Route 66

by thecubsfan on Sep 19, 2005 7:21 PM CDT

The NBA announced today the NBDL affilations. As part of the new CBA, each NBDL is aligned with 3-4 NBA teams, and NBA teams can send players down for the first two years of their career. (Mario Austin wishes they had this a few years ago, I'm sure.)

The Bulls are hooked up with Tulsa's 66ers, named for the famous route that used take you from Oklahoma (and California) all the way to Chicago.

The Bulls share this team with three others. One of the teams is the Hornets - I wonder if they were planned to be part of Tulsa before they decided to play in Oklahoma City for the year. The other two teams selected to pool talent for this team are kinda weird: the Pacers and the Bucks.

It's not going to be the same with the Pacers with Reggie retired, but they're still the Pacers. And, same as with the Cubs/Brewers, you'd think there's a geographic rivalarly about to burst out between the Bucks and the Bulls if they were ever good at the same time.

They were careful to split up the New York and Los Angeles teams, so it's weird they'd put these three regional opponents together. Or it's weird to me, at least.

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rivalries

I'm not sure even the toughest rivalries would permeate all the way towards this level. All in all the teams probably realize the new D-League will benefit the league for all. I do wonder what criteria(if any) the league used for allocating these teams. I bet Krause wishes he was still heading a team, all those 2nd round picks he hoarded would actually have a place to play. As it stands now I suppose Paxson could send whomever was on the inactive list down to Tulsa, probably Paslic. Anyone else wouldn't really need 'development', and probably be better used in practice. Either way, it's yet another reason to get NBATV

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Sep 19, 2005 11:43 PM CDT reply actions

oh, right..

A team can only send 1st and 2nd year players to the D-League anyway, so no Pargo or Allen even you wanted to.

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Sep 20, 2005 10:54 AM CDT up reply actions

Isn't this D-League fundamentally flawed?

Don't you think there may be a issue with having 4 teams share 1 developmental league team? I can already forsee problems with teams trying to get their players the most playing time. I don't know, it doesn't make much sense to me. I understand there aren't enough players or money to spend on fielding a D-league team for every franchise, but this system doesn't seem to promising either.

by Rick S on Sep 27, 2005 12:01 AM CDT reply actions