tl;dr: Suggesting a better draft implementation.
I know there have been a lot of complaints about the draft, but our league has discussed a few ideas that could improve it in our forum. I wanted to officially bring them here, and see what everyone thought of them.
First, the quality of the draft isn't very good. Yes, there should be scrubs, but the first full round of the draft should contain players that are at least "good enough" to not get fired right off the bat. As it stands, I don't even bother to scout if I don't have a top 6 pick.
Second, there should be more strategy to the draft. To fix it, I think the draft should include more than just 18 and 19 year olds. The idea is, there should be a few 20-21 year olds that are good. By good, I mean they should be no more than star/starter potential (possibly allstar), but they should be coming out of the draft capped. That means, there should be a few players in the draft that are good enough to start for a good USA D IV team or mediocre (or even good) D III team and be a decent backup for a USA D II or NBBA team. This idea would give teams a choice of "Do I go for the young 18 year old with a ton of potential, or do I draft a player that can help me right now?" (I'd be willing to bet the 18 year olds will still be preferred, but this will add some more strategy for the number 3-16 picks). The skill scale for 20-21 year olds could be different for the one for 18-19 year olds. For instance, 5 balls could be 20k-25k salary, 4 ball 15k-20k, 3 ball 10k-15k, 2 ball 5k-10k, and 1 ball 0-5k. The 18-19 year old scale would be unchanged.
Finally, I think the draft should be made a little more consistent (but still random). Ideally, the draft should contain: (when I talk about ball skills, I'm talking about how it is in the current system)
1-2 high potential (MVP-HoF), decent (4-5 ball skills) 18 year olds (I have had a few drafts with NONE of these players),
1-2 high potential (MVP-HoF), decent (4-5 ball skills) 19 year olds,
6-8 trainable (allstar-superstar, 4-5 ball skills) 18-19 year olds,
4-6 impact (starter-star, 15k-25k salary equivalent [maybe even up to 40k?]) 20-21 year olds,
8-10 decent (starter-star, 3-4 ball skills) 18-19 year olds,
6-10 decent (6th man-star, 6k-11k salary equivalent) 20-21 year olds,
16-20 scrubs/duds (1-2 ball potential, any skill, can be 18-21 years old)
These ranges give a total of 42-58 players, but obviously, the draft would still be 48 total. The numbers could be adjusted a bit, but I've tried to make it so that every player in the first round shouldn't be fired, the second round is decent, and the third round is scrubs. I suppose this could flood the market with more decent players, but I think that many people agree that the current first round of the draft has too many scrubs in it. Also, I don't think this will impact the market for high end (fully trained MVP-HoF) players.
So bringing it all together, teams participating in the draft would need to choose between taking a high potential, young player that can be trained to lead their team in the long term and a player that can help their team win in the lower levels RIGHT NOW (often, just like real life). I think this would add a lot more fun to the draft.