So how much has the draft changed post the David Stern imposed, possibly illegal, age limit for entrance into the NBA draft?

For you incredibly young-ins the time before the age limit was a lawless land, filled with talk of length, speed, and yes, ridiculous upside. Players were drafted who as Freedarko often puts it, were going to change the face of the game. Drafts were held where the player taken number one overall had not proven anything, shown anything, but they had the potential (Freedarko once again) to be the greatest thing since MJ. They would revolutionize the NBA once again, as Dr. J had done in the 70s.

Kevin Garnett cracked open the gates, and it took Stern a decade to force them shut once again. This is not a question of whether this is legal or whether this has helped the NBA. But whether anything has truly changed.

Today as we fill out our mock-drafts and debate over team needs vs. getting the Best Player Available how do college achievements figure into a GM's decision making. It seems to me, little if at all.

Tyler Hansborough, the poster case for what David Stern wants from an NBA player? Four year college graduate, has scored more points than anyone in North Carolina history, won a national championship, has won all 6 national player of the year awards, and yet he is on the bubble at the end of the first round. He has proved himself through the college system, he has done it "the right way" (god, I hate this phrase), and yet here he is in one of the weakest drafts in recent memory, noted particularly for its absence of decent Forwards, and is primarily on the outside looking in. Why, is this the case? In my opinion, it is once again that players continue to be taken on potential, and what they could possibly provide, rather than what the player has actually done.

The flip side to this point would be Jrue Holiday. He looked amazing in high school. He's a very smart player, and smart person. Could pass, could get to the rim, and could defend with the best of them. Unquestionably looked like one of three possible players, who would stand out in his class. He attends UCLA, can't wrestle the starting spot from Darren Collison (2nd rounder) and ends up playing out of position as the off guard. And did a poor job of it. Has this deterred GM's from taking him, having they used what they learned about him, in order to inform their decisions? Or is he projected to go in the 14-10 range of the draft?

GMs are simply not using the information that is being provided to them through David Stern's manipulations of the draft class. What value does an age limit provide then? As David Stern makes comments that he wants to push the age to 20, what value does he see in this? Does he think that this system has been working? Does he look at the NBA draft classes today and say that they are better because of his actions?

And are the players coming into the draft better prepared to become better players because of their time in the college system? As several others have pointed out before the best names in basketball today never went to college (KG, Kobe, Lebron) and the ones that did actually hurt their draft position and limited their years in the NBA (Chris Paul, Carmelo, Roy).

Undoubtedly we should know more about these players when we can see them player longer and they play against better competition. But when GMs do not see value in either this information, nor the experience that college provides (as evidenced by the love of the high school phenom pre-age limit), we are simply keeping GM's from drafting the players that they want to draft, and the players from entering the draft when they want to.

Nothing has changed, we continue to the hear the "Myth of the next great" (once again freedarko, seriously check their shit out) and we continue to draft on potential, no matter how much the player has accomplished with their time in college. I fail to see how the age limit has changed drafting strategy, the value of players, or the players' abilities and needs to be repealed, without GM's using the information that Stern is so intent on providing the age limit is worthless.