NBL Next Stars: A Program Gaining Momentum as Premier Pathway to the NBA

With each passing draft, the NBL's Next Stars program is proving to be one of the best pathways to the NBA.

Over the past several years, the pathways rising basketball prospects can choose from to make it to the NBA have only grown in both quantity and quality. The number options has increased outside of the standard college route, and these newer methods of developing before being drafted come with significant perks, compensation and development paths.

Outside of the standard college or international route, prospects in recent history have found unique ways to make it to the NBA including a post-graduate high school season, the G League, Overtime Elite and even a gap year away from on-court action with a focus on just training

With that in mind, one of the premier tracks to the NBA today is a twist on the international path. The NBL has built out the Next Stars program, which allows rising players to play professionally in a highly competitive setting with plenty of NBA personnel keeping an eye on them.

The inception of this program can be traced back to Terrance Ferguson's time in Australia. He was brought to the NBL as a high school prospect with real NBA upside, playing for the Adelaide 36ers in the 2016-17 season. He evolved into a first-round draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder. From there, the framework of this program was formed after seeing his individual success as a proof of concept.

“The key element of that was to try to increase the global awareness and interest in the NBL. Let’s support high level prospects to come through the NBL as a stepping stone towards the NBA in order to increase the international interest in the league,” Liam Santamaria, the GM of Next Stars Recruitment told Draft Digest.

Consequently, they established a program where the Next Stars player would essentially serve as an additional roster spot for an NBL team, with the commercial aspects of the prospect's presence being primarily managed by the league and falling outside the team's salary cap calculations. The first player to emerge from this program was Brian Bowen, who later signed a two-way contract with the Indiana Pacers. In the second year, the program gained significant traction when players like LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton chose to play in the NBL, and more followed suit in the subsequent years. This led to rapid growth and expansion of the program.

With how competitive the market is today as it relates to adding quality prospects given the number of options they have now, recruitment strategy has been of extreme importance for the Next Stars program to date and will continue to be moving forward.

When a player and their representation expresses genuine interest in joining the program, NBL teams are informed about the player and their potential to choose the Next Stars pathway, and the teams interested in bringing the player into their club are evaluated individually to determine best fit for that prospect.

Since the commercial aspects of the deal are managed by the league, the decision about which team the player will join is solely based on basketball factors, such as team composition, style of play, player development history, and more. Once teams express interest, they have the chance to pitch to the player. Ultimately, the player and his camp determines which club is best suited to support the prospect's development.

Regardless of which team the player lands on, it’s a fantastic opportunity to play professionally and leverage top notch facilities, coaching staffs and development programs. Furthermore, this program is different than something like G League Ignite, where all of the top young talent in the league is on one loaded roster. Instead, this provides players the chance to likely to be the primary draft prospect on that team.

The track record of this program speaks for itself, with numerous first-round selections graduating from this system.

• LaMelo Ball

• RJ Hampton

• Josh Giddey

• Ousmane Dieng

There’s been countless other Next Stars that have been selected in the second round as well, or even went undrafted and had success in the NBA or G League.

These players are grateful for the opportunity and where it got them, especially Josh Giddey of the Oklahoma City Thunder who still advocates for the program and helps recruit where he can.

I asked Josh Giddey about the ⁦@NBL⁩ Next Stars program, his involvement today and how it’s a path to success for players looking to make it to the NBA. pic.twitter.com/8OFL6wr5xZ

— Nick Crain (@CrainNBA) October 2, 2023

Not only do the players in the Next Stars program have the opportunity to play professionally in preparation for the NBA, but it’s in one of the best leagues in the entire world. When evaluating players in this program, there are a few things to consider. For starters, games are 40 minutes long in the NBL and there’s a much shorter season than in the NBA, which increases the intensity and importance of every single game. Furthermore, the NBL game has less space and pace due to differing court sizes and 3-point lines, along with different rules. The game is slower and contains much more halfcourt settings.

"There's a playoff type intensity to every single game. The tagline for this current NBL season is 'Every Moment Matters'. It feels like almost like the playoffs in every regular season game over here," Santamaria said.

Given how many players that are now in this system with real NBA upside, there’s a significant chance that a fan of any NBA team could see one of these prospects playing for their team as early as next season.

• Alexandre Sarr (Perth Wildcats)

• AJ Johnson (Illawarra Hawks)

• Bobi Klintman (Cairns Taipans)

• Trentyn Flowers (Adelaide 36ers)

• Alex Toohey (Sydney Kings)

• Ariel Hukporti (Melbourne United)

• Mantas Rubstavicius (New Zealand Breakers)

• Rocco Zikarsky (Brisbane Bullets)

Luckily for these NBA fans, the NBL recently struck a deal with ESPN, so entire 2023-24 season will be carried on ESPN3 and the ESPN App.

Although it’s only a few years old, the NBL’s Next Stars program is emerging as one of the best routes for a prospect to take en route to making it to the NBA. 

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