I’m not sure, but I think if we are talking about this in the context of Reece’s decision, that means a two-way deal. I think that’s the most likely outcome for a guy drafted 50-60.
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We can kind of talk about whatever, I was curious based on some of the conversation in last podcast and tired of transfer portal hand-wringing.
I was thinking about guys like Reece who have significant question marks about their ability to contribute at the NBA level and have a guaranteed significant role on a high-level collegiate team.
I understand the comments about it being the next step and getting you closer to the NBA, but it seems like step down in terms of coaching quality (based on what I could find about G-League coaching salaries - 75k) and a huge step down in terms of playing atmosphere. The G-League will also be there a year or whatever later, whereas the collegiate experience has a definite shelf-life. I guess if a guy’s sick of college and ready for the next thing, though then I can sympathize because I’ve definitely been there.
A guy on a 2 way (or any other NBA contract) will be spending most of his time with the big club and going to the GLeague affiliate for games only. Coaching, workout, individual skill instruction will be done by the NBA staff. They get the NBA perks and luxury travel and generous per Diem’s and stuff too. I think Reece!! falls into this category of player.
A guy on a standard GLeague contract would be more like what you’re talking about. Guys just hoping for a shot or just playing basketball for a living instead of some other real life job. Or they prefer making 50k playing ball in the US over 100k playing ball in Turkey or something. Or even building up their future coaching resume. A guy with former GLeague player on his resume might be able to get a HS coaching job easier than a guy without that.
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Yeah that makes sense, particularly regarding the 2-way contract. I’d assume at that point, an extra year of college ball wouldn’t necessarily improve your chances of scoring a regular NBA contract. So I guess the most logical thing would be to take the two-way and then keep overseas ball in your back pocket in case the regular contract never materializes.
There may be situations where that extra year did payoff, but not sure if it’s the most likely outcome. Recent senior perimeter players who have gone in the first round were Ochai Agbaji, Chris Duarte, Payton Pritchard, Desmond Bane, Corey Kispert. I think all of them (not sure about Duarte) tested the waters after their junior year before returning.
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Yeah, generally college coaches are better coaches than G league coaches, but players in college are limited in their contact with the coaches to a certain number of hours. Plus as 4547 points out, a guy like Reece would most likely be getting the benefit of the big team’s staff, facilities, etc. Also, it’s not a question of be coached by Tony or by some rando G League guy. It’s a marginal one more year with Tony (after 3) vs G League coaching (who may focus on more pro-usable skills).
My general thought on this issue (where do you develop better?) is a bit of a wash in a generic kid’s calculus. If I were Reece or had his ear, the questions would be:
- How much do you care about the degree?
- How much do you care about more college accolades (win a tourney game, etc.) ?
- What is your likely draft position this year, vs. what it could be next year? (focusing especially on probability of a jump into round 1)
- What’s the likely salary bump for staying in vs. NIL at UVa (and is it offset by the present value of trying to go in round 1 - i.e., probability of next year round 1 times salary difference)
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Definitely better coaches but are GLeague guys better individual skills and development guys. Probly are for sure
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Yeah, good point
Step further is the luster of playing for a big time college coach wearing off. The portal says yes
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@DFresh11 Don’t mean to put you on the spot, but any insight on what these answers might be for Reece? (feel free to ignore if you can’t / shouldn’t answer)
I literally have no idea but can confirm after 3 years Reece!! Gives me dap and a hug and knows my name. After our rocky start thats good enough for me ha
I could speculate but so can everyone else. My speculation is he won DPOY and has national recognition and maybe doesnt seem like he is building toward much more in college at UVa.
He has also shut down big time players and never been shut down per se, unless by injury
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I think the challenge of the Gleague is that you take the very best college guys and they mostly play in the nba. So you have several years of the 30-100 best players from college/other paths but not the elite guys.
Didn’t mean for this to turn into a Reece thread per se but the last two bullets are the reasons that I think that he’d come back for another year.
Assuming that his draft feedback is something like “Show a better offensive game”, then returning and consistently performing like he did at the start of the year could get him into Round 1.
Arguments against returning would ,I guess be, that a 2-way/G-League contract affords him more time to improve the holes in his game and opportunity to demonstrate value at the NBA level.
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Not that my opinion matters, but I think probably the biggest question mark outstanding is Fresh’s point on specific skills. CTB is amazing, but he’s not equally amazing at coaching everything, right?
If the feedback is “need to get better at 2-3 specific things, like PnR” which are skills CTB doesn’t do very much, then he might be better off with a random G-league coach who is probably inferior to CTB overall, but might be better at the specific things Reece was told to work on.
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Maybe this is a poor assumption, but I’d think that across the entire coaching staff they have coaches who are excellent across pretty much all skills, at least at the individual -level probably less so when it comes to specific offensive sets.
But then with limited contact at the college level and access to actual NBA coaches for 2-ways that probably tips the scales a bit.
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