johanliebert wrote:mdenny wrote:Boogie! wrote:Side note but it’s crazy how many players are still playing at a star level well into their late 30s. You never saw this 10-20 years ago… when guys were 36-37 they were pretty much player coaches. Now you have LeBron, Durant, curry still outplaying some of the new up and coming “stars”
What was that crazy observation Devlin made? From Agbaji's draft class.....only 9 of 60 players signed an extension after their rookie contracts?
It was something like that. That's insane. Also really puts into perspective spending 3 years spamming the board with negative posts about moving from 21 to 32 in the draft lol.
A few things are worth emphasizing:
The draft has steadily become more and more unpredictable. 3 of the top 4 players in the league currently were drafted outside the top 10. That was never the case in the 80s, 90s, 00s. The best team in the league has only 1 top 10 pick in their rotation.
There are more and more undrafted players attaining successful careers. FVV is no longer some crazy anomaly.
Younger players are taking far longer to develop and contribute meaningfully to winning (i've been wondering about a methodology to test this).
Non-american players have surged and constitute the highest percentage of top 50 players ever.
Many star players and role players are more relevant into their mid to late 30s than ever before.
I think it’s cause the game is played horizontally now. The gather step and giving the offence every advantage has extended careers.
and torn ACL's and Achilles Tendons
