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I fear the D-League just isn't competitive enough to really have the desired effect it should be having.

I come to this conclusion after hearing about DJ Strawberry and Tucker absolutely tearing up the league when they play there avg'ing 30+ppg.

To me, this means nothing. I would much prefer they were playing in a more competitive league that would improve their abilities when/if they were drafted into the "senior" squad.

So what are peoples thoughts about improving the D-League?

One idea I would have is not restricting who can be sent there. I would much rather see this as a "reserve" type league rather then a development league because I don't think they are developing by playing against much worse players. Teams should be able to send vets who haven't played for a while (e.g. Gadzuric) just to get them into game shape and keep them fresh. Maybe if enough teams did this the league would be more competitive.

I agree. The problem is that the better players play in the Euroleague. The best Euroleague players are about equal to average NBA players. The best D-League players are about equal to the worst players on each NBA team. Wipe out the Euroleague and the D-League will be much more competitive. If they want the D-League to gain publicity they should let retired players play a few D-League games. Imagine seeing Pippen and Jordan vs. Stockton and Malone all over again.

This probably wouldn't be any good for the NBA, but I am sure it would help the D-league a lot if D-league was an actual step between high school / college and the NBA. D-League drafts players from college/international leagues and then the NBA teams are eligible to select players from D-League.

I like the set up for now. We can't expect it to immediately become a developmental league like the NHL or MLB has. Look at the NFL Europe. They tried for years to have a developmental league in Europe that didn't really have much success and now they have had to scrap it because it was losing too much money.

I think some restrictions for now are still good. Perhaps opening it up as an rehab assignment would be good. You probably still wouldn't see a superstar do a rehab assignment, but imagine seeing Andrew Bynum play a couple rehab games there in 8 weeks.

The biggest thing is that the DLeague needs to make money. As long as it keeps making money, the league can expand. If it makes enough money the easiest way to expand will be buying teams from other minor leagues or whole leaugues for that matter. If it can become big enough so that each team has its own DLeague team then we can see some real creativity now. So I'd say, keep on making money, continue to slowly expand, and eventually it could become quite useful like what MLB has.

The players union would never agree to that. The last thing a vet making millions of dollars wants to do is rehab in Sioux Falls or Tulsa and be away from his family and friends. Anyway NBA teams have better rehab facilities than do the teams in the D league.

Muzzleshot wrote:The players union would never agree to that. The last thing a vet making millions of dollars wants to do is rehab in Sioux Falls or Tulsa and be away from his family and friends. Anyway NBA teams have better rehab facilities than do the teams in the D league.

Well when MLB players do rehab assignments it can only be so long before they have to agree to be on the rehab assignment. You could just make it where they have to agree to it at all.

Also I just want to make sure you didn't confuse what I meant for rehab assignment. I only meant it in the way that you would play a couple exhibition games to get back into game speed right before you actually have to go back. So you're talking about maybe one week and three games at the most. I don't mean a 3 month rehab stint to work on a torn ACL.

lol @ wipe out the euroleague

what are d-league players salaries? like 35k/year?

Bring the D league to Europe. Eat up smaller basketball leagues. Have North American and European Champions meet at the unification game. Only one can be the best of the Scrubs.

Cevap wrote:lol @ wipe out the euroleague

I wasn't being serious when I said that. The D-League has a bigger chance of getting shut down than the Euroleague.

In the Euroleague this players will get more money than playing in the NBA, so until the D-League pays more money to their best players, they'll go to Europe,
Tho the best players in the D-League are just average or below in europe

I think that the NBA should fold the D-League and try to collaberate with the Euroleagues, and have each division in the NBA own a team out in Europe somewhere and have the players learn over there against REAL talent.

bigballa3jj wrote:what are d-league players salaries? like 35k/year?

yes

The D-League is poorly structured to promote 'development', anyway...guys like Strawberry are in D-League primarily because they lack the all-around skills to make an NBA roster. Playing the role of scoring machine against hapless opponents doesn't really groom them to be effective NBA bench players.

Schadenfreude wrote:The D-League is poorly structured to promote 'development', anyway...guys like Strawberry are in D-League primarily because they lack the all-around skills to make an NBA roster. Playing the role of scoring machine against hapless opponents doesn't really groom them to be effective NBA bench players.

This is true of MLB baseball too in many cases.

Many times there are guys who are in AAA who are dominating. Your choice is to let him continue to dominate in AAA where he plays regularly, but doesn't develop skills, you bring him up to the big leagues and let him struggle, or you play him in the big leagues and watch him struggle, but let him struggle.

Every minor league system can be poor in this sense. It isn't as bad in the case of baseball, but we can't expect the D-League to be at that level right away.
Two major things need to happen for the D-League to take off:
1. Every team gets their own affiliate. They hire their own coaches and control the whole roster. Also when teams have full ownership of a minor league team they can funnel more money into it. This could solve the problem of players opting for International ball instead.
2. Expand the NBA draft to 3 or maybe 4 rounds. This gives you more guys to fill out the roster. Yea those two extra guys could just be undrafted free agents, but you get the guaranteed rights to those players this way. Theres probably also many players who would opt early for the draft if they had two extra rounds without having to worry if they drop out of the draft. Right now a freshman or sophomore who is a second rounder is most likely going to opt to stay in school. If theres two extra rounds they have 60 more reasons to go to the draft.

The big thing is each team getting their own affiliate though. A little backing from the NBA, whether its financial or otherwise, and the D League will make more money, expand and take over other leagues and improve in talent. If the D League makes money it will improve.

I think one thing the NBA could do is to allow teams a 16th roster spot for a player to play his entire season in the D-league. That would at least allow for a talent infusion, which could get the ball rolling on some other issues.

What if NBA teams could have 20 players, but at least 5 had to be in the D-League. It would be like baseball's 40 man roster, but 15 man.