OT: side effect of age limit

[Ricky_is_god]

I was thinking about as Monta torched us for 37 last night, but the age limit that Stern put in place really makes scouting a much less important practice. It also prevents the teams that don't do well in the lottery from having the opportunity to pick up an impact player. At least more than they could before.

When high school kids could enter the draft (and I am not saying that it was a system without flaws) it really forced scouts to evaluate their games. Sure there were guys like Kwame and Dwight who went at #1. But Kobe went 13, we got Al Jeff at 15, and I was reminded yesterday that Monta went in the 2nd round. If any of them had gone to college, they likely would not have been able to be on the board for so long. The rule prevents teams that aren't in the top ten from having a realistic shot at picking up a true impact player.

I know there are cases when good college players drop too (see Rondo at 21) but the best players in the draft usually shake out during the college season. But we can all agree that the best players dropped when they were high school kids moreso than they do now.

I know that Stern put the rule in place, at least in some capacity, to protect the team's from making a bad investment. But I also think that it makes scouting much less of an art. I see a lot of the advantages of the age rule, but I think it makes the draft much more formulaic and uninteresting. It's not necessarily good or bad, it's just something I was thinking about.

[GuyClinch]

^^^agreed. Though this has been brought up before.