NCAA Announces Massive Change to NBA Draft Declarations

Per NCAA.com, the organization announced important amendments to the NBA Draft process on Wednesday afternoon — including college players’ ability to declare for the NBA Draft AND participate in the NBA Draft combine AND NBA team workouts without losing their option to return to college, as long as they withdraw from the draft within 10 days after the combine’s conclusion.

"In an effort to both provide students the chance to make more fully informed decisions and prepare themselves for a potential professional basketball career, the Division I Council on Wednesday adopted a proposal that, among other provisions, changes the date by which a student must remove his name from the NBA draft. The change is effective immediately, and students can take advantage of the new process for the 2016 NBA draft. “The rule is a good idea because it provides men’s basketball student-athletes the opportunity to test their dream of going beyond the stage of amateurism into the professional level without completely sacrificing their collegiate career, should they find they are not as prepared as they had hoped for the next level,” said Cody McDavis, a member of the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee."

While this won’t affect the Ben Simmons and Buddy Hields of the world, this is gargantuan news for any college player who is on the fence re: declaring for the upcoming and any future NBA Draft(s). For example: if it is a player’s prerogative to ensure they are a first-round pick so that they get the two-year guaranteed contract for first-round draftees, they now have the ability to showcase their talent in front of NBA front office executives and get vital feedback before making a decision to leave college or not. In the past, there were no mulligans — the moment you declared … it was written in blood.

My question here is: what the hell took so long? This is a win-win for all parties involved…

• Prospective NBA players aren’t contracted into a decision that they may later regret
• College programs will retain talent that isn’t optimistic about their draft stock
• The college basketball product will be less of a “revolving door” of ‘one-and-dones’
• Players who declare for the draft who aren’t ready for the pro level can stay in the United States and don’t have to go international to get back in to the league — something i’m sure a majority of “on the verge of making it” NBA prospects fear.

Progress!