Adam Silver 'rethinking' position on one-and-done rule

NBA commissioner Adam Silver re-opened the topic of potentially altering the one-and-done draft restrictions in an appearance on "The Herd" on Wednesday.

"I'm rethinking our position," Silver said. "So our historical position since we raised the age from 18 to 19 was that we want to go from 19 to 20. And the Union's position is that they want to go from 19 to 18.

"Because it's one that I think we need to be more thoughtful on and not just be in an adversarial position under the bright lights of collective bargaining."

Silver cited a myriad of reasons for him warming up to the idea of lowering the age limit.

For one, the current system doesn't even keep players in school for one full year, especially since some top prospects don't even want to be there in the first place. The facade of academics ends as soon as basketball wraps up.

"Even the one-and-done players, I don't think it's fair to characterize them as going to one year of school. What's happening now, even at the best schools, they enroll in those universities, some great universities, and they attend those universities until either they don't make the tournament ... or to whenever they lose or win the NCAA Tournament and that becomes their last day.

"In essence it's a half-and-done, in a way."

Silver is also concerned top prospects don't receive the proper coaching at the collegiate level since the interests of the player, the coach, and the programs aren't always aligned.

"Selfishly, I love college basketball and I'm a huge fan of college basketball, I worry about potential stunted development in the most important years in a player's career. The coaches in college don't hold control like they used to because they know these guys know they're out of there."

The commissioner debunked the idea that a player's performance in college determines his draft stock for the next level. Ben Simmons didn't even make the NCAA Tournament and he still went No. 1 overall. Fellow top pick Kyrie Irving only played in 11 games at Duke before going pro.

"There's very little movement. If you look at the draft projections going into their first year in college, it holds fairly true. Maybe there's a little bit of movement, but these young men, they're followed so closely from the time they're 13 or 14 on. They're at the major shoe companies' summer camp. They're being watched closely by the league, by college scouts."

Silver closed his impassioned argument by highlighting the skyrocketing number of one-and-done players coming into the NBA after the league added the rule in 2006.

"When we went from 18 to 19 as the minimum age, that next year we had two so called one-and-done players come into the league. This year it's projected that we have 20 one-and-done players," Silver said. "So I think we have to rethink it."