The NBA draft: What's the POINT?

As the college basketball heats up it is clear that many NBA teams are looking for the next superstar to "save" their team for the 2015-2016 season.  As NBA forecasters begin to create their mock drafts we notice, although the college season is young, there are a few players on the college level that can IMMEDIATELY help NBA teams such as the Sixers, Knicks and Nuggets.

This past June, Adam Silver (his 1st as the NBA Commish) called 30 names and of the 30 names - NONE of the 2014 draftees played in the 2015 ALL STAR game.  In all fairness, the players are just getting their feet under them so lets look at 2013 draft.  In David Stern's last NBA draft, headlined by Anthony Bennett, again NO player made the mid season classic game.  

Ideally, everyone knows the point of the draft.  It serves as a great tool for teams to build their rosters, however based on the track record of recent drafts one must ask "What is the point of the NBA Draft'?

To add credence to the argument, 82games' tracked the position in which a player was drafted and their NBA success rate / longevity and based upon the evidence the NBA is drafting ROLE PLAYERS who ultimately are borderline NBA players and will become lifelong D-Leaguers or overseas performers.  In addition, a LARGE portion of the draftees were UNDERCLASSMEN which leads to another question - ARE THE PLAYERS READY FOR THE NBA?  One must keep in mind, there are ONLY 450 "jobs" within the NBA each year.  The number is actually smaller when one considers the amount of guaranteed contracts that exist.  So in essence, there are only a hand full of jobs available for "new" players on a yearly basis. In recent drafts, NBA teams have drafted on POTENTIAL (which as defined by Webster as "existing in possibility : capable of development into actuality") as opposed to reality.

Recommendation,  the NBA should adopt a combination of the NFL draft policy as well as the MLB minor league system:

"Such player has been granted eligibility through special permission of the Commissioner. Any applications for special eligibility must be in the Commissioner's office no later than a pre determined date.  No player shall be permitted to apply for special eligibility for selection in the draft, or otherwise be eligible for the draft, until three NFL regular seasons have begun and ended following either his graduation from high school or graduation of the class with which he entered high school, whichever is earlier. No player may elect to bypass the regular draft to apply for a supplemental draft." 

Pundits will ask..."What about the player who has to wait three years and he is NOT ready for college"? That is a valid question, however we would contend the NBA create a multi layered minor league system similar to MLB's Farm system and have the DLeague as the "TRIPLE A" of the system.  

Although this is a pipe dream, consider Charles Barkley's remarks in 2012 regarding the NBA draft, "...the draft is designed for the bad teams to get help, and they’re drafting an 18-year old kid who don’t know how to play, who’s not physically or mentally mature or tough enough. And you’ve got the same cycle of bad teams staying bad." 

Whereas NBA Champion - Steve Kerr contends player development is parmount to the success of a NBA player, "...Think about the 1980's, when the best college players usually played a least two or three years before entering the draft.  Stars like Michael Jordan (three years in college), Larry Bird (four years) and Magic Johnson (two years) used their college time to hone their leadership skills, improve their games, and deal with real pressure (all three played for national championships).  They learned how to deal with media scrutiny, how to handle game pressure, even how to handle success and failure under a pretty sizable spotlight.  By the time they were drafted, they were ready to success at the highest level and compete for titles immediately.  Bird and Magic won eight of the league's next nine championships after they entered the league in 1979; Jordan won seven scoring titles and three NBA titles in his first nine seasons.  All three thrived immediately as rookies."

Thoughts?