If it's been covered on here, I haven't seen it.
While I don't watch as much college basketball as I used to, I'm an NBA Draft nerd (among other nerdisms), and after the NBA lottery is conducted, I absorb a ton of content about it. As they have gotten deeper into the weeds of it, including some breakdowns of mid-2nd round guys and lower, multiple podcasts have noted last year TJD would've gone much higher, but he was unwilling to sign a two-way contract with the interested club.
A two-way contract is a contract that pays a player for his time in the G League at G League scale, but your games in the NBA are paid at the NBA scale.
Typically there are prospects who are better off not getting drafted in the 2nd round because there is no guarantee. It's better to work with a club who could need or want to fill that position. Sometimes it's a team that doesn't have a 2nd round pick or a team that just isn't ready to pick you when they do. It does give the player some control.
The context has mostly been the recent news that Bronny would not be signing a two-way, and the comparison being made to that disposition is to TJD.
Of course the idea of guaranteed contracts aren't always just about how talented a player is. It's about roster spots and/or how it impacts the cap. If a club signed TJD to a contract but cut him, not only would they still have to pay him but his contract would remain on their cap until it expired.
So this was TJD betting on himself, and as it played out, it was also Golden State believing in him. It's going to pay off for both parties.
While I don't watch as much college basketball as I used to, I'm an NBA Draft nerd (among other nerdisms), and after the NBA lottery is conducted, I absorb a ton of content about it. As they have gotten deeper into the weeds of it, including some breakdowns of mid-2nd round guys and lower, multiple podcasts have noted last year TJD would've gone much higher, but he was unwilling to sign a two-way contract with the interested club.
A two-way contract is a contract that pays a player for his time in the G League at G League scale, but your games in the NBA are paid at the NBA scale.
Typically there are prospects who are better off not getting drafted in the 2nd round because there is no guarantee. It's better to work with a club who could need or want to fill that position. Sometimes it's a team that doesn't have a 2nd round pick or a team that just isn't ready to pick you when they do. It does give the player some control.
The context has mostly been the recent news that Bronny would not be signing a two-way, and the comparison being made to that disposition is to TJD.
Of course the idea of guaranteed contracts aren't always just about how talented a player is. It's about roster spots and/or how it impacts the cap. If a club signed TJD to a contract but cut him, not only would they still have to pay him but his contract would remain on their cap until it expired.
So this was TJD betting on himself, and as it played out, it was also Golden State believing in him. It's going to pay off for both parties.
