Stop discounting college seniors as athletes who have reached the peak of their abilities.

For the rest of us, I have some very terrible news if 22-year-olds are incapable of changing.

Teams will treat older players like the plague and favor picking 18 and 19-year-olds over upperclassmen. However, despite having a ton of “raw talent,” a sizable portion of young players simply aren’t strong or intelligent enough to compete in the NBA just yet. This happens every year, without fail.

They don’t grow into the superstars that everyone anticipated, and instead wind up towards the back of the lineups or spending the most of their time in the G League. Players who entered the league after three, four, or five years in college and who were virtually written off as antiquated relics, however, demonstrate that growth, adaptation, and progress do not end at the age of 22.