2022 NBA Draft: #37 Jaden Hardy (6' 3", 6' 9" WS) to DAL | two 2nds to SAC

[MrGoat]

Couple of other things:

He was playing against older folks who are genuinely fighting to get a chance and good enough to make the G League, as opposed to most college players who are playing against kids their age, many of whom will never make the G League. 

G League is not as glamorous or cushy a life as a major college program where the players, especially the top dogs like Hardy would have been, are pampered and treated like royalty. 

So the fact that he fought through and kept improving definitely says something about his work ethic and mental makeup.

It's his improvement during the season that makes me not hate the pick. He face planted hard right out of the gate in G league. 

Hardy got me looking more closely at the G League. G League Ignite is a very new thing though, founded in 2020. The Ignite is the specific team designed for elite NBA prospects (no one dared take the G league route for 5 years after PJ Hairston in 2014). In 2018 the NBA introduced Select Contracts of $125K for elite prospects starting in 2019-20. No one bit so they raised the amount and soon the top recruit in the nation, Jalen Green, the top ranked player in the 2020 high school class signed with the Ignite for $500k. Soon after, Kuminga, who was the top prospect in the 2021 high school class reclassified to 2020 and also joined the Ignite. 

The Ignite is specifically the team meant to poach top recruits from the NCAA