Transfer Portal 2025

[WichitaSooner]

Agreed, all of the recent announcements about players returning to college are because they didn't get a first round guarantee from any team. Each year a guy like Los or Oweh comes back means they have to take even a larger leap in their play, because they're now competing against the players who got drafted in the second round last year and are in the NBA ecosystem (summer league, g-league, 2 way) + the players in the following draft class. You have to find a balance between taking the guaranteed NIL $ vs. getting into the NBA ecosystem and working your way up.

Were you in their meetings with teams? Or do you have better intel than all the professional analysts who had the Michigan kid going in the first round?

 

[pasooner]

The fact you aren’t a fan and consider the best basketball league a clown league really speaks volumes to your knowledge.

You responded. In snide fashion. Shocker.

I'm far from the only one, here or in many arenas, that believes the league is a shell of itself from the top on down. When a pregame, halftime show and post game gets better ratings than the product it's talking about, more people than just me believe it's clownish. I see more reels of Shaq, Ernie, Kenny and Chuck than I do playoff highlights. When the ratings flip, come back, we can talk, but don't hold your breath. An OKC-Indiana final might be an all-time low.

 

[61sooner]

Wilt Chamberlain would never have left Kansas after his jr year to join the Globetrotters in the world of NIL. College kids had to have 4 years past HS to get to
the NBA back then. What would he be worth, 5 million?.

 

[allday92]

Were you in their meetings with teams? Or do you have better intel than all the professional analysts who had the Michigan kid going in the first round?

It's a standard process that happens every year. Listened about it on multiple NBA podcasts (Hoop Collective, Zach Lowe show, Stein Line substack). Both things can be true at once. Draft analysts have intel and are projecting where a player will be drafted. The players and their agents are reaching out to teams looking for a guarantee. That doesn't mean they won't go in the first round, but it is just too early for teams to guarantee a selection - ex: "Yaxel Lendeborg, if you're there at pick 22, we are taking you no matter what."

 

[WichitaSooner]

It's a standard process that happens every year. Listened about it on multiple NBA podcasts (Hoop Collective, Zach Lowe show, Stein Line substack). Both things can be true at once. Draft analysts have intel and are projecting where a player will be drafted. The players and their agents are reaching out to teams looking for a guarantee. That doesn't mean they won't go in the first round, but it is just too early for teams to guarantee a selection - ex: "Yaxel Lendeborg, if you're there at pick 22, we are taking you no matter what."

I don’t disagree with you on that part but it’s also not at all in doubt that since NIL started, there are absolutely players coming back to college who wouldn’t have otherwise. And plenty of them would have been drafted. That’s the only point I was making in response to the guy who was acting as if there isn’t a single player who comes back to school who would have been otherwise been in the NBA.

 

[NorthCarolinaSooner]

Taken from an article on rd 2 salaries (they typically get little to no guaranteed money but they CAN get guaranteed money...depends on the teams value of the player):

"For example, Jalen Pickett was picked No. 32 overall in the 2023 NBA draft and signed a four-year $8.2 million contract with the Denver Nuggets that came with $5.8 million guaranteed. Denver clearly thought highly of him. Conversely, the last pick in the second round of last year's draft, Chris Livingston, got a four-year deal from the Milwaukee Bucks worth $7.6 million in total and included $3.01 million guaranteed."

This year it was about $2 mil per year on average..most not guaranteed.

So...it would make sense for a guy to come back to college if he could guarantee himself anywhere close....and if you MIGHT be a 2nd round guy but another year gives you a chance to maybe move into the lower 1st round and get a 4 year GUARANTEE....it would make total sense.