NBA G-League Looks to Add Kai Sotto

If things work out, Jalen Green won't be the lone Filipino-American player who will enter the National Basketball Association (NBA) G-League this coming season.

With Jalen Green announcing that he's forgoing what could have been an illustrated collegiate career in the United States to enter the reshaped NBA G-League program for blue-chip recruits, the G-League has its eyes on another basketball prodigy from the Philippines. 

Kai Sotto has been training in the United States and is hoping to attract NBA scouts as he's working his way towards making it to the NBA. And while he could become eligible to enter the 2021 NBA Draft, the entrance of Jalen Green into the G-League cannot help pundits but ask the question: Should Kai Sotto do a Jalen Green too? That's a good question to ask and one way or another, it's an option to consider especially for a talented player like Sotto himself.

Just days after signing Jalen Green to play for a G-League team for one season, the NBA G-League is reported to be on the lookout for more young talented basketball stars in the United States and among the players whom the league is reaching out to is the former King Ateneo Blue Eaglet, Kai Sotto who is currently in Atlanta where he is working on improving his craft with The Skill Factory. This is according to Jonathan Givony and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. 

While there are other prospects who have been in the running to join Green in the developmental league of the NBA, Sotto is one of the most prominent names to pop out along with Greg Brown of Texas. If the 17-year University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) champion in the juniors' division is to bypass his collegiate career and jump straight into the G-League, it will benefit Kai Sotto for two reasons: the G-League will give him a closer understanding of everything in the NBA on top of continuously working on his skills as a player. And more importantly, the G-League will allow NBA scouts to take a closer look at Sotto among other prospects that will help them make a decision for next year's draft.

Simply put it this way: If Kai Sotto lives up to the hype that has been vested upon him, he and Jalen Green might get drafted next year. 

Photo is from ABS CBN Sports