Saw this article that the NBA is going to shudder the G league Ignite after this season. Wonder what the kids who went that route instead of college will do now https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ague-ignite-team-featured-top-draft-prospects
NIL made the Ignite obsolete. Those that would have played for them now pretend to be a student for a year and make more money.
I don't know. They had NIL money this year and they still got Holland and Buzelis who are expected to go in the lotto and they have a couple of other first round prospects too. I'm hoping they're getting rid of it because it stunts the growth of these prospects. Blue chip prospect getting only 15 games of playing time for a team not competing to win anything but just to showcase them has shown to be a terrible formula for growth and it honestly seems to have set these guys back. For whatever reason, I'm glad to see it go.
Silver said NIL was the reason. As far as development, I think it is too small a sample size to make a determination. There have been plenty of guys that went straight to the pros that did not need college. One or two years with the Ignite was just one part of the process. Would love to get data on the amount of drills run by the Ignite compared to a typical college program though.
Ignite is clearly being shut down because of NIL. Zero need for it now as Silver said. They had it this season because these changes take the NBA/Ignite time to plan the shut down and they had kids already in the commitment process, signed to contracts, coaches and staff etc.
Agreed yeah its too small of a sample size and the guys in the NBA are still on rookie contracts. Personally I don't think it harmed any players development, although maybe it didn't help as much as was hoped. If there is a negative correlation I'd suspect that's more from prospects that are more likely to fail or possibly not prioritizing elite work ethic, etc being the type of players that ended up on the Ignite vs going to college. As you say, there will never be a large sample size, it really doesn't matter and yes is going away.
Won't they all just declare for the draft? Not sure if they could go back to college - would be interesting if there was a current ignite player that wanted to do that.
Players from ignite this season will likely remain eligible for the draft. Future high school players will have to go to college for a year.
there's something a little troubling about the fact that scoot spent two whole seasons in a program that was viewed as lacking developmental chops and was shut down a year after he left. Hopefully Scoot has a great offseason and comes into camp with the tools he needs to succeed.
Care to share where you heard this? And where would these players "develop" had they not gone that route?
respectfully, hcp, why is the burden on folks who write on all of these threads to post the news for you. lowe, hollinger, vecenie, windhorst are all dissecting 'what went wrong' this week. coaching/staff/executive turnover, lack of a culture or 'system'... lots of issues. I won't bore you with the details.
Yeah I just heard Windhorst talk about the "lack of developmental success". I kind of felt that way but obviously had nothing to go on.
in hindsight they needed a big name with a big eff you salary and multiyear commitment and an existing recipe for success to own the whole thing. instead it was a rotating cast of characters and an experimental approach.
They just needed one player to hit potential and become an allstar - then also not have NIL. NIL just took away the need for it.
