NBA's Adam Silver wants NCAA input on higher age limit
NEW YORK — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver re-iterated Friday the league's desire to increase the age for draft eligibility at a Board of Governors meeting, with a little help.
NCAA President Mark Emmert visited with NBA owners in New York, and Silver again said the NCAA should have a seat at the table when the NBA and National Basketball Players Association discuss the league's draft-eligibility age. A player must be 19 years old or one year removed his high school graduating class to enter the draft, but Silver is interested in raising the age limit to 20.
"(Emmert) and I have had an ongoing dialogue, not only just about the one‑and‑done rule, but about officiating, how we can come together on the rules of the game to make it more of a smooth transition from college to the NBA, and we talked generally about things we can be doing to improve the collegiate experience," Silver said.
Silver said no changes are imminent regarding the draft lottery and playoff format, and the league's competition committee will discuss in detail those issues when it meets in the summer.
"I will say our competition committee has moved more towards what I would call an NFL‑style format, where it's a multi‑day meeting, focused attention from a cross‑section of coaches, general managers, owners. We have a player representative there, as well," Silver said. "These are the kind of issues where the last thing we wanted to do is make them based on one meeting, owners hearing arguments for the first time.
"In a process like this, they (issues) need to be thoroughly studied and then brought to the larger board, and we're really just at ground zero in terms of considering the options."
Silver also addressed the recurrent issue of teams resting players down the stretch for both health reasons and potentially trying to manipulate playoff matchups; the proposed sale of Milwaukee Bucks; and a new joint initiative with USA Basketball and the Department of Defense.
It was Silver's first board of governors meeting as commissioner since taking over for David Stern in February, and the more Silver speaks, the more it is clear raising the age limit for the draft is at top of Silver's priorities.
"One thing that we also agree on is that historically what you've heard is that the age issue is one that needs to be negotiated almost in isolation between the NBA and its union." Silver said. "What Dr. Emmert, and I agree on is that the NCAA needs to have a seat at the table, as well, for those discussions."
The one-and-done issue has grown increasingly polarizing. Many college coaches and administrators don't like the rule, but the NBA is also not fond of it, though for entirely differently reasons. The NBA is paying first-round picks guaranteed millions, and with that kind of investment, teams want more chances to evaluate players. The more they can scout players, the more confident they believe they are in making significant decisions in the draft.
"Ideally we want our teams in a position to have more information about these young men before they come into the league, and from a developmental standpoint we would like them to have more opportunity for them to develop before they come into the league," Silver said.
Silver does not anticipate that happening for the 2015 draft but said that rule change can be amended to the current collective bargaining agreement without the current CBA expiring. The NBPA is searching for a new executive director and have had informal discussions with acting director Ron Klempner and President Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers.
"But until they finish their process, we're not going to be able to sit down into more of a normal negotiating mode," Silver said. "So we're ready to go. We've been thinking about this issue for a long time, as you know."
The competition issues such as the draft lottery and playoff format are not as high on Silver's priority list.
• With several teams trying to rebuild — the NBA prefers that terms, others call it tanking — the draft lottery is under a microscope. Using the draft is one way to rebuild, and with the worst teams having the best chance to get the top picks, winning is not always an incentive.
For example, the Philadelphia 76ers didn't try to lose games, but management knew losing this season might be its best chance at generating long-term success. The Sixers might not get the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the weighted lottery, but they can get no worse than the fifth pick.
Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of basketball operations, made a draft lottery presentation to owners: changing the odds for lottery teams; the wheel system in which every team would be guaranteed a No. 1 pick "every so many years," Silver said; a play-in tournament among non-playoff teams to determine the order.
"There was far from a consensus in the room as to what changes we should make. … but there was an understanding by the group that those were issues that really needed to be viewed more in depth in a committee process rather than before the full board," Silver said.
• Last week during an in-game interview with San Antonio Spurs TV broadcasters Bill Land and Sean Elliott, Silver dropped the possibility of having a playoffs with the top 16 teams regardless of conference.
"The sense of the room was that certainly no one was advocating a particular change right now," Silver said. "It was more suggesting that this seems like a good time when you have a transition in leadership to take a fresh look at virtually everything, and I would add that to the list of those issues."
A part of the draft lottery and playoff format go hand-in-hand. In 11 of the past 14 seasons, the ninth-place team in the West has had a better record than the eighth-place team in the East, including this season when the 48-34 Phoenix Suns were 10 games better than the 38-44 Atlanta Hawks.
Phoenix missed the playoffs but will also be ahead of the Hawks in the draft, as will the Minnesota Timberwolves who also had a better record than Atlanta but didn't make the playoffs. This also affects competitive balance.
The Suns and Timberwolves ostensibly will get a player in the draft, even though Atlanta is the team that needs to improve more.
"But again, the league is doing so well right now, I just want to be very deliberate and cautious about any major changes like that," Silver said.
• Even though the Milwaukee Bucks announced the sale of the team from Herb Kohl to Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens earlier this week, Silver said he has not seen the purchase agreement and owners were not in position to approve the sale.
"I don't anticipate there will be any issues, but we're just not at that point in process yet," Silver said.
Lasry owns a small percentage of the Brooklyn Nets, which he will sell if the Bucks deal is approved.
• Silver also said the league will take a fresh look replay reviews and how the league selects, trains and grades referees. Silver said the league may go to a central replay center Secausus, N.J., rather than have referees determine a call by watching a monitor at courtside.
• San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt resigned as chairman of the board of governors, and Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor will resume that role on an interim basis until a replacement is named in October.
• The NBA, USA Basketball and the Department of Defense have joined forces to provide active and retired military families access to exhibition games, clinics, practices, speaking engagements, meet-and-greets and game tickets, the league announced in a news release on Friday.
The three groups will also focus on helping military personnel returning from overseas duty transition to civilian life with job fairs, networking events and leadership conferences with NBA owners, executives, coaches and Pentagon leadership.
The first event is May 7, and USA Basketball women's coach Geno Auriemma and men's assistant coach Jim Boeheim will host a leadership development conference at the Pentagon.
Also, the WNBA will host a Hoops for Troops doubleheader on ESPN2 with the Minneosta Lynx and New York Liberty and the Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks. And the U.S. men's team will practice at West Point on Aug. 18, and the U.S. women's national team will train at the Naval Academy Sept. 7-10.
