Lillard is making a strong statement to basketball youth to stay in school. Look at how much better he is that the other rookies. Stay in school, kids.
I think this might be a case of correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation. Yes, he stayed in school for four years, and yes it probably benefited him... BUT the kid can flat out play. Nolan Smith played four years at Duke and look what good it did him. On the other hand, Roy played four years at UW and Lillard reminds me of Roy in a lot of ways.
Generally, the players who play 4 years in college do so because they have no high draft prospects. (Nolan Smith was mentioned). However. the pattern for previous high impact 4-year players seems to be "maturity": Duncan -> Roy -> Lillard.
I'm going to go look, but I remember back a few years ago and something like 9 of the 10 guys on the first and second all nba teams left early or didn't even go. I'll go find it.....
You gotta think though...... overall whether they went to college for 4 years or come straight out of HS...... there are more "busts" then guys that make it.
I was a professional college student. If I'd declared after only 8 or 9 years, I might have been drafted.
That's the whole point though. The reason why Stern changed the rules is because teams were wasting high lotto picks on guys that were high risk/high reward like Kwame and Curry. How many crappy Euros were drafted in the lottery in the early 2000s?
No it does not. The statement KingSpeed made was for kids to stay in school. Kids sacrefice millions waiting and it is highly debatable whether the pros or college prepare a player better. Take Nic for example. He is one year older than Lillard and has made far more. He could have enrolled in a college and made nothing.