Pacers Forever wrote:Ok this question goes to Skoot or anyone more knowledgeable than him about the G league. Of course maybe one of the good things to come out of hiring Nate 2 is obtaining and /or calling up Brissett. I’m pretty sure the Pacers are taking notice of what Toronto is doing using their G league team to develop and promote players. They won the bubble this year I believe. Their young Center Boucher was a recent example. He started as a GS warrior and they cut him. Toronto signed him to either a 2 way or exhibit 10 and he eventually made it out of G league and onto Raptors roster.
My question is can the Mad Ants start signing a few experienced G league players who might break out to build a better roster for the Pacers to eventually promote from ? I know all G league players are free agents to the NBA. Just not sure how easily we could pilfer talent from other G league squads
Of course I know the Pacers can invite undrafted players to summer league and send their drafted rookies to summer league. I also know that they could send other bench players but that’s not relevant to strengthening the Mad Ants. A stronger Mad Ants can make for a stronger farm system.
Second question is how do they catch up to the top G league teams ? I don’t care for G league titles as much as having good talented players ready to break out getting developed and be worthy of getting a shot at strengthening the Pacers bench at minimal salary. I hope the Pacers are trying more to improve from the G league.
I’m not super in on G-League stuff, but Tony East is a good twitter follow for that. However, there are some things I know.
G-League teams can retain talent they’ve had in the past. Teams trade rights to players somewhat often. These trades aren’t always based on value, but mostly fit. As teams change directions on the NBA level, they’ll change directions or systems on the G-League level to better train their players, and the G-League teams will adapt by trading bad fits for better fits.
Teams also can gain the rights to players by having players in the NBA training camp, or being the last team to waive someone. This is the reason you’ll see some teams cycle through waiver claims during the last cuts of training camp. If you are the last team to waive a guy, you generally get priority placement for them in assignment to your G League team. You’ll see some teams claim a guy and immediately waive them, even if it means you have to pay them 1 day’s worth of NBA salaries. Team’s can claim up to 4 players per year as an “affiliate player” where they get to steer training camp cuts into their G-League team.
Teams can sign guys for the NBA big league camp with what’s called an Exhibit 10 contract, where, if you give them a bonus of no more than $50k, they can receive that bonus payment if they are with that teams G-League affiliate for 60 days. Players who sign contracts with the G-League directly are drafted each year. Vets who haven’t signed with the G-League directly before (though may have been assigned from the NBA for injury rehab), undrafted rookies, and national G-League tryout guys are all eligible for the draft (this is how we acquired Brissett).
Teams can also hold local tryouts each year and invite up to 4 players to join their G-League team. These players don’t have to go through the draft since they tried out locally, and this is an effort to help get maybe missed prospects from local areas to play with a local team and help sell tickets for the G-League team.
This is where the random workouts you’ll see the Pacers have in (like Mangas) come into play. They may be getting a better look for the benefit of the G-League team, even if they’re not inviting the player to the NBA camp.