The latest Monday Mailbag edition of The Whiteboard answers some pressing questions, as always.
A good mailbag article is always fun, and we’re all about fun here at The Whiteboard. If you’d like your question to be featured in next week’s Mailbag Monday, Tweet at me or send them via email to timeoutwithti@gmail.com. Without further ado, let’s get to the first batch of questions!
Both things might be true here. The collective NBA fanbase definitely gets fatigued when it comes to teams that stay together for a long time, even the really good ones. The Washington Wizards, a not really good team, are no exception to this.
The Wizards play in the East, which isn’t exactly the best NBA conference. They still haven’t been to the Conference Finals in the John Wall era, and Wall himself isn’t exactly getting any younger. Washington shook up the squad by flipping Marcin Gortat for Austin Rivers and adding Dwight Howard, but do those moves really matter when compared to the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers?
If Otto Porter takes a leap and Wall stays healthy, then maybe they do. Fans will have to see that before they buy Wizards stock though, and I don’t blame them.
Professor Ti. If you run the numbers of G league players, drafted players and overseas players, what are the odds of making an NBA roster. Curious about a career change
— Jack J. Pelton (@jackjpelton) September 9, 2018
Here’s a fun question. Never mind the total population — how tough is it to make the NBA even if you’re already an established basketball player? Let’s find out.
Overseas leagues would be the hardest number here to figure out, so we’ll just ballpark it. La Liga in Spain is one of the premier overseas basketball leagues, and it has 18 teams, each with roughly 15 players per roster. That’s 270 players. Let’s say there are five really competitive international leagues, just for the ease of math — we’re already at 1,350 players.
There are 27 G League teams, each with about 10 players that are solely G Leaguers. That’s another 270 in the running. Now let’s add, say, the last 10 NBA Drafts, each with 60 players selected. That’s 600 more. (There’s some overlap with drafted players and G Leaguers / overseas players, but we’ll ignore that since so many jump from the NCAA right to the draft.)
We’re sitting conservatively at 2,220 players in the top tier of the global talent pool. Not counting two-way spots, there are roughly 450 NBA roster spots. Even if you’re already in a position to be noticed by the NBA, there’s just a 20.3 percent chance of making the league. I wouldn’t want to bet those odds.
#Content you can’t miss
Meet the 25-under-25, our picks for the best young players in the NBA
Injuries are the worst; John Gambadoro reports that Devin Booker is out indefinitely following hand surgery
Pay the women, please; Bobby Friedman makes the case for WNBA players getting paid more
Don’t put it on your playlist; Nick Tylwalk breaks down the LeBron/KD rap song that recently dropped
Sticking around; Joe Vardon reports that Rodney Hood accepted his qualifying offer with the Cleveland Cavaliers