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This week, top 2017 prospect DeAndre Ayton is finishing up his final summer as a high school prospect by competing in the Nike Peach Jam. In the midst of going against some of the country's best prospects, Ayton took some time from dominating on the court to do a quick interview with SNY.
In that interview with Adam Zagoria, Ayton touched on a variety of topics from his recruiting to the status of top high school prospects spurning college to play basketball somewhere else. While he did discuss the overseas route, with McDonald's All-American Terrance Ferguson electing to play in Australia, Ayton also mentioned that high school prospects were talking about potentially going into the NBA D-League. Ayton said the following:
"Man, I heard a lot of kids, yeah," he said when I asked him about the D-League at the Peach Jam, where he's playing with Cal Supreme. "That's the big talk right now. Yeah, they just looking at it, like man I want to go get this money, stuff like that. But I'm just going to take it step by step and see my where game is at."
Although Ayton would later reiterate that he wants to go to college for at least one seasons, it's still intriguing that high schools are talking up the D-League as a potential destination. Unlike the NBA, high school graduates can be declare for the D-League draft, as players must be 18 years old, as opposed to the NBA where US players have to follow these two rules.
- Have your 19th birthday in the same calendar year of the NBA Draft
- Be one year removed from high school graduation
" The reports I've heard on salary increases for the NBADL place the new range around $40K-$100K. I'm not sure those numbers get the elite talent jumping the NCAA ship but they may. "