If anyone is curious, here's some info on the new NBA developmental league. http://www.nba.com/news/nbdl_index.html?nav=RelatedLinkList I think they should assign a team to each franchise(once they get enough to go around), like they do in Major League Baseball. Then you could trade prospects & really complicate things.
Actually they have tried that in other sports .... the NHL's development league(s) is an immediate example. The AHL(the best of the D-Leagues) was a thriving ,profitable,and entertaining enterprise. An honest to goodness development stage for most of that days "up and coming" talents. Some teams (the Nova Scotia Voyageurs/Sherbrooke Canadiens, Hersey Bears, etc...) put teams on the ice that were far better than some NHL teams at the time. But it became diluted as players were called up and others sent down. The development concept, for talent's sake, eventually became a mere contractural little league of the big show .... finances suffered and the old AHL got smaller and less prestigious. Today it is recovering, but clearly the lesson was learned ... a small, non-direct franchise affiliation with the big show (NHL) is best. I think the as an initiate NBA''s development league, is structured numbers-wise, makeup and franchise-involved the way it should be. I wish the league would institute a two-way contract clause in the future. All players would have a two-way salary structure similiar to the NHL and other sports that have development (minor) leagues leagues. If you go up to the big pro show you get paid "X" amount of dollars, and if you get sent down ( due to poor performance, skill repair,etc ...) to the D-Minors you get "X-minus something". IMHO, it would do a lot for the overall play and committment of players. It would certainly help a heck of a lot more than these new rule changes every couple of years to "respond to the adjustments of the game" , as the league office keeps explaining. On another sport I will always argue for Pro Boxing returning to a single line of ascension with limited weight classes and a Prize Fight structure. Winner takes all ... or mostly all. The winner gets 80% of the package and the loser gets a guaranteed amount to cover some costs only. I also still want to believe in the Easter Bunny .....
I love this idea. This league can do nothing but good for the NBA as a whole. Now, the guys that don't get drafted won't have to go overseas just to be able to play and get payed.
Here's a link to the players that they've allocated to teams so far. It's also on the first page of the link that I first posted. http://www.nba.com/news/nbdl_players_010924.html?nav=ArticleList
