The population of five-star recruits will diminish for Arizona Basketball with the new G-League contracts. But just how many players will go this route?
Arizona Basketball is an élite NCAA program which attracts some of the best high school athletes in the nation and the world. The G-League now has a High School graduate elite contract that they will offer next summer to compete with the NCAA prior to the end of the one-and-done rule.
The NBA G-League announced Thursday, according to Jonathan Givony (ESPN), that starting in the summer of 2019, they will be hiring a select élite group of graduating high school athletes into their league at the rate of $125,000 for “select contracts.”
The deal would be for one year and is $15,000 more than the max offered to a WNBA player. After that first year, their names would be entered into the NBA Draft. The minimum age for hire will be 18, but the player would have had to have turned 18 by the prior year date of September 15. Thus they would enter the following year’s draft at the age of 19 which is the age a player can play overseas and then enter the draft skipping college.
The NBA is still targeting the 2022 season for changing the one-and-done rule for entry. They suspiciously came out with these new post high school contracts just two days shy of the G-League draft on Saturday, October 20 and after the NCAA changed their rules.
Arizona Wildcats
Players who get these contracts can also get endorsement money. But the issue here is that possibly the G-League struggles with filling seats in arena’s and the games are not televised on major sports channels but on Facebook. So the endorsement deals would be better if the G-League had more exposure. The G-League is also under-funded. Some teams are supported by their NBA affiliate and some are not, but salaries and positions are often low pay or commission-based with a “lucky you are working for us” mentality.
Seems a little like a cat and mouse chase or even a chess match. Is this a checkmate for the G-League? What’s the NCAA’s next move? The NCAA just released new rules around elite college players who want to enter the draft. A certain set of players will be allowed to hire agents and enter the draft, then if not drafted return to school.
There are a number of questions that come to mind. What happens if the players under these contracts do not get drafted? Plenty of drafted players don’t make it in the G-League or even to the NBA. Even if they perform great in the G-League. Just take Chance Comanche, Kobi Simmons (released from Cavs), Nick Johnson (released from Spurs), and Kadeem Allen’s (released from Knicks) latest NBA experiences for example. The G-League and NBA is very political and a difficult league to break into.
The best route now is to stay in school until your stats and performance get noticed then enter the NBA Draft. The next route is a two-way contract in the G-League. As injuries are inevitable, G-League two-way players get chances to play up and prove themselves.
Take Kaleb Tarczewski, Gabe York, Ryan Anderson, and others for example. They all played in the G-League but found it more lucrative to play overseas.
The G-League isn’t necessarily a great league to make money for most players, but it will be for one year for these élite high school athletes that decide to go this route.
The élite G-League players will also be able to hire an agent, but agents may not be so hot on representing these players. For one, they will have to support the client through two summers with no pay including housing, food, and training.
Let’s face it, Arizona will still get great recruits to commit, but the recruits they go after may not necessarily make up their mind until late to take this route. Still so much needs to be flushed out, when do they have to decide by? If a player commits to Arizona, can they flip to decide to go to the G-League instead? How do these players get on teams? Do they enter the G-League draft or do they get contract offers from the G-League teams prior to the draft?
Then there is Adrian Wojnarowski’s take that compares the NCAA to the new G-League contracts. He has a point here. Many feel the G-League is an easy league to shine in, but if it were, then a ton of great G-League players would get more NBA opportunities and don’t.
I have doubts about how many top players will go this route. Some, yes. But G-League is full of early connecting flights, long bus rides, small gyms. It isn't glamorous. Big-time NCAA ball still has the trappings of exposure, packed houses, private jets. You'll get paid there too
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 18, 2018
A top HS player would be wiser to take a year away with a trainer prior to entering Draft than wander into G-League with far more fully developed men. Most pre-college teens will be overwhelmed there. Wouldn't be a pre-draft showcase. Still, it's an alternative worth examining. https://t.co/l2YC9dp4LK
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 18, 2018
These new contracts could affect Arizona Basketball in the future, but don’t worry about at least two of Arizona’s five-star recruits. Nico Mannion and Josh Green are not changing their minds. Bruce Pascoe wrote, “Ryan Silver, the director of the club both Mannion and Green played for, said he didn’t think either would be interested in a G League Select deal while Pace Mannion, the father of five-star UA recruit Nico Mannion, made it clear his son was headed to UA.”
Risky as it sounds, there will be some Arizona targets who will be interested or be looking into this option, but until there are more rules or processes released about how this really works, no one really knows if it is worth it. Will the NCAA allow these players to enter the NCAA if not drafted? That’s the NCAA’s next move. And who exactly is an “elite” high school player? The G-League will be determining whether a player is ready to be a professional or not. What are your thoughts?