re: How Good is the Current Crop of NBA Stars?

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If you're physically and mentally ready for the NBA, you'd be an idiot to turn down years of far superior coaching and training programs.

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rivers could have used another year...

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And yea, he would have made more money over his lifetime had he left early.

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Money is not the end-all-be-all for every player (or person for that matter).

College a a once in a lifetime experience, and some people enjoy the comraderie, atmosphere, girls, etc.

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Myles Turner

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Has already proven he made the right decision to leave early. Avg. 30 mins a game in their last 10 games. Was a lottery pick

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Trey Lyles

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Played in the rising stars game tonight. Lottery pick.

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Kelly Oubre

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Was drafted right outside the lottery. Wittman has been place on the hot seat, so hes kicked him out of the rotation but he played very well when given starters minutes in December.

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Kevin Looney

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Poor guy. Injury caused him to fall in the draft a bit, still went in the first round to the defending champs and one of the best organizations in the league.

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Chris McCullough

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Injured. Literally just got to play his first game all season like this week. Still drafted in the first round. Listening to the broadcast of the Nets game the other night and they apparently love the kid.

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Dakari Johnson

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I will give you that one. Him and the Harrisons made some poor decisions. All 3 were sophomores though coming off a 38-1 season. Their stocks likely weren't going to get much higher.

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JP Tokoto

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The guy left after his junior season....

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Cliff Alexander

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Had a ton of off the court issues and a knee injury. Is on an NBA roster in Portland.

Sure some guys make poor decisions when leaving early, but there is at least a system in place for these guys to continue to develop as players. If you leave early in the NFL then go undrafted you are basically shite out of luck unless you want to go play Arena football or in Canada then never be heard of again.

Jaymichal Green left Alabama a year early, went undrafted, played for the Spurs DLeague team for a year, went to France, came back to play for the Toros, got a 10 day with the Spurs and Grizzlies, and he now has a multiyear deal with the Grizz. People are begging the coach here to give him more minutes.

You aren't going to get better training for the NBA than from the NBA itself. They have massive staffs to work with players constantly, you aren't limited by the amount of time you can practice due to some NCAA rules, and most teams have their own DLeague affiliates now where they can send players to continue to learn their system and get valuable playing time within it.

Blake Griffin for example has had a shooting coach hired by the Clippers that has basically been working with him since he came in to the league.

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You aren't going to get better training for the NBA than from the NBA itself. They have massive staffs to work with players constantly, you aren't limited by the amount of time you can practice due to some NCAA rules, and most teams have their own DLeague affiliates now where they can send players to continue to learn their system and get valuable playing time within it.

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This.

If a player wants to further develop his game, leaving college to play pro ball is almost always the right choice. Better coaching, better structure (if the player is mature enough to not sit on his arse and wants to work to get better), less focus on things that aren't important from a basketball perspective.

The players that flame out don't flame out because they needed to develop their game in college. They flame out because they weren't mature enough to handle the added responsibilities that come with playing pro ball. A rookie can live at the teams traning facility when not on the road and put in several hours with coaches a day if he WANTS to. Can't do that in college like you can in the NBA.

Where you get drafted has nothing to do with your development. They leave for the draft purely for a check. Patrick Ewing could of been the #1 pick out of HS and was better at 18 than Trey Lyles will ever hope to become. But he stayed in college to maximize his development not just chase a check

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He probably would have developed faster in the NBA.

Also comparing players from 40 years ago is of pretty much 0 value today. There's so many more options for players than there were back then. You can go to Europe or China now. You can go to the D league now. That didn't exist in the 80s.

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lol he probably would of turned in to a rich mans Serge Ibaka. Never would of learned how to get his own shot or anchor a defense. In the NBA you develop skills to contribute, in college you develop as a player and learn how to dominate. Ewing and virtually no one from that era was blood thirsty to suck every penny out of their career as fast as possible.

The root of the problem is:
Moses Malone Darryl Dawkins Kevin Garnett Kobe Bryant Jermaine O'neal T-Mac even Al Harrington and Rashard Lewis.

They made it look easy and what we have now is every bum who's barely averaging 10 points in college thinks he's ready for the NBA.

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The root of the problem is:
Moses Malone Darryl Dawkins Kevin Garnett Kobe Bryant Jermaine O'neal T-Mac even Al Harrington and Rashard Lewis.

They made it look easy and what we have now is every bum who's barely averaging 10 points in college thinks he's ready for the NBA.

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you do realize that plenty of freshmen, sophomores, and juniros in that era busted, right ?

back in the day when the NBA allowed HS guys, there were studies done and the longer you stayed in college, the shorter your average career was. it was a parabolic curve which means it was exponentially less likely to succeed as you stayed