Fansided

The Mad Ants purchase shouldn’t change much for non-affiliated teams

By Chris Reichert

Jun 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks owner Grant Hill speaks during a press conference at Philips Arena. The Atlanta Hawks officially announced today that it was purchased by an ownership group led by Tony Ressler, which Hill is a part of. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks owner Grant Hill speaks during a press conference at Philips Arena. The Atlanta Hawks officially announced today that it was purchased by an ownership group led by Tony Ressler, which Hill is a part of. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /

The basketball world was abuzz Wednesday and it was because of an unusual suspect — the NBA D-League. The Indiana Pacers officially announced the purchase of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, as D-League Digest originally reported.

While the news is potentially ground-breaking for the D-League, the reason social media ran wild was due to the fact that the 11 remaining NBA clubs without an affiliate are left out in the cold now that the Mad Ants are no longer on the market. Everyone wants to know how this is going to affect their favorite team and frankly, it probably won’t in the slightest.

The NBA clubs without their own affiliate have rarely used the D-League for assignments and that trend will surely continue throughout the 2015-16 season.

There is one team that will be affected, however, and that is the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks were the only non-affiliated team to have more than 10 assignments (11 to be exact) during the 2014-15 campaign. The remaining 10 teams that are non-affiliated (excluding Toronto and Indiana, who have since added a team) had a combined total of nine assignments last season.

Assignment totals since 2012 for the remaining teams without a NBADL affiliate
Assignment totals since 2012 for the remaining teams without a NBADL affiliate /

Here are some quick tidbits to takeaway from the above data:

  • Last season, there was a record 187 assignments to the D-League
  • These teams without an affiliate made up only 10.7 percent of those assignments
  • Remove the Hawks and that number dwindles to 4.8 percent
  • Last season, non-affiliates had 20 combined assignments. The Boston Celtics had 21
  • Brooklyn and Portland had their own affiliates during 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons

Though the news sounds harsh for the 11 teams without a D-League affiliate, the result of using the Flex Assignment Rule will hardly create a ripple for these clubs. Mike Budenholzer and the Hawks will not like the news, yet they used the Flex Rule last season sending Adreian Payne to the Austin Spurs and John Jenkins to the Idaho Stampede.

Relationships between NBA coaches and general managers will become paramount with the Flex Rule. Here is the rule explained in full:

"With the acquisition, the NBA D-League’s flexible assignment system – which was instituted prior to the 2014-15 season – will continue to enable the 11 independent NBA teams to assign players to the NBA D-League for development or rehabilitation from injury.  Upon receipt of an assignment from an independent NBA team, the NBA D-League will identify any NBA D-League team willing to accept the assigned player.  The assigning independent NBA team will then choose the destination for assignment between those teams.  If no NBA D-League team is willing to accept the assigned player, he will be assigned to one of the hybrid affiliate teams pursuant to a lottery."

Read into that as you will, but you can imagine if a young stud gets assigned by a non-affiliate team, multiple teams will be willing to take him on. However, it is ultimately the decision of the assigning NBA team of where that player ends up — again, past and current relationships around the league will come into play.

It’s not a perfect system by any means, but it’s what the league has to work with until there are 30 D-League teams. While it may be interesting at times to see where a player ends up when assigned, it will be largely uneventful. The non-affiliate teams have yet to see the value in the D-League and thus find themselves not being able to utilize it as the invaluable resource it has become over the past few seasons.

Time to get on the ball, guys.

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