A More Ideal NBA CBA, Part VI: The NBA Draft

NBA DRAFT ELIGIBILITY
Currently in the NBA, the rules for entering the NBA draft are separated among American players, or players who come from an American professional league, or an American college (for example, Darius Songaila and Greivis Vasquez are American players based on these rules because they played in NCAA programs, though they aren't Americans), and international players who are defined as men who are not Americans, never lived in the US, and didn't play in America for college before.

• The Player has no more NCAA eligibility left
  
• The player never went to college but four years has passed since his High School graduation year.
  
• the player has played in a pro league internationally and is also at least 22 years old of the calendar year of the draft.
  

Early entries into the draft are those players who decide to enter the draft before hitting 22 years old. They must be at least 19 years old AND at least one year past their high school graduation. Generally speaking you have to finish your freshman college season before going pro. Today, most players in the NBA Draft, in particular the lottery picks are early entries.

For international players, the player must be at least 19 years old on the calendar year of the draft. They're not differentiated between early entry or not because a number of these players may have been pros for quite some time, like Ricky Rubio for example.

PROBLEMS OF THE CURRENT NBA DRAFT
The #1 problem of the NBA Draft as it is currently constructed doesn't really affect the NBA per se. It's the NCAA Division I schools that are complaining. Since the 2007 NBA Draft, 20 players with only one season of college experience were drafted between #1 and #14. In addition, three of the top four picks from 2007 to 2010 were players with only one year of college experience, those players being Greg Oden in 2007, Derrick Rose in 2008, and John Wall in 2010.

The NCAA has a method of auditing programs' performance with what they call the APR, where a considerable amount of the grade is based on players' graduation rates (within 6 years) and retention rates (players staying the entire year). While I believe that John Wall and Derrick Rose stayed the entire year, Greg Oden left int he middle of the year, which hurt Ohio State's APR, and his departure (with others too) caused the school to lose scholarships. While the NBA doesn't have to consider too much about the integrity of the college game, there is still no denying that the NCAA is the #1 feeder of talent to the NBA, and though the D League is an effective farm system for rotation players, it isn't so for star players. In addition, the NBA doesn't want to be blamed for putting programs on probation due to early entries, where there are more and more players doing so each year..

I also realize that the reason why John Wall, Greg Oden, and Derrick Rose only played one year of college. It's because they had to do something with the "one year after high school" and if they were allowed to go to the Draft right after HS, that's what they would've done. If they could have dropped out of high school two years early to go to the draft, that's also what they would have done. Either way, I think there are way too many early entries in the draft, to the point where exhausting NCAA eligibility counts againts a player, which is why David West, Josh Howard, and Jameer Nelson were drafted so late.

Here's the remedy:

1. ALLOW A LIMIT OF SIX AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL OR INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS (BETWEEN AGE 18-20) TO BECOME NBA ELIGIBLE PER YEAR
I believe that NBA players who are drafted, especially those in the lottery should be high impact players, making a positive contribution to the team, right away. I like a Jameer Nelson better, not a Shaun Livingston. I like an Emeka Okafor, not a JaVale McGee. I don't necessarily believe that the best players are always going to be 21-23 years old when they are drafted. Perhaps there are guys like a LeBron James or a Carmelo Anthony who can make a big contribution despite being a very young age. That's what this does.

What we can do here is have players decide on their own (with no agent) if they believe they can contribute right away. They then go to the draft combine and play games, etc. like they do today. A group of NBA scouts and GM's will collectively decide if there are players who are talented enough to be drafted and contribute right away. This group can pick no more than six players a year, and they don't have to pick six. They can pick three, five, or zero. Players selected here also are not guaranteed a slot in the NBA Draft.

This is also a concession to the players who believe that anyone should enter the draft if he feels that he's good enough.

2. PLAYERS WHO GO TO COLLEGE MAY NOT APPLY FOR THE NBA DRAFT FOR THREE YEARS
This rule gives the NBA some security to allow college players to develop fundamental skills (if not already developed) and to thrive in leadership roles which take time to do. This gives men's college coaches a huge sigh of relief so they can actually run a college program rather than a wintertime AAU camp.

3. DO NOT ALLOW PLAYERS TO SIGN WITH AGENTS UNTIL AFTER JULY 1 OF THE CALENDAR YEAR
This ties into rule 4. Besides, most players who enter the draft already know if they're gonna go all the way or not.

4. COLLEGE JUNIORS ARE GIVEN AN OPTION TO EXHAUST NCAA ELIGIBILITY
Larry Bird was an example of this, though not by choice. He was four years out of high school in 1978 and was drafted involuntarily I believe, but because he had one year of eligibility left and the rules allowed it, he ultimately decided to stay. The rules have been changed since so now, once a player's drafted he can never go back and play college ball.

I'd bring a modified version of this back. One it allows the three year player to be drafted by an NBA team, but he still would have an option to go back to college to finish his senior season. Again, no agent is hired (per point three) and the NCAA should be fine with it because this is done in baseball all the time.

Also, this option is here because in an era of a hard cap, a team may not have the cap room to sign the drafted player and the team may not want to renounce his rights or trade him and other parts of the team away. The player therefore has the option to come back to college which gives the team a way out.

Any drafted college junior who decides to stay in college for his senior season must stay for the entire season, and he must complete the academic year at that school in good standing, preferably with a degree.

5. INCREASE AMOUNT OF NBA DRAFT PICKS SLIGHTLY
35 picks in the first round (2 year contract with 2 year team option plus Qual offer)
30 picks in the second round (possible 1 year contract with 2 year team option plus Qual offer)

The first five picks of the draft will be decided among a lottery of the 14 teams which failed to make the playoffs. The team with the best chance of winning is the team with the worst regular season record, the team with the worst chance of winning has the best regular season record among the non-playoff teams. These first five picks cannot be traded until after all five teams have selected a player. The next 30 picks of the 1st round go from worst team to best team. The second round also goes in the same way.