Wingnutjr played basketball for a local basketball organization for four years never once playing on thier premier team. Part of the reason for not playing on thier premier team was due to the financial commitment (I just could not do it). The other part might have been that the premier team started playing together five years earlier with very few boys leaving. We were asked a few times to travel with this team at the last minute but could not fit them into the family schedule.
So we stuck with the next level group and played as many local tournaments as possible while traveling with a makeshift tournament team for at least one tournament each year.
The Premier team in question had one kid who is being recruited by BYU basketball another kid who is being recruited by utah football and the rest will end up playing in college anywhere from the JUCO level to D1 level.