something that can be developed, like a jump shot can be, but for me this is the one characteristic that makes me willing to give him up in trade.

i have some thoughts/questions on general team building, outside of mcd's performance or specific love/hate for any of the players. i wonder what the protocol is these days for creating new threads? it may be that i'm the only one who wants to talk about this stuff as much of the venting has already happened post-trade deadline, so i'm willing to wait for the next round of discussion once we are eliminated from playoff contention, if that's the right thing to do.

I think having a stronger D League will be helpful. If the kids want to get paid, that's understandable, but they're kids, so they'll play in the D League or on the Sixers.

I think the players association are setting themselves up for trouble with the stars being up front. The stars are going to be doing what is best for them not what is best for the players in general. Which could cause a lot of problems within the union. The question is can the Agents sweet talk the normal players into sitting out a season with out any real gain for themselves.

I know we aren't talking about the most educated of groups here but you would think they wouldn't let the stars and agents railroad them just to stick it to the owners.

EDC wrote:I know we aren't talking about the most educated of groups here but you would think they wouldn't let the stars and agents railroad them just to stick it to the owners.

I fear that's exactly what is going to happen

Honestly, if max contracts go higher and longer, all the other contracts will follow suit.