I still think the NBA needs to implement a minor league system so that getting drafted doesn’t mean an NBA contract (like the MLB does).

That’s what the D-League is supposed to be, but here’s the thing, Alex: as basketball is more of a team game than baseball is, an extensive apprenticeship in a minor league is not as necessary. In baseball, you’re polishing a player’s skills to improve the individual to the point that they’re ready for ML competition; in basketball, you can paper over a player’s weaknesses with another player’s strengths. The NBA uses the idea that better competition is what most quickly drives value in a player [the throwing-them-in-the-deep-end approach], and I think that this makes sense, as basketball is easier to pick up than, say, baseball.

The reason that the D-League doesn’t scale is because the level of play isn’t terribly compelling at that level [we had one of the inaugural teams here in Huntsville before they shifted the league from a Southeast-focused one], and because they’re not doing a 1:1 correlation with teams and draftees. If the NBA really wanted to sink the money into the league, they’d have 29 D-League franchises, with those teams playing in the local area and at home when the NBA team is on the road. Run it as a loss leader [cheap tickets] and push the idea that some of the players in the D are gonna be in the NBA someday, make the players available to the fans, and you have a winner … if you’re willing to spend that money.

I’d say that I’m not sure that the NBA is, but this is essentially what they’ve done with the WNBA [although they don’t have near the number of teams].

In the last item, it’s XKCD, not XCKD