The NBA Draft Combine concludes this weekend, and the Draft is next month. However, before immersing myself in what type of player the Los Angeles Lakers should pursue, I need to remind you of three significant economic changes.
The first began in 1994 when Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson asked the Milwaukee Bucks with a $ 100 million contract after the team made him the number 1 team. Robinson finally signed a 10 -year contract of 10 years and $ 68 million (the richest for a rookie), but the next year the League dismissed open contracts for rookies. Today the rookie offers are four maximum.
Then, in 2006, the NBA changed the eligibility rules that require players to be at least 19 or a year retired from high school before entering the Draft. This was due to the excess of high school phenomena that became professional rags.
And finally, in July 2021, the policy of “name, image, similarity” of the NCAA entered into force. That means that any senior in this year's draft is part of the first full class of ball players who could monetize his entire university game career.
All of which affects the answer to the pressing question: What type of player should the Lakers follow in the draft next month?
The guy who had access to excess in a university campus for four years and showed that they can handle the temptations that money and fame can bring. Of the type that already had opportunities to make emotional or childish mistakes in court or perhaps in a publication on social networks and learn from them. The type of player who did not get a true year of last year in high school, but did the best of the letters that were distributed. Resistance is not something that can be measured in the harvester, which is ironic because without it, all measurable qualities add to anything.
The economic changes of the League made a “high roof”, which means a lot of potential, but not a proven history, the most sought after quality in the NBA draft. As a result, players who can legally drink fell out of favor with the explorers.
Consider, Michael Jordan was recruited in 1984 at the age of 21. At that time he was a young relative: the average age in the draft was 22.3. Before the change of the eligibility rule, Kobe Bryant was recruited at age 17, and the average age had dropped to 22. When LeBron James was 18 in 2003, the average was 21.5. Last year, the average was reduced to 20.
How has the university game affected? In 2012, Kentucky won the NCAA title with a list that was about 19.7 years old. In 2021, the University of Baylor won with players who averaged 22.3 age.
While the Lakers list desperately needs a big man, something that was painfully clear in the loss of first round playoffs this year, they will probably not find the next SHAQ with their selection No. 55. But they could find the next Austin Reaves, who was not recruited as a last year student of 23 years in 2021.
That does not mean that youth is not a good thing. Only that with the advancement of technology and nutrition, “youth” has extended largely for professional athletes. It is likely that players of about 20 years are still in their main performance years, not aging. And LeBron James and Alex Ovechkin of the NHL are not the only 40 -year world class examples to be pointed out. The Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn came out of retirement the past fall already took second place in an event in March. What was considered old for an athlete when Jordan was recruited today is not applicable.
My hope is that the Lakers combine throughout the NCAA spectrum and wrote a 24 -year -old university graduate who has zero money in the bank and a good head on their shoulders. Nil's critics complain that the new system makes it difficult to build a good university program because players constantly pursue money and do not have loyalty to the team. I say that it is better to learn the lessons that can come from that, while in a university campus than in the world of higher professional sports.
In the past, talented but raw university players felt pressured to earn money and enter the league too early. Sometimes it was to protect their perspectives of being recruited depending on the potential, before they had sufficient record to be judged by their achievements. Now, in the era of Nil Cash and the transfer between universities, a promising 18 -year -old can make a case to finish his title before trying to be professional, maturing as a player, a student and a businessman without giving up his dream of being in the NBA.
No doubt the Lakers need a big man.
If they cling to the selection, they must ensure an adult also.
@Lzgranderson
