It's just the nature of defining a hard cutoff for what age a player is considered to be when they sign their ELC. Saying "well, players who are the most deserving get all 3 years of their ELC" or "1st round picks shouldn't have to auto-burn a year of their ELC" is insanely subjective and also unfair to other players. This system has its drawbacks but is not unfair in a biased manner.
It's just the nature of defining a hard cutoff for what age a player is considered to be when they sign their ELC. Saying "well, players who are the most deserving get all 3 years of their ELC" or "1st round picks shouldn't have to auto-burn a year of their ELC" is insanely subjective and also unfair to other players. This system has its drawbacks but is not unfair in a biased manner.
So what is the "system" anyway whats the reasoning behind this
So what is the "system" anyway whats the reasoning behind this
I dunno the full details; you'd have to parse the CBA to figure that out. That or ask Banks or Jarvis. As to why they pick a specific date and say "anyone born after this date has to burn a year of their ELC when they sign their first contract"? Because then people will go, "aw, well, that sucks, but there's literally nothing you can do about when your birthday is," and they just kinda deal with it.