The Daily Dose: NCAA expected to shorten NBA Draft window

There was a very interesting story in The Washington Post on Wednesday, detailing a proposal expected to be passed by the NCAA's Division I Legislative Council that would limit the amount of time college underclassmen have before deciding whether to remain in the NBA draft or return to school. It caught many people--both in the NBA and in the Players' Association--by surprise.

"Let me think about it," one general manager said Wednesday.

O.J. Mayo declared for the NBA Draft after one year at USC. The NCAA is considering shortening the window. Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images

Currently, college players begin declaring their intentions in late April, and have until 10 days before the draft in June to pull out and return to school. Under the proposal --which is being made by the Atlantic Coast Conference, according to the Post-- that two-month window would be reduced to 10 days after the NCAA's Final Four beginning in 2010. That would bring college basketball more in line with college football, whose deadline for underclassmen to declare for the NFL's April draft was Wednesday.

While the NBA didn't initiate the proposal, it likely won't have much problem with it, either. If the declare date is moved up, the number of underclassmen who declare will almost certainly decrease, and that will make the NCAA happy -- a positive as the NBA attempts to forge a more cooperative relationship with college basketball. NBA Commissioner David Stern still is hoping to develop an amateur basketball academy with the NCAA along the lines of national programs in other countries, and the pros eliminated eligibility for high school players for the draft two years ago.

College coaches decry the current two-month window because the uncertainty of whether players will stay or go hamstrings their recuriting ability. They also believe that players who are deciding what to do tend not to attend classes as regularly, putting them further behind academically if they do decide to return to school.

"If you give somebody forever to make a decision," North Carolina Coach Roy Williams told the Post, "they are going to take forever. It leaves your program in limbo. It leaves your current players in limbo."

But the impact on NBA teams could be large. Moving the declare date up will limit the number of workouts teams can have with players in the weeks leading up to the draft, and that will make evaluating borderline draft picks harder. The NBA has already reduced the window during which college players can work out for prospective NBA teams; no team can conduct workouts with individual players until after the league's pre-draft camp in Chicago in May. The Chicago camp has already eliminated actual games, with propspective players now only being weighed and measured much along the lines of the NFL's Combine in February.

And the Portsmouth Tournament, a four-day evaluation for college players which occurs the week after the Final Four, currently does not allow underclassmen to participate.

"If Portsmouth could include underclassmen, that would be better," one GM said Wednesday.

Of course, agents could be adversely impacted. Fewer players mean fewer potential commissions, and limiting workouts might make it harder for borderline players to get drafted. And college players who don't get drafted have a much tougher time finding consistent work overseas. And the NCAA's proposal doesn't impact international players, who often have difficult buyouts in their contracts that make entering the NBA draft problematic.

"I think it's somewhat overbearing," said Andy Miller, one of the most prominent agents, who represents current NBA players Kevin Garnett, Chauncey Billups and Andre Miller, among others.

The NBA's Advisory Committee--a nine-person panel consisting of three general managers and six player personnel directors, who advise potential draft picks on where they're likely to be selected in the two rounds of the draft, or if they're going to be selected at all--is likely to see a lot more action. In the last three years, 159 underclassmen have gotten the committee's advice, including 69 last year.

"We'd be prepared to handle" more inquiries, said Stu Jackson, the NBA's director of operations.

A league spokesman said Wednesday that the NBA had no official position on the NCAA's decision, since it currently has no impact on the NBA's own deadline for underclassmen. Any change in the deadline date by the league would have to be done in concert with the union, which was still examining the proposal Wednesday.