The Pistons aren’t counting on Henry Ellenson to contribute immediately, but his presence on the roster may alter the team’s strategy in free agency, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. Executive/coach Stan Van Gundy indicated that as a result of the draft, back-up point guard will be “a little more of the priority” once free agency begins.
Here’s more out of Detroit:
- Van Gundy said on Detroit’s 97.1 radio station that the Pistons will look to add a younger veteran point guard in free agency, as Rod Beard of The Detroit News passes along on Twitter.
- The Pistons had a first-round grade on Yogi Ferrell, but they had No.49 overall pick Michael Gbinije higher on their board due to his versatility, Beard writes in a full-length piece. “The trade-off is Michael can play three different positions, we think, and his size and everything else,” Van Gundy said. “How much point guard he can play and to the question of whether we only sign one point guard [in free agency], that’s something we’ll decide in summer league.”
- Van Gundy believes prospects should be allowed to go to the draft and still return to college if they are not taken as high as expected, Beard adds in the same piece. Van Gundy also believes the prospects should be able to hire agents while still in college.
I agree that they should have agents but honestly I think it should be if you are undrafted you can come back. I feel if you don’t like your draft position and come back you are making the team waste there later pick on you and you could have top picks use this tool to avoid teams thus making it impossible for smaller market/struggling teams to ever improve.
If you go undrafted there is no single team being punished and it allows for guys like Isaiah Taylor to get another year of developing. What if they set up a draft and stash in college system where players can come back but their rights are reserved to the team that picks them. Its like getting a job that pays for your school
Once you earn $1 for your play you no longer have amateur status, which is required in playing under the NCAA.
A draft prospect should only be able to go back to college if he goes undrafted. Someone like Deyonta Davis who slipped from a projected lottery pick to the second round shouldn’t be allowed to go back to college. But another player who goes undrafted (no matter what reason) should be able to return to college for another year (assuming they have eligibility remaining). However, I would throw in some conditions like the player can’t have signed any endorsement deals yet (or any type of deal that he would earn money on) and can only return to college post draft once in his career (so they can’t go through the whole draft process again, go undrafted again, and return again).
How about this? How about colleges just admit that NCAA is a huge moneymaking venture, that it is a fiction that players are actually there to get an education, and just start competing for players with the NBA? The idea that any one and done player is an amateur is ludicrous on its face. Then there wont be any difference between the millions made on TV rights for college games and the millions made for TV rights to pro games. Level the playing field so to speak. Or just pay enough in D League that high school seniors can go directly there instead of pretending to get a college degree and wasting “scholarship” money (scholar if what? The 3 point shot?)
The NBA gets a free player development pipeline from the NCA. FREE.
The NCAA makes bazillions. BAZILLIONS.
Let’s recap: free players and bazillions of dollars promoting those players.
It’s not changing anytime soon.