We look at hundreds of thousands of player moves over the past five years to try and answer the age-old question: What are the best basketball leagues in the world?
Very cool…could definitely be useful for international draft models I would think?
Also, I expect the CEBL to move up these rankings over the next few years…so many good G League guys coming over and it’s getting more traction with quality players overseas too.
100% agree. I think some people would be surprised of the CEBL being near the top 40 because it's not a league you generally hear a ton about, but there's a ton of talent there and it really works as a springboard for players heading to elite leagues.
I definitely think a lot of high-level leagues could benefit from scouting and getting players from the CEBL.
The springboard effect is real. Lots of guys using it to get their next G League contracts and show off for NBA teams potentially (disclosure: I was a scout for the Calgary Surge this past season lol)
Just to check if I got this right: this list is not meant to say which league are strongest (else the G-League would never be the 3rd best domestic league behind the NBA and the ACB for instance), but which league best funnels prospects towards the NBA?
Hi Max. The logic behind the rankings is to utilize player movement between leagues as a measuring stick for the quality of the players in said league.
Like I mention on the article, if League A consistently acquires the best-performing players from League B, and, in turn, League B acquires the worst-performing players from League A, then League A is a better level of competition than League B.
When it comes to the G League example (which seems to be the most controversial ranking by some comments I've seen), while a ton of leagues in the world pay better salaries than the G League, there aren't any numbers that support that certain domestic leagues around the world are better than the G League.
For what it's worth, last year I ran the numbers to see how player performance in other leagues translates to the G League and the only 3 leagues where players performed better after getting to the G League (therefore, making them harder leagues to play in) were Euroleague, Spain and Italy.
Leagues like France, Turkey and the Eurocup were trailing right behind the G League, meaning that players from other leagues performed worse after getting to the G League than they did in their original leagues. Making the G League a harder league to play in.
Even 10 years ago, in the Layne Vashro piece I mentioned in this article, the G (then known as the D-League) ranked higher than all domestic leagues in Europe but Spain, and I would argue that the G League is more competitive now.
While I do think the top teams in certain domestic leagues would beat G League teams, this exercise values leagues as a whole, and so far I haven't seen any numbers that support the notion that the G League is clearly worse than a ton of European leagues, but if there are any I would love to read them.
This is awesome man
Very cool…could definitely be useful for international draft models I would think?
Also, I expect the CEBL to move up these rankings over the next few years…so many good G League guys coming over and it’s getting more traction with quality players overseas too.
100% agree. I think some people would be surprised of the CEBL being near the top 40 because it's not a league you generally hear a ton about, but there's a ton of talent there and it really works as a springboard for players heading to elite leagues.
I definitely think a lot of high-level leagues could benefit from scouting and getting players from the CEBL.
The springboard effect is real. Lots of guys using it to get their next G League contracts and show off for NBA teams potentially (disclosure: I was a scout for the Calgary Surge this past season lol)
Mindblown by the numbers that you’ve assembled and analyzed, impressive work.
Very interesting stuff!
Hi Ignacio
Just to check if I got this right: this list is not meant to say which league are strongest (else the G-League would never be the 3rd best domestic league behind the NBA and the ACB for instance), but which league best funnels prospects towards the NBA?
Hi Max. The logic behind the rankings is to utilize player movement between leagues as a measuring stick for the quality of the players in said league.
Like I mention on the article, if League A consistently acquires the best-performing players from League B, and, in turn, League B acquires the worst-performing players from League A, then League A is a better level of competition than League B.
When it comes to the G League example (which seems to be the most controversial ranking by some comments I've seen), while a ton of leagues in the world pay better salaries than the G League, there aren't any numbers that support that certain domestic leagues around the world are better than the G League.
For what it's worth, last year I ran the numbers to see how player performance in other leagues translates to the G League and the only 3 leagues where players performed better after getting to the G League (therefore, making them harder leagues to play in) were Euroleague, Spain and Italy.
Leagues like France, Turkey and the Eurocup were trailing right behind the G League, meaning that players from other leagues performed worse after getting to the G League than they did in their original leagues. Making the G League a harder league to play in.
Even 10 years ago, in the Layne Vashro piece I mentioned in this article, the G (then known as the D-League) ranked higher than all domestic leagues in Europe but Spain, and I would argue that the G League is more competitive now.
https://web.archive.org/web/20241204010759/https://fansided.com/2015/11/06/deep-dives-measuring-level-of-competition-around-the-world/
While I do think the top teams in certain domestic leagues would beat G League teams, this exercise values leagues as a whole, and so far I haven't seen any numbers that support the notion that the G League is clearly worse than a ton of European leagues, but if there are any I would love to read them.