,
3 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
If college basketball wants to save itself, it seems like you could design a system where players get drafted by NBA teams at age 18 but can take a "gap year" where they play in college for a year or two in and also get big payouts in the event of injury.
e.g. the Hawks draft R.J. Barrett out of high school. They can opt to delay his NBA debut for 1 year in exchange for paying him half his rookie-scale salary for that year. During the gap year, he can play in college, the G League, internationally, work with a trainer, whatever.
Maybe you can add 2nd, 3rd, etc. gap years too, but they'd require mutual agreement by the team and the player. Or maybe you automatically get a 2nd gap year for non-lottery picks. There are a lot details, but in the abstract it seems workable.
