Should Age Become Just a Number in NBA Draft With New CBA Rules?

The Oklahoma City Thunder have one of the deepest rosters in the NBA and still plenty of draft capital at its disposal. With the 2025 NBA Draft heating up, is age just a number now with the new CBA?

Thunder general manager Sam Presti speaks during an introductory press conference for the 2024 Thunder draft picks at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center in Oklahoma City, Saturday, June, 29, 2024. / SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

As conference play tips-off in college basketball, NBA Draft coverage heats up to keep warm in the winter. For some teams, this is all there is to look forward to. For the Thunder? An added luxury.

Not only is Oklahoma City sitting atop the Western Conference standings with a 26-5 record, but they own three first round picks in a loaded 2025 NBA Draft class to go along with a second round pick owned by the Atlanta Hawks.

It is an embarrassment of riches for one of the deepest rosters in the NBA, but a route that the Thunder do not take lightly. Take Ajay Mitchell for example, the no. 38 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has carved out a spot in Mark Daigneault's rotation since opening night and is hitting his stride during the holiday season.

Oklahoma City had an interesting 2024 NBA Draft, where they made three selections taking Nikola Topic with the no. 12 pick, multi-year college swingman Dillon Jones at pick 26 and the aformentioned four-year college standout in Mitchell.

Topic is seen to have top-five talent in this past class before slipping to the late lottery portion of the first round due to injuries as he will miss the entire 2024-25 campaign with an ACL injury. Mitchell has been and instant impact and Jones was a worthy dart to chuck at the board.

Each year around the NBA Draft, the topic of age pops up. Every team passing up 20-something year old prospects ready to contribute for the upside of an 18-year-old with more proven flaws that are masked by perceived upside. However, could this trend change?

While it is impossible to fully ignore the age of a prospect, especially at the top as teams floundering search for a franchise-altering piece to drag them out of tankathon simulations and into contention status, what might change under the new CBA is the point in the draft it becomes acceptable to not be blinded by upside.

For most teams, the draft is the lifeblood of an organization, the only true route to improve your roster long-term. Few teams have the money or leverage to toss around cash and earn quick-fixes.

Even the largest markets who can use cap space to solve its issues are now bogged out by a CBA driven by parity with trade rules becoming even more complicated with hard caps and aprons aplenty..

All 30 teams are now incentives to hit its draft picks as cost controlled talent becomes a requirement for sustained success. This could shift draft philosophy.

To maximize on this window of cheap production, a prospect must be ready to play immediately, which mostly comes from multi-year college players or older prospects. While there are outliers such as Jared McCain (pre-injury) and Stephon Castle, most first-year players who contribute to winning are prospects pushed down boards due to age.

In the 2024 NBA Draft class its Ajay Mitchell, Jaylen Wells, Zach Edey and Dalton Knecht stealing headlines and helping playoff hopefuls reach its goals. in the 2025 class, there are plenty of older players ready to play right away.

Take Tennessee's Chaz Lanier for example, a fifth year senior who is shooting 47 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 19.3 points, 3.1 assists, 1.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game for the Vols with a 6-foot-4 175 pound frame. Sure, he will be knocked for his age and size forcing him to tumble to the second-round but he will likely prove to be the 2025 version of Wells and Mitchell.

JT Toppin, Johni Broome and Hunter Sallis also fit this category to monitor ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft in June.

Should teams at the top such as Charlotte, Utah, Wahington, Toronto, Brooklyn and Portland swing for the fences, eyes closed and banked on the upside of a 18-year-old no matter the flaws in their game currently? Absolutely.

The question becomes, what is the cut-off point for swinging for the fences vs. aiming for a gap-shot double that drives in a run? Perhaps in this draft, its as early as San Antonio at no. 11. A rarely seen sight of a multi-year college player selected in the high-to-mid lottery could be exactly what the doctor ordered in the new-world NBA.

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