The Case for a True Minor-League System in the NBA

The National Basketball Association needs to take a page out of Major League Baseball and set up a true minor-league system. I'm not talking about the National Basketball Development League, which was a decent idea at the time. 

Instead, the minor leagues should be similar to that of baseball. Considering the fact that baseball has a variety of ages of when players get drafted and recently the NBA has seen an increase in freshman and sophomores leaving school early.

Each team should have their own minor league franchise to send players too. No matter how long they have been in the league. The NBA needs to get rid of the 15 man rosters. The NBA only allows for 12 players to be dressed for the game anyways and the other three players are inactive for the game. 

I do realize that in order for the minor league system to work money is involved, but the NBA makes more than enough money to have a way better minor league system than they have now with the NBDL. 

First, each team should have a minor-league affiliate to send players down to and be able to play for. Since most of the players that are on the inactive list are either veterans or young players, they can be sent down to the minors to stay fresh in case there's a major injury on the team. 

Second, it would help players that are not necessarily NBA ready to be able to improve their fundamentals. Just take a look at some of the players recently drafted that could have used the time in the minors to get better before making the jump to the NBA. 

Here's just some players that could have used it: Mike Conley Jr, Greg Oden, Brandan Wright, Anthony Randolph, Andrea Bargnani, Michael Olowokandi, Andrew Bogut, Yi Jianlian, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Acie Law, Sean Williams, Marco Belinelli, and plenty of more players. 

Each of these players has something to work on and if their was a minor league system these players may have gotten the coaching an confidence they needed to be a successful player in the league. 

The NBA then would also need to create rules for teams on how many times a player can be called up or down from the minor league team. In baseball a player has the option to be sent down and back up from the minors in their first three years and they can be called up or down as many times as the club wants. 

Of course there are other rules after that three year period where a player can refuse to be optioned to the minors and becomes a free agent or they have to clear waivers in order to be sent down. 

The third thing that will happen is that the NBA club can hire coaches that practice their style of play. So, the players gets the idea of how the club likes to work on the offensive end and defensive end. 

When drafting a rookie a team can take a look at them in the summer league and invite them to training camp as well too see if they are the type of player that is going to make an impact right away. If the player is good they can add them to their 12-man roster. 

If the player need some seasoning and it would be better suited for the team and the player to get to know the team's philosophy as well as style they will be sent down until the team feels that the player is ready. It could be a few games in it could be towards the end of the season, or it could be just to replace an injured player. 

Lastly, it would more than likely help a player thinking about leaving school early to declare for the NBA draft. It may change their mind if they knew that at the time they probably wouldn't make the NBA roster and instead would be sent to the minor leagues to hone their skills some more and instead could be getting their education as well as working on their skills more until they are actually ready for the NBA.