Dink Pate took an unconventional route to the pros, and he thinks it gave him quite the advantage.
Since the NBA banned high school players from jumping straight from their senior year to the Draft in 2006, the most conventional route for budding stars to take was to spend a season or two in college before declaring for the draft.
In recent years, emerging developmental leagues like the Overtime Elite have given a different option, and some players, like LaMelo Ball, have played overseas instead of engaging with the NCAA.
In 2020, the NBA decided to get a slice of the action, forming the G League Ignite team, which would allow promising young players to spend a season or two playing in the G League before declaring for the draft. Scoot Henderson, Ron Holland, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Jalen Green, and others all went through the program.
The Ignite shut down after the 2024 season, but that hasn’t stopped one young star from using the G League.
After spending one season with the Ignite, 18-year-old guard Dink Pate signed with the Mexico City Capitanes in an effort to elevate his draft stock before the 2025 NBA Draft.
Pate is expected to be a top-20 pick in the 2025 Draft, but he is already in his second pro season. He signed with the Ignite in 2023 at just 17 years old, becoming the youngest professional basketball player in American history.
After the Ignite folded, he headed to Mexico City, where he had to earn minutes in a more competitive league.
In college, programs like Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, and others are more concerned with producing NBA players than anything else, so top recruits are given playing time before they might be ready.
While the NCAA is a high-level league, the G League simply offers more competition, which Pate relishes.
“There’s been a couple of interviews that I’ve seen to where college players have said, ‘The G league is not a talented league,’ or they said, ‘College is way better than the G League,” Pate told NBA Analysis Network.
“I find it kind of crazy because every night I’m playing against the best college player that was on his college team. If people don’t understand that, I will gladly say that again, everybody that I’m playing against, let’s say JD Davis, because he was the best player on his team in Alabama. He went undrafted.”
In 23 games with the Capitanes this season, Pate is averaging 10.7 points and 1.7 assists in 22 minutes per contest.
He reflected on how the Capitanes, despite having a promising prospect, care more about winning than getting him to the NBA, and he thinks it’s molding him into a winning player who is ready for the culture that comes with playing in the best league in the world.
“At the end of the day, I think you learn more and you get way better in the league,” Pate continued.
“Especially if this is the league you’re trying to go to, like, once you get drafted from college, you’re not going back to college, you’re going to the NBA.
“And then me, that’s why I feel like I’m so ahead of people. I have the first experience of not playing for a whole season, doing everything right, but I’ve done it in the G.”
While he admits that he was inspired by LeBron James going straight from high school to the pros, he understood that path isn’t for everyone. If going to the G League or straight to the NBA wasn’t a possibility, the Dallas, Texas native was going to take his talents to the University of Alabama.
“I even told Coach Oats, Coach Nate Oats is the head coach over there,” he said of his non-binding commitment to the Crimson Tide. “That’s where I was going. I was going to be Roll Tide, Roll! That was my second option, my first option was always pro. This is what I always wanted to do. This is what I always stuck with it and wanted to do.”
Pate is participating in the third season of The Break, presented by The General, which aims to get eyes on younger talents as they try to enter the NBA. He hopes that the docuseries will boost his draft stock, but he thinks his proven track record in the G League will give him all the help he needs to realize his NBA dreams.
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