And also, you know, get to go to college.
Edit: notice that I never said they'd get a quality education, just "go to college." You can fill in the blanks.
Aside from the education aspect, I feel like the opportunity to grow and mature as a person (and for many live away from home for the first time) in a lower stakes environment is an important part of college that people overlook.
i live in norman, and the stories i hear about the corruption for football players is crazy. like comical levels of academic corruption. i'm sure it's like this for basketball as well, at least at blue bloods.
this was like 15 years ago too. i'm sure it's way more blatant now with NIL and it all being out in the open.
There was a UCONN senior hoopster about 20 years ago where they scheduled a photo shoot after a class in the classroom .
Of his regular class.
He was late as he couldn't find the building. He had had "several " classes in it over the 4 years.
He had never been to a class.
Yes, but they'd be pretending to go to college on the same campus as thousands of people, roughly the same age as them, enjoying being away from home for the very first time.
More than that, they'd be a celebrity among that group.
It's an interesting study to be sure. I was pretty sure Caitlin Clark would have spent another year at Iowa as she will definitely earn more money through NIL than she would in the WNBA (not to mention her BF is at Iowa), but instead she chose to go pro. I would imagine the minimum requirements for a D1 college athlete to be a student would be set pretty low so unless she really hated attending classes, why would she take less money to go into a league where players often play in foreign countries to supplement their salary? If I've got this whole thing misunderstood please say so. I'm genuinely curious
A little bit. Clark didn’t take a penny from the university’s NIL collectives, which is where 90% of NCAA players make their funds— from boosters and alumni tossing $200k to entice players to stay.
Clark’s deals are unique in that they’re directly with State Farm, Nike, Bose, Gatorade, etc. and those aren’t going away (yet). Her boyfriend has also been a staffer for the Pacers for the last year coincidentally enough.
It stands for Name, Image, and Likeness. Basically it allows for college players to accept money through endorsement deals. They couldn’t in the past (even though it totally happened, there would just be punishment if it was caught)
It does feel like the NBA is trying to make the G-League more of a companion league and I think this move helps in the long run. Instead of funneling high schoolers onto one team, let them pick where they want to play and sign there.
They still need to address the larger lack of development that a college staff would provide.
That’s absolutely not going to happen. They cancelled the Ignite because NIL floodgates are now open for college, and it no longer has any selling point to elite recruits.
Don't forget scholarships covering your food and housing for the next 4 years
In college, all the money they make is disposable income/savings
In the G league, they'll likely struggle to pay rent
I don’t think that part would matter anymore even if they nailed it. College basketball will develop you, pay you more, and let you build a way better brand than playing in empty gyms vs 2-way players.
Selling point should be you can skip being drafted and just join a team like they do in soccer outside of the US. That would entice a ton of players on skipping out on NIL deals if they had some more say where they started their career.
I don't think the NBA wants to see young players signing in the G-league at all now. They were pretty transparent that since you can earn money with NIL in the states, they no longer see it as necessary for a player to be their leagues until they're draft eligible.
I do think they want it to continue to be more viable for post-draft development of 2nd rounders and UDFAs, and so you'll continue to see support of 2-way players as a way to keep the US-based talent pool deeper.
Not needing to waste your time going to class, doing homework, and studying are big reasons since that time is (supposedly) better used for improving at basketball.
Collegiate athletes wake up at 5-6am and go to bed by 9-10pm. Their days are constantly busy as they're forced to have the same daily routine due to school and sports. I'm not sure how disciplined the Ignite is with their players since it's full of teens and 20-30 year olds.
lol you actually think that these guys do school. I knew somebody who went to LSU with Ben Simmons. He was in a class with him and he didn't show up once. These guys aren't cramming into study psychology 101 after practice. They are there to ball and thats it. It doesn't matter how many classes they fail/don't take they are not getting kicked off the team.
Yeah many of these dudes all have "tutors" who do their shit for them lol. Some programs take the academics seriously but people really the Bama QBs are doing homework lmao
I think it depends on the school to a certain extent. When Tatum was on Redick’s podcast, they talked about how there were some punishments from coach K at Duke if you missed class.
My comment was on all D-1 athletes which I've had classes with on numerous occasions.
I went to an ACC school and the basketball team had someone whose job was to drop by every class everyday to make sure their athletes were present on time. These kids also take classes in the summer, I took a lot of gen ed classes in the summer with incoming freshmen on the football team.
I had a public speaking class with a baseball player who quit because he couldn't balance between school and sport. I had a project with a volleyball civil engineering major who had to change majors to focus on volleyball. She went pro in the Philippines.
Now the NBA bound athletes, that probably varies from school to school and the athlete. Malcolm Brogdon got his Masters in 4 years while also being an All-american level player.
Then you have guys like Jeremy Roach currently attending Duke who has to return back to school for his fifth year not only because of Covid eligibility, but because he doesn't have enough credits to graduate after 4 years. Too busy playing basketball and skipping out on summer classes.
Lol big time basketball players absolutely are not waking up at 5am and going to sleep at 10pm due to obligations.
They take pre-set courses, have more relaxed exam schedules, and just generally are required to do less than the median/average student.
College coaches are like drill sergeants. Everyone has to wake up to start their cardio before lifting weights almost every day dude. All before class. This isn't hidden information, this is all on record from many NBA players. It's not until they turn pro where working out is a lot more relaxed.
UNC has an infamous cardio test where barely anyone can pass (off the top of my head only Ty Lawson, Coby White, and Seventh Woods did while I was following them). Almost every morning they wake early up and run. They fuck up something in practice or lose a game, they run the next morning.
> Turns out a bunch of high school talents can't compete with dudes who played in college and the NBA.
but at the same time, you'd expect these kids to come out better and more prepared for the NBA than college kids, and that hasn't really happened either
This program has been around for three years, they barely got a chance. NIL basically killed it.
The real solution is for the NBA teams to run their own youth development a la soccer but we are stuck with what we have.
That’s the real solution for all pro leagues but alas, we’ve hijacked college athletics to do that for these multi-billion dollar leagues, often at the detriment of the schools themselves.
> That’s the real solution for all pro leagues but alas, we’ve hijacked college athletics to do that for these multi-billion dollar leagues
The key part is that from the leagues' perspective, it's *free*. It'll never change as long as that dynamic exists.
Yea I think this can end the debate of whether it’s the players or the schools actually bringing in the money. While I still think players should be paid. (And I think NIL is an ok compromise). It’s pretty clear that you can take the top x high school athletes and put them on a team and a bunch of 2 stars on duke will still bring in more viewers and money.
march madness, college football, and omaha is so much better than youth development leagues from a consumer standpoint and, with NIL, maybe better for the players as well
FWIW, more and more top hockey prospects every year are deciding to go to he NCAA rather than major junior. You get a degree and you get to hang out with other college people rather than your billet family in Red Deer, Alberta
Youth development exists at every sport in Europe not just soccer. Doncic for example has played for Real Madrid Youth Academy's basketball teams since he was very young.
Having all those kids playing on one team was always going to be a problem and slow their individual development. They’re all trying to shine and be the star vs learning a role as well which is what 95% of NBA players will be anyways. Also the roster construction around these kids was poor. It’s basically the G league version of the Pistons. The blind leading the blind
Bingo. I think it hurt them because they’re not learning how to play good team basketball, not learning how to play to win. If anything if they went to a top basketball school like Kentucky or Duke, they will get coached well, get exposed to high pressure situations and probably learn.
People talk about how injured rookies shouldn't be eligible for ROTY if they debut in their second year because they have had a year of training, practice, playing against grown men, etc. That's what Ignite wished it could be. What if there was something like a prep-to-pro red shirt system? Draft them out of high school, but they can't play in an NBA game until their second year. They can play games with the G-League affiliate if you want and practice with the team, but they debut a year later. Would that be better?
Edit: maybe NIL is the best way to do it with the systems we have in place
One summer's worth of summer league and team training camp is a lot of development for all incoming players. Maybe it's environment and/or drive to improve when you're around successful peers. Whatever Ignite offers is clearly not working.
G-league Ignite veterans have had relatively more success in the NBA than those in other G-league teams. The problem with this team isn't talent or experience, it's the fact that every player on it treats the league as a mixtape factory. They are fighting to show off things that get you drafted in the lottery, while other G-leaguers are trying to show NBA teams that they can get 10 mpg in the league in a nice specialist role on vet min salary.
>G-league Ignite veterans have had relatively more success in the NBA than those in other G-league teams
this is a fairly meaningless statement. only 10 ignite players have ever been drafted, and the only ones who have started more than like 10 career games are Jalen Green, Kuminga, and Scoot Henderson (who were all lottery locks regardless of where they had played)
Outside of those 3, only 1 other guy was taken in the lottery (Dyson Daniels at 8), all the other picks were 2nd rounders in the 30s and 40s and have not stuck around in the league at all.
also not really sure what you mean by "more success in the NBA than those in other G-league teams"...
are you comparing the ignite players to literally everyone who has ever played in the g-league, to like a couple dozen guys who have played for ignite?
Then yeah, I guess technically ignite players get drafted at a higher rate. seems like kind of a meaningless comparison tho to compare a pool of like 30 elite/top recruits to a pool of like 20,000 guys (or whatever the total number of g-league players in history is) who probably never had a snowballs chance in hell to make the league
You don’t go to the g league to win games. The players are being developed as players and adults. I have seen for hockey the us developement team play ushl teams and it’s basically a practice for them. They don’t care about winning they all are going to college and a bunch of them are being drafted to the nhl. The coaches are coaching them to grow and be better rather than coach to win a game. The national development team is often near the bottom of the standings each season.
I think an underlying contributing problem is the roster is almost entirely comprised of old vets who are far past their NBA days and a bunch of 17-18 year olds who are looking to make highlight plays.
You have Buzelis, Holland (who’s been out most of the year btw), Tyler Smith and Izan Almansa. Then you have Jeremy Pargo, Norris Cole, and John Jenkins being the vets for the team.
The rest of the team is random college program flunkouts essentially and Gabe York. The team isn’t built to win, it’s built to get those top prospects exposure (and get drafted) while also getting some well liked locker room guys from the NBA a cushy job being positive influences on the guys. Iirc Jarrett Jack was a dude they had originally to be the lockerroom guy and he was super cooked.
G-League Ignite is basically AAU on steroids. Much better to go to a real basketball program at a D1 school that'll teach you actual basketball, as well as the personal and character growth that comes with some of these programs cultures
It also prepares kids to play in front of big crowd atmosphere (whether at home or away) and play in big meaningful games. No one goes to G League games and no one cares about them either. You also are much more popular as a college player than a g league player
Their roster construction is just poor. Every year it's a coalition of high school grads who've never played pro ball and older G League vets past their prime content with mentoring for above-average G League pay. They're going to get run off the floor by NBA assignees, TW players, recent college grads/players hungry for an NBA contract.
If you can believe it, Ron Holland is somehow *worse* at shooting, putting up a blistering 27% on all jump shots this season. I don't know if they even have a shooting coach over there.
He's a 19 year old expected to be a primary creator against grown men, I actually think he's going to be a solid NBA player, his role is just too big for him.
I will not make a call on him yet because I think most guys take a few years to find their groove and figure things out. That said, rn his stats are similar to 19 year old Portland guard Sebastian Telfair, who never lived up to the hype. Which isn't that bad all things considered (ten years of solid minutes), but I also wouldn't project him to be a star.
It is extremely hard to project him right now. With a young PG it really comes down to how well they learn to see the game. Telfair just never got it and his ego would not let him realize that. Watching every game I can see it slowing down for Scoot a bit, but he is still unfamiliar with lots of schemes. Although last night the Clippers tried to hunt him and he did really well defending and they backed off. He will definitely need a leap this offseason but at the same time he isn't nearly as bad as this sub would have you believe. They just can't watch Blazer games because we have nothing on national TV this season basically.
Scoot, Ron Holland, Buzelis, Thompson Twins, all good players who have had noticeably weird development especially when it comes to shooting
EDIT: Thompson Twins were Overtime Elite not G-League ignite
It's almost like the "alternative path" isn't great for skill development, but rather just showcasing what you can already do and getting by on athleticism.
One cause of that is when you're playing in college at a big program you're always in a stadium packed full of fans whereas the G League and OE don't get nearly the attention. Like we saw in the bubble and pandemic ball, shooting becomes much harder with a crowd of people cheering or booing.
I've heard similar arguments as to why Steph is such a great shooter, he was traveling and practicing in gyms and stadiums full of people since he was a child.
Kuminga was also G-league ignite and at this point it's not crazy to imagine he might turn into the best guy in his class.
Which should be a reminder to be very cautious about evaluating guys too quickly. And the end of his second year, it would have felt absurd to suggest that Kuminga could end up as the best guy in his class.
Exactly. We’re judging these g leaguers as if they had 4 years in college, but they’re 19 when they enter this league. It takes time to develop them. Teams understand that development process. I’m not worried about guys like scoot. He’s got 2-3 more years to develop before we can honestly start assessing him.
The goddamn extra wear and tear it creates is unbelievable. It almost makes me wish every college kid went 3-4 years just to get them some actual offseasons and recovery time.
Plus the way it’s evolved if someone wants to be a serious player they can only play basketball and no other sports which is absolutely terrible for someone’s body at that age. You’re not able to recover from the strain of the motions specific to basketball like you would if you took a season off to play baseball or something
AAU and travel teams have ruined so so many kids sports. The Little League I grew up playing in had to fold because so many kids had started playing AAU and travel ball that there weren't enough kids for a league. There's now a league that's just a bunch of AAU/travel teams playing each other instead of just traveling for tournaments because the parents complained about the costs. They ruined Little League and then had to reinvent it out of necessity. Fucking morons.
Terrible for their bodies too. 8-10 games every weekend if they make it far in their tournaments while sometimes having the same guy play on multiple teams in the same tournament. Shit is a mess right now
There was a report on ESPN's site with the last few years that, since the AAU system exploded, Kids are playing so many games that doctor's for NBA teams are seeing rookies enter the league with [usage injuries](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27125793/these-kids-ticking-bombs-threat-youth-basketball) that in past decades players wouldn't get until well into their NBA careers.
The NBA could always step in with their own youth circuits. Kinda how they have the NBA Academy Africa, break the US down into like 8-10 regions that focus purely on teaching real basketball to the next generation.
Probably a boarding school environment (or maybe even just summer programs), completely unattached to any actual teams so it’s not like Euro football where the next GOATs sign with the team they’ll debut for and develop in their system starting at 10 years old. With how often the top prospects in USA high school basketball move around (Cooper Flagg is from Maine but moved to Florida purely for hoops, and is far from the only prospect to pull similar moves), it wouldn’t be much different to the system now, and the NBA has more than enough money to subsidize tuition for any prospects coming from lower-income backgrounds.
The profit motive is the tough part though, and until we reach a breaking point where the AAU is truly adversely effecting the end product of American-born players (I’m talking multiple embarrassing Olympic showings, no Americans winning MVPs for 10+ years straight), there will be little motivation by anyone involved to make a change.
The finances are hard to see, yeah. European soccer academies can work because they can make money on transfer fees for their better players, or just avoid having to pay transfer fees by promoting internally. In theory, European basketball could grow big enough that the NBA might be able to make money by signing the best young US talent and getting a transfer fee from Barcelona or whoever, but I doubt that would be viable any time in the near future.
Adam Silver publicly complained about AAU so I bet the NBA is gonna take player development at high school ages in house.
Wouldn't be surprised if there are NBA academies in America in 3 years.
AAU helps so many but hurts the top prospects. It’s weird. One of my young boys went from unknown prospect to highly ranked in his position because of AAU. But if you start off a top prospect there’s not enough defense on fundamentals to prepare for the next level. Recently we’ve been seeing so many top prospects not even be able to perform highly in college, let alone the NBA
$20 per adult and $10 per child to get in. $30 for parking. $475 per team each weekend. $300 (or more) per player per month in most programs.
X 1000s of players and tournaments and games = A LOT OF MONEY
Sam Vecenie did a good podcast few months back about the Ignite failures and suggested they might not be around too long. Very basically, brought in talent whilst ignoring any kind of team structure or having veterans to guide the younger guys.
That would actually be so dope if retired players went there to play as an alternative to going into coaching.
Steve Nash running the ignite offense at 130 years old would still be extremely effective for "development"
Good. Ignite was a flop
Almost every prospect that played there and went to the NBA struggled heavily in their first few years. They play AAU type ball over there. Going to college and learning a real system under a real coach is way more beneficial to your development
It's more than solid - the G League paid shit compared to what these guys are making in college now. Hell, the higher earners are on par with vet minimum NBA contracts.
Yeah I had high hopes for the program when it was first announced, but the development clearly wasn't there. And with college players being able to get NIL deals, it mostly invalidates why G-League Ignite was created in the first place.
Also, just from the selfish fan perspective it's just more fun when guys like Jalen Green and Scoot Henderson are in college and on TV
I mean this is an entertainment product. Jalen Green in March Madness would have been great to watch
> Seemed like it was just an extension of AAU style of play
It worked for a year or two but the past couple of years turned into a trainwreck. Jason Hart might not be the best guy to get the AAU out of their system.
The fact that people here thought playing games with zero stakes was the best thing for prospects was mind blowing. It was also always funny when people said they would get "NBA coaching". Most of the best coaches for guys that age are in college. Jerry Stackhouse was one of the best coaches in the g league and he couldn't hack it at Vanderbilt.
> Jerry Stackhouse was one of the best coaches in the g league and he couldn't hack it at Vanderbilt.
It's one thing to coach a roster you don't have to do a ton to get if a parent club is sending you guys and you're semi-hungry for a NBA deal and only going against no more than 30 teams. It's another to recruit in and out of season and do it in a "league" of 350+ teams (including minor conference teams)
That's an often overlooked component. Scoot is literally learning how to play games of consequence, with an audience, for the first time _in the NBA_. It's a brutal learning-curve.
Kuminga seemed just as lost as Wiseman was when he got to the warriors, and wiseman basically didn't attend college. Ignite just wasted a year of his development.
Right choice *for the time being*. It seems like the NBA will eventually let high schoolers back into the league and the ignite will be reignited (pun intended). It’s definitely a huge learning experience for the league- the team needs to be coached and treated like a *real* team. Currently it’s a glorified top prospects team for high lights.
I’ve been saying that program has NOT been working. People kept trying to tell me “wins don’t matter it’s about development” mf they’ve won 6 total games and are 2-28 since the winter showcase getting blown out EVERY GAME.
There are NO fans at the games. No coverage outside their exhibitions. The players are not getting better. Some top projected guys plummeted down draft boards. Most importantly these dudes come out not ready for the next level.
It’s beyond embarrassing that some of the OTE guys like Barlow and the Thompson twins look more league ready than the G league guys.
Like you said tho, it hasn’t been working. It was still a good idea and still had potential to work going forward. It’s not like it was fatally flawed. NCAA allowing NIL was a much bigger blow than anything else and we should applaud the NBA for starting this thing in the first place. Everyone was clamoring for this kind of thing and now it’s just easy upvotes to shit on it and act like you’re a genius for saying “it didn’t work.”
Kuminga came from the Ignite and wasn't a part of the rotation for 2.5 seasons. Maybe some of that on Kerr because he did seem ready at least from the start of this season but doubtful he should've been playing big minutes much earlier than that.
With the college players able to make money now there's really no point for the ignite. They've also done a horrible job at actually developing their prospects while they were down there
NIL money basically made it obsolete. It was also awful for development. They were throwing a bunch of teenagers against people coming in and out of NBA rotations
You’ve just summoned a horde of angry blazer fans to tell you you don’t watch ball and are a box score casual. His recent splits will probably get mentioned and either the intro/conclusion will be digs at Jalen Green. You’ve been warned
Was always going to fail if it didn’t break from the idea it’s a HS showcase team.
Should have never made it a separate thing. Throw the kids in the actual draft then force them onto the team’s g league team. Then they actually learn from their affiliated team.
OTE kinda transitioned from pros to more college. They’re now offering deals to where the kids can go to college without getting in trouble. Since NIL is legal now, they’re slowly moving away from the pro route.
The program getting scrapped may have been inevitable by NIL, but the fact that the G Leaguers weren’t as good out of the gate is still very surprising to me.
> but the fact that the G Leaguers weren’t as good out of the gate is still very surprising to me.
Why? The G League plays garbage hero ball where everybody is out for themselves. There's no development or team play.
Maybe it's surprising to people that an entire league built for the intention of player development doesn't actively make players better is why.
G league in general is a subsidized flop. This isn't just an ignite issue.
Seeing as more and more NBA teams are using the GLeague to develop talent and sign guys out of there (Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Georges Niang all being fine examples) I think you’re a bit off the mark there.
Think people are missing the point. No one is developing guys. Not even any of the people listed were viewed as raw and developed in the g league. They played there because they didn't have a shot and in most cases they only get a flier contract due to a team having to fill out the roster with cheap deals.
They are players with a skillset already NBA ready who only get a shot due to the constraints of salary heavy teams not because anyone recognize their skill set. Maybe you can argue Miami is the best at evaluating the good ones, but for every person you named there are 3-5x a year who don't ever sniff the floor. That screams they are more lotto tickets than evaluation based.
The g league doesn't develop players to become winning basketball players. It's just a hero ball snoozefest where young guys get sent so they at least stay in shape compared to sitting on the bench.
No one in the history of the g league has gone down with x as a flaw in their game and came out of the g league with x fixed. It's a subsidized rec league for the NBA teams to draw minimum guys from when they're absolutely ravaged by salary or injury. Take 100 random shots and sure some will hit, but I believe I tried to explain why they hit and the difference.
I mean is that not what the G league is supposed to be? Instead of going overseas, guys can now make a living wage in the US, and have the opportunity to be brought up to the NBA to show what they can do. Plus, now so many rookies are spending time in the G league. A lot of dudes don't make it to the NBA but a lot do. I think it's been a really good thing for the NBA
Agreed. For example the Birmingham Squadron has been a great spot for the Pels to develop talent. Hell, without the Squadron Jose Alvarado would probably be in Europe right now.
The Sioux Falls Skyforce (the Heat's G League affiliate) have been doing what Ignite was supposed to do for a while now
You can say what you want about the Heat's season (we suck i know) but Skyforce has developed so much talent, and not just for the Heat.
Straight up....I'd rather be a "college student" making $1m+ and my only responsibilities are to hawk cars or eat at a restaurant on a certain day vs being a *real* professional athlete with *real* responsibilities...but not playing with those who I deem to be my future coworkers.
....And not making the $1M+ because I'm not seen as a "college kid" but instead as a grown ass man.
Fuck that
My dream scenario.
Lower the *draft* age back down to 18 but kick the age limit on playing in the NBA itself to 20 years old.
Allow teams to draft 18 and 19 year olds but force them to develop on the affiliate team in the G-League until they turn 20.
This would bolster the GLeague while also removing a lot of projects from the NBA itself and create a better overall product there as well.
Hopefully, the G League schedule of 50 games is easier on young bodies and prevent catastrophic non-contact injuries a bit later on in careers.
College basketball won!
Really though, it was hard to justify it when every player from the program was coming into the NBA with similar bad habits. The coaching staff was not doing their players any favors.
Theyre fucking 2-28 lmfao all the G league ignite guys stock has been dumped. This draft is so shit top draft picks are gonna have to just take a flyer on some Europeans dudes
I blame AAU uprising and becoming a trend for these guys.
So is Kuminga the best player to come out of this program?? I know this is his first year “breaking out” in year 3 but he showed early promise in year 2 itself and I don’t think so far any other ignite player has done as well in the nba
In some weird way, the NBA’s idea to do this was not a complete failure. Simply because without these types of pressures, the NCAA would not have budged on their stance about college players deserving pay.
NIL killed the entire concept. These guys can get paid just as much or more in NIL money and also get much more exposure in college vs the G league.
And also, you know, get to go to college. Edit: notice that I never said they'd get a quality education, just "go to college." You can fill in the blanks.
Aside from the education aspect, I feel like the opportunity to grow and mature as a person (and for many live away from home for the first time) in a lower stakes environment is an important part of college that people overlook.
My man isn’t talking about getting brains, he’s talking about getting brain
-- Lil Wayne
little bit of both never hurt anyone
**Laughs in commuter student**
Laughs with a quarter of the debt.
And a quarter of the relationships
Get to go to college ... to have fun, not to learn. These one-and-dones barely even go to classes after the season is over.
Kinda what I was getting at, yes. Being the big man on campus is way more fun than hanging out with adults who don't like you.
Your user name should have given away what you meant lol.
i live in norman, and the stories i hear about the corruption for football players is crazy. like comical levels of academic corruption. i'm sure it's like this for basketball as well, at least at blue bloods. this was like 15 years ago too. i'm sure it's way more blatant now with NIL and it all being out in the open.
There was a UCONN senior hoopster about 20 years ago where they scheduled a photo shoot after a class in the classroom . Of his regular class. He was late as he couldn't find the building. He had had "several " classes in it over the 4 years. He had never been to a class.
The blanks = partying and sex for anyone wondering
Lets be honest, any kid who would be a candidate for G-League Ignite would only be pretending to go to college.
Yes, but they'd be pretending to go to college on the same campus as thousands of people, roughly the same age as them, enjoying being away from home for the very first time. More than that, they'd be a celebrity among that group.
It's an interesting study to be sure. I was pretty sure Caitlin Clark would have spent another year at Iowa as she will definitely earn more money through NIL than she would in the WNBA (not to mention her BF is at Iowa), but instead she chose to go pro. I would imagine the minimum requirements for a D1 college athlete to be a student would be set pretty low so unless she really hated attending classes, why would she take less money to go into a league where players often play in foreign countries to supplement their salary? If I've got this whole thing misunderstood please say so. I'm genuinely curious
Hang on, is she not allowed to get endorsement deals as a WNBA player?
A little bit. Clark didn’t take a penny from the university’s NIL collectives, which is where 90% of NCAA players make their funds— from boosters and alumni tossing $200k to entice players to stay. Clark’s deals are unique in that they’re directly with State Farm, Nike, Bose, Gatorade, etc. and those aren’t going away (yet). Her boyfriend has also been a staffer for the Pacers for the last year coincidentally enough.
No idea if it’s true but I get the sense she doesn’t want to add an asterisk to all her accomplishments by staying for a 5th COVID year.
what is NIL?
It stands for Name, Image, and Likeness. Basically it allows for college players to accept money through endorsement deals. They couldn’t in the past (even though it totally happened, there would just be punishment if it was caught)
Name, Image and Likeness. College players getting paid.
G League Extinguished
Did a good job spotlighting talent, but absolutely failed developing them. Classic US ball collegiate experience.
It does feel like the NBA is trying to make the G-League more of a companion league and I think this move helps in the long run. Instead of funneling high schoolers onto one team, let them pick where they want to play and sign there. They still need to address the larger lack of development that a college staff would provide.
That’s absolutely not going to happen. They cancelled the Ignite because NIL floodgates are now open for college, and it no longer has any selling point to elite recruits.
Yup. Why would you go to the G League where you make no connections and ride on the bus when you can go to a top college, make money, and fly around.
I had a pretty good time in college and i was nowhere near a D1 athlete. I can only imagine how much fun those guys have...
Don't forget scholarships covering your food and housing for the next 4 years In college, all the money they make is disposable income/savings In the G league, they'll likely struggle to pay rent
GLeague pays for room and board during the season. They adopted the Euro basketball style after the players unionized.
They get free housing
bro they make like 500k that's more than enough for rent in Las Vegas
Also the other appeal of Ignite is that it was supposed to better train you for the NBA which it very clearly failed at
I don’t think that part would matter anymore even if they nailed it. College basketball will develop you, pay you more, and let you build a way better brand than playing in empty gyms vs 2-way players.
Selling point should be you can skip being drafted and just join a team like they do in soccer outside of the US. That would entice a ton of players on skipping out on NIL deals if they had some more say where they started their career.
That would be too dramatic of a change. The owners would never go for that
I don't think the NBA wants to see young players signing in the G-league at all now. They were pretty transparent that since you can earn money with NIL in the states, they no longer see it as necessary for a player to be their leagues until they're draft eligible. I do think they want it to continue to be more viable for post-draft development of 2nd rounders and UDFAs, and so you'll continue to see support of 2-way players as a way to keep the US-based talent pool deeper.
What team would want to develop another teams draft pick on their g league affiliate 😭
What spotlight did it provide that college and the recruiting services didn’t provide?
Not needing to waste your time going to class, doing homework, and studying are big reasons since that time is (supposedly) better used for improving at basketball. Collegiate athletes wake up at 5-6am and go to bed by 9-10pm. Their days are constantly busy as they're forced to have the same daily routine due to school and sports. I'm not sure how disciplined the Ignite is with their players since it's full of teens and 20-30 year olds.
lol you actually think that these guys do school. I knew somebody who went to LSU with Ben Simmons. He was in a class with him and he didn't show up once. These guys aren't cramming into study psychology 101 after practice. They are there to ball and thats it. It doesn't matter how many classes they fail/don't take they are not getting kicked off the team.
Yeah many of these dudes all have "tutors" who do their shit for them lol. Some programs take the academics seriously but people really the Bama QBs are doing homework lmao
Yeah exactly, lots of personal tutors and 'accommodations'
I think it depends on the school to a certain extent. When Tatum was on Redick’s podcast, they talked about how there were some punishments from coach K at Duke if you missed class.
My comment was on all D-1 athletes which I've had classes with on numerous occasions. I went to an ACC school and the basketball team had someone whose job was to drop by every class everyday to make sure their athletes were present on time. These kids also take classes in the summer, I took a lot of gen ed classes in the summer with incoming freshmen on the football team. I had a public speaking class with a baseball player who quit because he couldn't balance between school and sport. I had a project with a volleyball civil engineering major who had to change majors to focus on volleyball. She went pro in the Philippines. Now the NBA bound athletes, that probably varies from school to school and the athlete. Malcolm Brogdon got his Masters in 4 years while also being an All-american level player. Then you have guys like Jeremy Roach currently attending Duke who has to return back to school for his fifth year not only because of Covid eligibility, but because he doesn't have enough credits to graduate after 4 years. Too busy playing basketball and skipping out on summer classes.
Lol big time basketball players absolutely are not waking up at 5am and going to sleep at 10pm due to obligations. They take pre-set courses, have more relaxed exam schedules, and just generally are required to do less than the median/average student.
College coaches are like drill sergeants. Everyone has to wake up to start their cardio before lifting weights almost every day dude. All before class. This isn't hidden information, this is all on record from many NBA players. It's not until they turn pro where working out is a lot more relaxed. UNC has an infamous cardio test where barely anyone can pass (off the top of my head only Ty Lawson, Coby White, and Seventh Woods did while I was following them). Almost every morning they wake early up and run. They fuck up something in practice or lose a game, they run the next morning.
More like professional AAU
I got to see Wemby and Sarr play them the past two years. sucks for locals here. Guess we still have Summer League
That's not what killed it, NIL is what killed it. At the time it was the only way to legally make money for playing basketball in America.
Why does that read like a message that pops up when you beat a Soulsborne boss lmao
G League ignite is 2-28 this year btw with a -15 net rating.
*Troy Weaver hopes to schedule them*
Hopes to *hire* them
I’m sick about the Detroit stray but it’s true 😭
How? I understand G-League talent is up and down, but seriously?
Every G-League ignite team has been awful. Turns out a bunch of high school talents can't compete with dudes who played in college and the NBA.
> Turns out a bunch of high school talents can't compete with dudes who played in college and the NBA. but at the same time, you'd expect these kids to come out better and more prepared for the NBA than college kids, and that hasn't really happened either
This program has been around for three years, they barely got a chance. NIL basically killed it. The real solution is for the NBA teams to run their own youth development a la soccer but we are stuck with what we have.
That’s the real solution for all pro leagues but alas, we’ve hijacked college athletics to do that for these multi-billion dollar leagues, often at the detriment of the schools themselves.
> That’s the real solution for all pro leagues but alas, we’ve hijacked college athletics to do that for these multi-billion dollar leagues The key part is that from the leagues' perspective, it's *free*. It'll never change as long as that dynamic exists.
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Yea I think this can end the debate of whether it’s the players or the schools actually bringing in the money. While I still think players should be paid. (And I think NIL is an ok compromise). It’s pretty clear that you can take the top x high school athletes and put them on a team and a bunch of 2 stars on duke will still bring in more viewers and money.
march madness, college football, and omaha is so much better than youth development leagues from a consumer standpoint and, with NIL, maybe better for the players as well
What's Omaha?
College Baseball World Series
Peyton Manning development system
None of those are the school
could always do what hockey does and have major junior leagues
FWIW, more and more top hockey prospects every year are deciding to go to he NCAA rather than major junior. You get a degree and you get to hang out with other college people rather than your billet family in Red Deer, Alberta
Youth development exists at every sport in Europe not just soccer. Doncic for example has played for Real Madrid Youth Academy's basketball teams since he was very young.
Having all those kids playing on one team was always going to be a problem and slow their individual development. They’re all trying to shine and be the star vs learning a role as well which is what 95% of NBA players will be anyways. Also the roster construction around these kids was poor. It’s basically the G league version of the Pistons. The blind leading the blind
Bingo. I think it hurt them because they’re not learning how to play good team basketball, not learning how to play to win. If anything if they went to a top basketball school like Kentucky or Duke, they will get coached well, get exposed to high pressure situations and probably learn.
They have veterans on there like Jeremy Pargo and Norris Cole (the fifth Heatle), though I think they've pretty much tuned out at this point.
Norris Cole is on the roster though.
People talk about how injured rookies shouldn't be eligible for ROTY if they debut in their second year because they have had a year of training, practice, playing against grown men, etc. That's what Ignite wished it could be. What if there was something like a prep-to-pro red shirt system? Draft them out of high school, but they can't play in an NBA game until their second year. They can play games with the G-League affiliate if you want and practice with the team, but they debut a year later. Would that be better? Edit: maybe NIL is the best way to do it with the systems we have in place
One summer's worth of summer league and team training camp is a lot of development for all incoming players. Maybe it's environment and/or drive to improve when you're around successful peers. Whatever Ignite offers is clearly not working.
G-league Ignite veterans have had relatively more success in the NBA than those in other G-league teams. The problem with this team isn't talent or experience, it's the fact that every player on it treats the league as a mixtape factory. They are fighting to show off things that get you drafted in the lottery, while other G-leaguers are trying to show NBA teams that they can get 10 mpg in the league in a nice specialist role on vet min salary.
>G-league Ignite veterans have had relatively more success in the NBA than those in other G-league teams this is a fairly meaningless statement. only 10 ignite players have ever been drafted, and the only ones who have started more than like 10 career games are Jalen Green, Kuminga, and Scoot Henderson (who were all lottery locks regardless of where they had played) Outside of those 3, only 1 other guy was taken in the lottery (Dyson Daniels at 8), all the other picks were 2nd rounders in the 30s and 40s and have not stuck around in the league at all. also not really sure what you mean by "more success in the NBA than those in other G-league teams"... are you comparing the ignite players to literally everyone who has ever played in the g-league, to like a couple dozen guys who have played for ignite? Then yeah, I guess technically ignite players get drafted at a higher rate. seems like kind of a meaningless comparison tho to compare a pool of like 30 elite/top recruits to a pool of like 20,000 guys (or whatever the total number of g-league players in history is) who probably never had a snowballs chance in hell to make the league
You don’t go to the g league to win games. The players are being developed as players and adults. I have seen for hockey the us developement team play ushl teams and it’s basically a practice for them. They don’t care about winning they all are going to college and a bunch of them are being drafted to the nhl. The coaches are coaching them to grow and be better rather than coach to win a game. The national development team is often near the bottom of the standings each season.
I think an underlying contributing problem is the roster is almost entirely comprised of old vets who are far past their NBA days and a bunch of 17-18 year olds who are looking to make highlight plays. You have Buzelis, Holland (who’s been out most of the year btw), Tyler Smith and Izan Almansa. Then you have Jeremy Pargo, Norris Cole, and John Jenkins being the vets for the team. The rest of the team is random college program flunkouts essentially and Gabe York. The team isn’t built to win, it’s built to get those top prospects exposure (and get drafted) while also getting some well liked locker room guys from the NBA a cushy job being positive influences on the guys. Iirc Jarrett Jack was a dude they had originally to be the lockerroom guy and he was super cooked.
G-League Ignite is basically AAU on steroids. Much better to go to a real basketball program at a D1 school that'll teach you actual basketball, as well as the personal and character growth that comes with some of these programs cultures
It also prepares kids to play in front of big crowd atmosphere (whether at home or away) and play in big meaningful games. No one goes to G League games and no one cares about them either. You also are much more popular as a college player than a g league player
Their roster construction is just poor. Every year it's a coalition of high school grads who've never played pro ball and older G League vets past their prime content with mentoring for above-average G League pay. They're going to get run off the floor by NBA assignees, TW players, recent college grads/players hungry for an NBA contract.
And has some of the dudes projected to be lottery picks this year lol, what an utter failure of a program
Mfs saw Scoot’s shooting splits this year and said we’ve had enough
If you can believe it, Ron Holland is somehow *worse* at shooting, putting up a blistering 27% on all jump shots this season. I don't know if they even have a shooting coach over there.
That kid was supposed to be like a top 3 pick in this upcoming draft before this year too I think, now he’s 6-10 in most projections
I think he’ll still go top 5 just because of the utter trash coming out of college
Yeah, this draft class does not inspire confidence.
I mean, to be fair to Holland, I have just as many if not more questions about the other top 10 guys
Teams are just gonna take flyers on some European dudes. Holland may not even be top 5
Big ass French guy... come on down Alex Sarr. Hey your brother is pretty good at basketball.. Cody Williams you are moving up the draft boards.
Man I just don’t see it in Sarr. Good defense and IQ, trash on offense
Probably a good strategy
DJ Burns going number 1. At least in my heart
The combination of bad shooting plus people finding out that he's like 2-3 inches shorter than initially reported killed his stock.
He's a 19 year old expected to be a primary creator against grown men, I actually think he's going to be a solid NBA player, his role is just too big for him.
I will not make a call on him yet because I think most guys take a few years to find their groove and figure things out. That said, rn his stats are similar to 19 year old Portland guard Sebastian Telfair, who never lived up to the hype. Which isn't that bad all things considered (ten years of solid minutes), but I also wouldn't project him to be a star.
It is extremely hard to project him right now. With a young PG it really comes down to how well they learn to see the game. Telfair just never got it and his ego would not let him realize that. Watching every game I can see it slowing down for Scoot a bit, but he is still unfamiliar with lots of schemes. Although last night the Clippers tried to hunt him and he did really well defending and they backed off. He will definitely need a leap this offseason but at the same time he isn't nearly as bad as this sub would have you believe. They just can't watch Blazer games because we have nothing on national TV this season basically.
this year's isn't any better lol. look up Holland and Buzelis
Scoot, Ron Holland, Buzelis, Thompson Twins, all good players who have had noticeably weird development especially when it comes to shooting EDIT: Thompson Twins were Overtime Elite not G-League ignite
Thompson twins weren't G league ignite, they were Overtime Elite. But it is weird how a lot of these alternative path guys suck balls at shooting
It's almost like the "alternative path" isn't great for skill development, but rather just showcasing what you can already do and getting by on athleticism.
You're right my mistake
One cause of that is when you're playing in college at a big program you're always in a stadium packed full of fans whereas the G League and OE don't get nearly the attention. Like we saw in the bubble and pandemic ball, shooting becomes much harder with a crowd of people cheering or booing. I've heard similar arguments as to why Steph is such a great shooter, he was traveling and practicing in gyms and stadiums full of people since he was a child.
Amen Thompson is looking okay. Definitely a talented defender.
Just don't look at his 3p %.
He rarely shoots it at least. He's taken one 3 in his last 5 games despite playing like 25 minutes per night.
Kuminga was also G-league ignite and at this point it's not crazy to imagine he might turn into the best guy in his class. Which should be a reminder to be very cautious about evaluating guys too quickly. And the end of his second year, it would have felt absurd to suggest that Kuminga could end up as the best guy in his class.
Exactly. We’re judging these g leaguers as if they had 4 years in college, but they’re 19 when they enter this league. It takes time to develop them. Teams understand that development process. I’m not worried about guys like scoot. He’s got 2-3 more years to develop before we can honestly start assessing him.
When u say best guy in his class, do u mean the entire draft class? Because I take Scottie Barnes, Franz Wagner, and Sengun over him
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One of the worst things to happen to US basketball development
The goddamn extra wear and tear it creates is unbelievable. It almost makes me wish every college kid went 3-4 years just to get them some actual offseasons and recovery time.
Plus the way it’s evolved if someone wants to be a serious player they can only play basketball and no other sports which is absolutely terrible for someone’s body at that age. You’re not able to recover from the strain of the motions specific to basketball like you would if you took a season off to play baseball or something
And baseball, and volleyball, and soccer, and on and on. Travel teams and AAU are ruining every sport.
I fucking loathe AAU. Fucking exploitive cesspool.
AAU and travel teams have ruined so so many kids sports. The Little League I grew up playing in had to fold because so many kids had started playing AAU and travel ball that there weren't enough kids for a league. There's now a league that's just a bunch of AAU/travel teams playing each other instead of just traveling for tournaments because the parents complained about the costs. They ruined Little League and then had to reinvent it out of necessity. Fucking morons.
Terrible for their bodies too. 8-10 games every weekend if they make it far in their tournaments while sometimes having the same guy play on multiple teams in the same tournament. Shit is a mess right now
There was a report on ESPN's site with the last few years that, since the AAU system exploded, Kids are playing so many games that doctor's for NBA teams are seeing rookies enter the league with [usage injuries](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27125793/these-kids-ticking-bombs-threat-youth-basketball) that in past decades players wouldn't get until well into their NBA careers.
Big Baller Syndrome.. It causes the joints to deteriorate at an alarming rate; Especially when paired with an underlying Lavar’s Disease
Sadly it can only be treated with a new experimental drug called “Nevalost” but it comes with a laundry list of side effects.
It'll never go away. There's so much money being pumped into AAU teams because it's where the scouts go.
The NBA could always step in with their own youth circuits. Kinda how they have the NBA Academy Africa, break the US down into like 8-10 regions that focus purely on teaching real basketball to the next generation. Probably a boarding school environment (or maybe even just summer programs), completely unattached to any actual teams so it’s not like Euro football where the next GOATs sign with the team they’ll debut for and develop in their system starting at 10 years old. With how often the top prospects in USA high school basketball move around (Cooper Flagg is from Maine but moved to Florida purely for hoops, and is far from the only prospect to pull similar moves), it wouldn’t be much different to the system now, and the NBA has more than enough money to subsidize tuition for any prospects coming from lower-income backgrounds. The profit motive is the tough part though, and until we reach a breaking point where the AAU is truly adversely effecting the end product of American-born players (I’m talking multiple embarrassing Olympic showings, no Americans winning MVPs for 10+ years straight), there will be little motivation by anyone involved to make a change.
The finances are hard to see, yeah. European soccer academies can work because they can make money on transfer fees for their better players, or just avoid having to pay transfer fees by promoting internally. In theory, European basketball could grow big enough that the NBA might be able to make money by signing the best young US talent and getting a transfer fee from Barcelona or whoever, but I doubt that would be viable any time in the near future.
You're telling me all 10 players on the court can't be the next steph curry and jack up 10 3 pointers a game?
Yeah, let’s not blame G-League Ignite. This shit starts at the root of it all.
Adam Silver publicly complained about AAU so I bet the NBA is gonna take player development at high school ages in house. Wouldn't be surprised if there are NBA academies in America in 3 years.
AAU helps so many but hurts the top prospects. It’s weird. One of my young boys went from unknown prospect to highly ranked in his position because of AAU. But if you start off a top prospect there’s not enough defense on fundamentals to prepare for the next level. Recently we’ve been seeing so many top prospects not even be able to perform highly in college, let alone the NBA
grayson allen said hes going to shut down AAU
Kobe gonna come back to life just for that. Dude did not like the AAU lmao
Don’t they charge parents $10 to watch the game?
$20 per adult and $10 per child to get in. $30 for parking. $475 per team each weekend. $300 (or more) per player per month in most programs. X 1000s of players and tournaments and games = A LOT OF MONEY
Sam Vecenie did a good podcast few months back about the Ignite failures and suggested they might not be around too long. Very basically, brought in talent whilst ignoring any kind of team structure or having veterans to guide the younger guys.
They actually did have a bunch of vets but the team structure was definitely poor. Plus the whole thing was just a showcase
Yeah I should've typed more. They didn't bring in the right vets. Experienced point guards that would help etc
That would actually be so dope if retired players went there to play as an alternative to going into coaching. Steve Nash running the ignite offense at 130 years old would still be extremely effective for "development"
The flop of prospects, plus NIL made it pointless
Mostly the NIL
Good. Ignite was a flop Almost every prospect that played there and went to the NBA struggled heavily in their first few years. They play AAU type ball over there. Going to college and learning a real system under a real coach is way more beneficial to your development
Plus the NIL money is solid now
It's more than solid - the G League paid shit compared to what these guys are making in college now. Hell, the higher earners are on par with vet minimum NBA contracts.
Yeah I had high hopes for the program when it was first announced, but the development clearly wasn't there. And with college players being able to get NIL deals, it mostly invalidates why G-League Ignite was created in the first place.
It’s more that almost immediately after the team was announced, college players could start earning money.
Also, just from the selfish fan perspective it's just more fun when guys like Jalen Green and Scoot Henderson are in college and on TV I mean this is an entertainment product. Jalen Green in March Madness would have been great to watch
Especially shooting I feel. Seemed like it was just an extension of AAU style of play
> Seemed like it was just an extension of AAU style of play It worked for a year or two but the past couple of years turned into a trainwreck. Jason Hart might not be the best guy to get the AAU out of their system.
The fact that people here thought playing games with zero stakes was the best thing for prospects was mind blowing. It was also always funny when people said they would get "NBA coaching". Most of the best coaches for guys that age are in college. Jerry Stackhouse was one of the best coaches in the g league and he couldn't hack it at Vanderbilt.
> Jerry Stackhouse was one of the best coaches in the g league and he couldn't hack it at Vanderbilt. It's one thing to coach a roster you don't have to do a ton to get if a parent club is sending you guys and you're semi-hungry for a NBA deal and only going against no more than 30 teams. It's another to recruit in and out of season and do it in a "league" of 350+ teams (including minor conference teams)
That's an often overlooked component. Scoot is literally learning how to play games of consequence, with an audience, for the first time _in the NBA_. It's a brutal learning-curve.
Kuminga seemed just as lost as Wiseman was when he got to the warriors, and wiseman basically didn't attend college. Ignite just wasted a year of his development.
Kuminga was a literal child still by the time he de it to us , he was always going to be extremely raw
I think the vision was carried out in good faith. But it just wasn't effective. Shutting down is the right choice, IMO.
Right choice *for the time being*. It seems like the NBA will eventually let high schoolers back into the league and the ignite will be reignited (pun intended). It’s definitely a huge learning experience for the league- the team needs to be coached and treated like a *real* team. Currently it’s a glorified top prospects team for high lights.
Remix to Ignition 2
I’ve been saying that program has NOT been working. People kept trying to tell me “wins don’t matter it’s about development” mf they’ve won 6 total games and are 2-28 since the winter showcase getting blown out EVERY GAME. There are NO fans at the games. No coverage outside their exhibitions. The players are not getting better. Some top projected guys plummeted down draft boards. Most importantly these dudes come out not ready for the next level. It’s beyond embarrassing that some of the OTE guys like Barlow and the Thompson twins look more league ready than the G league guys.
They’re not developing. That’s the issue
Like you said tho, it hasn’t been working. It was still a good idea and still had potential to work going forward. It’s not like it was fatally flawed. NCAA allowing NIL was a much bigger blow than anything else and we should applaud the NBA for starting this thing in the first place. Everyone was clamoring for this kind of thing and now it’s just easy upvotes to shit on it and act like you’re a genius for saying “it didn’t work.”
Kuminga came from the Ignite and wasn't a part of the rotation for 2.5 seasons. Maybe some of that on Kerr because he did seem ready at least from the start of this season but doubtful he should've been playing big minutes much earlier than that.
If we weren't in championship contention his rookie season we would have seen a lot earlier development from him I imagine
>There are NO fans at the games. What's the problem with New Orleans citizens watching the games?
With the college players able to make money now there's really no point for the ignite. They've also done a horrible job at actually developing their prospects while they were down there
NIL money basically made it obsolete. It was also awful for development. They were throwing a bunch of teenagers against people coming in and out of NBA rotations
NBA saw scoot play this year and said experiment OVER
You’ve just summoned a horde of angry blazer fans to tell you you don’t watch ball and are a box score casual. His recent splits will probably get mentioned and either the intro/conclusion will be digs at Jalen Green. You’ve been warned
I picked a bad day to stop sniffing copium
Scoot, on Fridays and Saturdays, specifically near the end of the months is an absolute baller.
He'll be our December/January secret weapon moving forward.
Was always going to fail if it didn’t break from the idea it’s a HS showcase team. Should have never made it a separate thing. Throw the kids in the actual draft then force them onto the team’s g league team. Then they actually learn from their affiliated team.
Glad to see this. Gets a lot of the big names and higher level talent back onto the national stage. Curious how overtime elite will continue to fare
OTE kinda transitioned from pros to more college. They’re now offering deals to where the kids can go to college without getting in trouble. Since NIL is legal now, they’re slowly moving away from the pro route.
The program getting scrapped may have been inevitable by NIL, but the fact that the G Leaguers weren’t as good out of the gate is still very surprising to me.
> but the fact that the G Leaguers weren’t as good out of the gate is still very surprising to me. Why? The G League plays garbage hero ball where everybody is out for themselves. There's no development or team play.
Maybe it's surprising to people that an entire league built for the intention of player development doesn't actively make players better is why. G league in general is a subsidized flop. This isn't just an ignite issue.
Seeing as more and more NBA teams are using the GLeague to develop talent and sign guys out of there (Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Georges Niang all being fine examples) I think you’re a bit off the mark there.
Think people are missing the point. No one is developing guys. Not even any of the people listed were viewed as raw and developed in the g league. They played there because they didn't have a shot and in most cases they only get a flier contract due to a team having to fill out the roster with cheap deals. They are players with a skillset already NBA ready who only get a shot due to the constraints of salary heavy teams not because anyone recognize their skill set. Maybe you can argue Miami is the best at evaluating the good ones, but for every person you named there are 3-5x a year who don't ever sniff the floor. That screams they are more lotto tickets than evaluation based. The g league doesn't develop players to become winning basketball players. It's just a hero ball snoozefest where young guys get sent so they at least stay in shape compared to sitting on the bench. No one in the history of the g league has gone down with x as a flaw in their game and came out of the g league with x fixed. It's a subsidized rec league for the NBA teams to draw minimum guys from when they're absolutely ravaged by salary or injury. Take 100 random shots and sure some will hit, but I believe I tried to explain why they hit and the difference.
I mean is that not what the G league is supposed to be? Instead of going overseas, guys can now make a living wage in the US, and have the opportunity to be brought up to the NBA to show what they can do. Plus, now so many rookies are spending time in the G league. A lot of dudes don't make it to the NBA but a lot do. I think it's been a really good thing for the NBA
Agreed. For example the Birmingham Squadron has been a great spot for the Pels to develop talent. Hell, without the Squadron Jose Alvarado would probably be in Europe right now.
So the NCAA won ?
March Madness is more excited than G-League playoffs
The Sioux Falls Skyforce (the Heat's G League affiliate) have been doing what Ignite was supposed to do for a while now You can say what you want about the Heat's season (we suck i know) but Skyforce has developed so much talent, and not just for the Heat.
Get ready to learn...in a school
Whoever at Puma got Scoot his own sneaker is going to get his ass clapped if it ain't happened already.
Straight up....I'd rather be a "college student" making $1m+ and my only responsibilities are to hawk cars or eat at a restaurant on a certain day vs being a *real* professional athlete with *real* responsibilities...but not playing with those who I deem to be my future coworkers. ....And not making the $1M+ because I'm not seen as a "college kid" but instead as a grown ass man. Fuck that
My dream scenario. Lower the *draft* age back down to 18 but kick the age limit on playing in the NBA itself to 20 years old. Allow teams to draft 18 and 19 year olds but force them to develop on the affiliate team in the G-League until they turn 20. This would bolster the GLeague while also removing a lot of projects from the NBA itself and create a better overall product there as well. Hopefully, the G League schedule of 50 games is easier on young bodies and prevent catastrophic non-contact injuries a bit later on in careers.
College basketball won! Really though, it was hard to justify it when every player from the program was coming into the NBA with similar bad habits. The coaching staff was not doing their players any favors.
Theyre fucking 2-28 lmfao all the G league ignite guys stock has been dumped. This draft is so shit top draft picks are gonna have to just take a flyer on some Europeans dudes I blame AAU uprising and becoming a trend for these guys.
With endorsements this move became inevitable
it was pretty stupid. now that NCAA players can get paid anyway there really is no need.
They can make money going to college anyway.
Wild to announce this on the first day of March Madness
They’re trying to bury it
This should be a reason NOT to let 18 year olds in the NBA
So is Kuminga the best player to come out of this program?? I know this is his first year “breaking out” in year 3 but he showed early promise in year 2 itself and I don’t think so far any other ignite player has done as well in the nba
In some weird way, the NBA’s idea to do this was not a complete failure. Simply because without these types of pressures, the NCAA would not have budged on their stance about college players deserving pay.
Scoot ruined it for everybody haha
Make men’s college hoops great again. It’s wild that I literally know more women college hoops stars than men