What do Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Andrew Wiggins and Ben Simmons all have in common? They have all benefited from the one-and-done rule that is in place on the collegiate level of basketball. This rule has allowed basketball players to forgo the reminder of their college career to declare for the NBA draft. Has this rule hurt college basketball or has it made the sport stronger?
The question here is not about how their lives have been impacted by this rule, but rather how has the collegiate and professional aspect of basketball been impacted? There have been negative side affects of this rule, primarily on the collegiate side. There have also been positives to this rule which I primarily see in the NBA. First, we will look at the impact on college basketball.
College basketball has been impacted the most by this rule in my opinion. For those of you who remember the 2010 Duke Blue Devils who won the NCAA championship, they were filled with great seniors. The upperclassmen led the Blue Devils to a win over Butler. Back in 2015, Duke won the championship again but were led by three freshmen who were central to this team's success. I bring this up because these freshmen declared for the draft a few weeks after the title game. So, Coach K had to adapt and make sure his team would have success in the following seasons. Instead of having players to groom and help them grow their abilities like the 2010 Blue Devils. We have seen a steady trend of coaches cycling through freshmen phenoms, year after year.
At this rate, college is starting to become irrelevant for these athletes because they know after one year their careers are over. I was surprised to see Coach K go down this route, but then again, he had to adapt because of one coach's strategy, Coach John Calipari.
Coach Calipari, in my opinion, started a trend in college basketball. This is not to say that his teams were the first to have one-and-done players. With Derrick Rose and the 2008 NBA Draft truly starting the trend, we saw more freshmen declare for the draft than ever before.
Since the 2006 draft, when the one-and-done rule was enacted, we have seen 660 players drafted and 110 of those drafted were freshmen. Now, I know some of you are saying, "What's the big deal? That's only 6%." While that percentage is low you have to factor in that the majority of these freshmen have been first round draftees and have dominated lottery picks for the better part of a decade. This is good for the NBA because they continuously have young talent in the league. But, I don't want to go into the NBA just yet.
College basketball's royalty have a steady class of freshmen stars that will eventually leave after one year. The schools I am talking about is Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, UCLA, Arizona and Ohio State. These teams have constantly replaced players after their freshman year and I do not see a stop in the near future of this formula. Since Duke recently got Zion Williamson to commit, they now have the top 3 recruits for the upcoming freshman class. Duke already has a freshman superstar in Malcolm Bagley III is a presumed to declare, so we will see the cycling system happen. There seems to no longer be an emphasis on developing these athletes, but rather just the idea that we need to ship them off for the next batch. I believe this has hurt college basketball to a degree, but it also benefits these young athletes by letting them get minutes on the court. Now onto how this rule impacts the NBA.
I said this already, but the NBA gets young talent every year and that keeps things exciting for the fans. I don't think the NBA will change this rule in the way people want them to. I personally don't think forcing these athletes to stay another year in college will benefit the game. If you are ready and prepared for the NBA, then go ahead and declare. I know a lot of the freshmen that do declare want to help out their family in financial ways, so waiting another year may prove dangerous. I don't see many negatives that the rule has the NBA. There are some where the player should have stayed longer in college and could have matured his abilities, but there is no reason to put the blame on the one-and-done.
To conclude, having the one-and-done rule in place has been a blessing and a curse to collegiate and professional basketball. While my stance on this subject is somewhere in between. There is no change in sight for this rule. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has talked about going over the rule and seeing if a new approach would be better. I don't want to see the NBA dictate the players' decision more than they already do, but I hate to see college basketball suffer this effect of cycling through 19 and 20 years old. I don't have a solution, but maybe one will surface sooner than later.
