Youth development

[tallerman]

This was mentioned in the SNB thread but it will probably get lost and it’s a great point.

Leicester are clearly the front runners at developing bbl basketball once a person has reached adulthood, fine current examples being Anderson who has played in multiple countries winning gold medals and Washington again playing in multiple countries and winning trophies galore.

Other teams have produced players the same like Ubiaro at Raiders, Defoe in Newcastle and Lewis in Sheffield.

But right now London have made a huge step forward in many things they do. With Kaoboza in London and Bowman and Vdouko in Leicester all on 4+ year deals who do we think will develop into the best pro or for the longest.

Brain says bowman in Leicester but probably based on their track record yet London probably have a higher coaches wage bill than half the league. Would be interested in everyone’s thoughts. I know many will have obvious bias but would still be interesting

[stevetino]

Youth development has huge programmes at Eagles but not much has come through the ranks over the last few seasons that’s for sure

[eagles18000]

There’s a difference between youth development to build a sport and pro young player development.

for instance re leicester : conner washington : mk
jamel anderson : nottingham and essex
blake bowman : derby.

all produced by other clubs and then progressed by leicester.

most players who come through development systems try their luck in us college : see hosana kitenge from leicester or tosan ebwouvman from newcastle. and as such we don’t see them in bbl for a while or if ever.

[tallerman]

Yeah young pro would be the term I'm looking for

[D44]

I think a lot of it comes down to how long the players stick around for and their attitude to self improvement. There's only so much a few hours of training a day can achieve. Plus dont forget how long they can sustain training and eating like a pro whilst (usually) earning beer money and working a second job.
It's pretty telling that the British BBL players who stick around and don't go off to college tend to peak late 20s/early 30s whilst working their way up the bench. Darius' improvement over the years has been ridiculous, although obviously helped by the fact physically he's an absolute unit.