NBA: Why Mark Cuban's latest statement is wrong

NBA player development and the G-League

Dallas Mavericks v Atlanta Hawks

One area where Mark Cuban’s comments carry some authority is in examining the NBA’s role in developing young talent. If this conversation came up 20-25 years ago then yes Cuban is right that young players not at the level of talent of Luka Doncic when they are first considered a potential player in the NBA were not given homegrown opportunities to develop their raw talents.

In the past, American basketball players who were on the fringe, got cut or went undrafted by the NBA had to try and develop into NBA worthy talent overseas. This worked for players like Antonio Davis and Anthony Parker who played overseas in men’s leagues before they got their first real shots in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors. This situation has changed with the development and expansion of the G-League.

While the NBA has always received the bulk of its young talent from the collegiate ranks the two games are not the same. NCAA basketball is played in two halves of 20 minutes each for a total of 40 minutes. An NBA game is 48 minutes. The three-point arc is closer in the college game than in the NBA at just 20 feet 9 inches away from the basket.

NBA rules require a team to shoot the basketball in 24 seconds the college game has a 45-second shot so the pace and speed is slower than in the NBA. Guards dominate the play in the college game on the perimeter and centers and forwards play the post.

The pro game is now demanding that power forwards and centers take a more active role in dribbling the ball and attacking on offense from the perimeter using their ball handling skills and long-range shooting.

When the CBA (Continental Basketball Association) folded in 2009 young players not ready for NBA competition had to essentially travel overseas to get educated, as Mark Cuban likes, in the pro game. So while the NBA has been slow to create a developmental league to develop youth and players on the fringe of making the Association, the NBA has now invested in what used to be called the D-League and now the G-League.

Introduced in 2001 it began operations with just eight franchise. As of right now, the G-League now has 27 franchises just 3 less than the total number of teams in the NBA. General managers can send 1st and 2nd-year players who need seasoning to the G-League to develop on two-way contracts.

This allows NBA teams to call those G-League prospects up to the NBA and send them back as required. The trade-off is the prospect player gets into more games that are similar in style and pace to the NBA game.

At the moment the G-League franchise Texas Legends are affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks so Mark Cuban and his management team have a wonderful opportunity to educate their American prospects, whose rights they hold, in the appropriate ways of basketball.

Once the NBA is able to partner its pro franchise in a 1:1 ratio with G-League franchises every NBA franchise will have the opportunity to dictate to the G-League’s head coaches what offensive and defensive schemes they would like their prospects to be trained under to match the pro team's style. If Cuban’s comments to Eurohoops.net are about the past he’d have a point. If they are about the present the NBA has made big strides in addressing their previous perceived indifference to youth development.