Exclusive D-League Affiliate Coming?

[Axel]

It could also have to do with league and contract rules. The NBA already has a callup system in place with the D-League. But it's totally different with Euro teams. You have to sign a pro contract to play in Europe, and thus you can't be called up because you can't be under 2 different pro contracts in NBA and Europe. The rules dictating how guys can move from one league to the other would have to seriously change.

Also true. As I said, I don't fully know all the restrictions and rules to be worked around, and it is very likely something that won't happen for another 10 years or so, but I do see it as an eventuality; and that the Raps should be one of the front runners down this avenue. The potential would be huge but dealing with all the red tape would be equally huge.

Another consideration would be regards to pre-draft players who opt to no pursue to NCAA route. Allowing a team to sign a HS grad to play until he is eligible would give that team a huge advantage in scouting that player. The league would need to establish constraints and rules in this regard. Not sure what the D League route rules currently are (are players able to sign with any team even exclusive affiliates?) but I imagine similar rules would be easy to transfer to another league.

[Bendit]

The time warner report is false and they should not report this news without any validation. The Raptors GM has been in Africa and this news is simply hype made by the owner of this PBL team. Rogers Communications is not going to partner with this group.

Can you provide some link validating the bold?

Does it require Masai to be in on the details of such an acquisition. Cannot Leiweke do this or some other senior vp?

Rogers is not the only owner of MLSE/Raptors and why would they be so opposed?

[S.R.]

A Euro team is an interesting thought. The D-League is certainly suspect as a "development" league.

An additional European obstacle though would be timezones - you're looking at a 6-ish hour time zone swing at minimum. If you ever had a same-day call up (which doesn't happen often) a N.A. evening game would literally be in the middle of the night for a guy who just flew over from Europe, even worse if it were a West coast game (Barcelona to LA, for example, is a 9 hour time change).

I think the long-term answer is to continue to develop the D-League so it actually becomes a proper development league/farm system like Triple-A ball and the AHL. May be more potential there with what's just started to happen with the NCAA in the courts.

[white men can't jump]

Also true. As I said, I don't fully know all the restrictions and rules to be worked around, and it is very likely something that won't happen for another 10 years or so, but I do see it as an eventuality; and that the Raps should be one of the front runners down this avenue. The potential would be huge but dealing with all the red tape would be equally huge.

Another consideration would be regards to pre-draft players who opt to no pursue to NCAA route. Allowing a team to sign a HS grad to play until he is eligible would give that team a huge advantage in scouting that player. The league would need to establish constraints and rules in this regard. Not sure what the D League route rules currently are (are players able to sign with any team even exclusive affiliates?) but I imagine similar rules would be easy to transfer to another league.

You also have to think of resistance from Europe. They've worked hard to have leagues that have the next-best pro teams in the world after the NBA. They won't want to just become the NBA's farm system. Especially since domestic leagues are also key tools for developing their own national talent. Owning a team is much more personal there as well, as it's less likely to be profitable than in North America (also clouding whether the NBA would look to make a farm system over there), and guys won't want to sell their teams to people who prioritize development of assets for the NBA over winning in Europe.

Anyway, the way things are now makes sense. Improve the D-League, keep Europe housing the next-best pros.

[Axel]

A Euro team is an interesting thought. The D-League is certainly suspect as a "development" league.

An additional European obstacle though would be timezones - you're looking at a 6-ish hour time zone swing at minimum. If you ever had a same-day call up (which doesn't happen often) a N.A. evening game would literally be in the middle of the night for a guy who just flew over from Europe, even worse if it were a West coast game (Barcelona to LA, for example, is a 9 hour time change).

I think the long-term answer is to continue to develop the D-League so it actually becomes a proper development league/farm system like Triple-A ball and the AHL. May be more potential there with what's just started to happen with the NCAA in the courts.

Very true but I still see it being the better option (if it's ever possible).

I look at it in the simplest of terms as; would I rather send Bruno to play in the D-League and be available for same day call ups or send Bruno to play overseas with next day call ups at best? I would go for the stronger level of competition (assuming both options are controlled by Raps coaching staff).

[mcHAPPY]

How often do call ups happen? What if the team is playing Sacramento, call up from Rochester would be as long a flight as a Turkey-Toronto flight.

I think the flight time issue is negligible.

Take a look into how Houston used rio grande valley

Very few call ups are emergency. Raps actually had two years ago with Acy.

Most are organized and planned.

[2KJ]

Great news. One thing I've wondered about is an overseas affiliate instead. Couldn't MLSE buy a Turkish league team for example? Higher quality team

Interesting suggestion. Maybe they can do this like how Man City did with NY City in the MLS (then they sign a star/old star like Lampard, then loan him to the mother team lol).

The Istanbul Turkeys!!!

[godkingleonidas]

1. will the affiliation be ready for the 2014-205 season. the NBA has just released the regular season schedule for 2014-2015. i imagine if it hasn't already, the NBDL will be announcing their schedule soon.

2. at some point, would it be worthwhile to change the RazorSharks team colours to match those of the parent franchise? (e.g. RVG = HOU, AUT = SAS, TSS = OKC, etc)

3. to generate interest in the Raptors, in Rochester, perhaps some exhibition/preseason games could be played @ Blue Cross Arena.

4. if the RazorSharks become TOR's NBDL affiliate, will Coach Robert Spon stop milking cows @ the Monroe County Fair?

#inquiringmindswanttoknow

EDIT: i just realized it wouldn't be ready until 2015-2016. perhaps in time for DeAndre Daniels but, not in time for Nogueira & Caboclo.

[Niagara Raptor]

sorry but i think having our minor league team in turkey or any other part of Europe is utterly stupid

i rather have in Rochester because its close, its a developmental team/league owned by the raptors, whose infrastructure and coaches are from the raptors, who follow the coaching guidelines of the raptors and are close by for call ups or for the coaching staff to keep tabs on the development of young players

being in Europe is too far away to keep tabs or our guide our young players and they are pro leagues trying to win and keep their jobs so they are unlikely to be putting the developing of raptor players over trying to win their domestic leagues

and then their is the different rules between north american and european basketball ....

[godkingleonidas]

Good.. hope it happens sooner then later. NBADL can be a joke but if you have your own affiliate then it can really be beneficial. And Rochester might be the perfect location.

HOU, SAS, DAL & OKC are making the most of their NBADL franchises. it's only a joke without proper vertical integration. NHL & MLB have been using this system for years. the NBA has just been dragging their feet because of (over-reliance on) the NCAA

[Axel]

sorry but i think having our minor league team in turkey or any other part of Europe is utterly stupid

i rather have in Rochester because its close, its a developmental team/league owned by the raptors, whose infrastructure and coaches are from the raptors, who follow the coaching guidelines of the raptors and are close by for call ups or for the coaching staff to keep tabs on the development of young players

being in Europe is too far away to keep tabs or our guide our young players and they are pro leagues trying to win and keep their jobs so they are unlikely to be putting the developing of raptor players over trying to win their domestic leagues

and then their is the different rules between north american and european basketball ....

While you are entitled to your opinion, your reasoning is pretty weak.

For a league that operates a global brand with NBA run camps around the world and players being drawn from all over the globe, physical proximity isn't all that important. You don't think that the development team coaching staff can have constant communication with the Raps staff just because they are overseas? Casey and his staff is on the road for half the season, so Rochester isn't always going to be a 3 hour drive away for most of the season. Masai seems pretty busy so he isn't likely making the 6 hour round trip to check in on a 2nd round pick very often (he'll just pick up the phone). All practices would likely be recorded for scouting purposes anyway, and I'm sure Masai and Casey have pretty good long distance plans on their cells. They managed to find and monitor Bruno enough in secret to draft him 20th, you don't think they could set up communication with their club in Europe? They could even use the club's practice facility as the home base for their Euro-African scouting department.

Call ups don't happen very often in the NBA, so I don't see that as an issue. You are talking maybe being a delay causing a missed game once every couple of years. That is negligible.

Now the only thing you mentioned of any value is that the pro team would be trying to win instead of developing our players. But you clearly are failing to grasp that be being on that team, they would all be our players. We would have 1 or 2 guys that were recent draft picks (Daniels being the current example) and then the other 13-14 players are signed by the developmental team front office which is run by the Raps. You would have as much control over how things are run and who plays what minutes as you would in the D-league.

Being in Europe doesn't suddenly change the entire fundamental setup of owning your own development team.

There are obviously some difficulties in this scenario (which is admittedly not an option currently) but they are mostly minor compared to the benefits. Convenient seems to be the biggest argument for not going to Europe; well convenience over benefits is just lazy. Playing against the D-league scrubs isn't the greatest level of competition outside of the NBA. Guys who do well in the D-league often get signed to be 14th-15th man on the roster. Guys who are playing in one of the Euro league are professionals who largely represent the best of basketball outside of NBA. These are the pros you see at FIBA and Olympic events and will offer a greater level of development to our young prospects.

On top of the on-court benefits, can you think of a better way to increase the popularity of the Raps brand than running a club in a league overseas? Global sales and sponsorships would be huge and likely off-set many of the additional costs. To me, the potential benefits far, far outweigh the difficulties.

[MixxAOR]

Teams already do that. Teams stash a player in Europe. Instead of buying a whole team, organization, training staff and paying for the whole roster, why not stash a player. In what league would they play? Liga ACB, Euroleague, VTB United are big leagues with standards. I'm pretty sure they would not allow a developmental team for NBA to play in their league. Just like NBA is not gonna allow developmental team for Europe. The world is not supposed to bend over backwards for sake of North America. Not to mention they play under FIBA rules.

[Axel]

Teams already do that. Teams stash a player in Europe. Instead of buying a whole team, organization, training staff and paying for the whole roster, why not stash a player. In what league would they play? Liga ACB, Euroleague, VTB United are big leagues with standards. I'm pretty sure they would not allow a developmental team for NBA to play in their league. Just like NBA is not gonna allow developmental team for Europe. The world is not supposed to bend over backwards for sake of North America. Not to mention they play under FIBA rules.

Both of these points were already addressed in the thread.

It is likely years away and would occur because a league/team was in need of financial assistance and the NBA or group of NBA teams step in.

FIBA rules aren't going to hurt Daniels are they? They didn't seem to hurt any of the international players who come over. Basketball is basketball. It's a minor adjustment for a player who isn't expected to step in and dominate anyway.

[Axel]

You're also discounting the fact that the other league would benefit from a direct relation with the NBA. Top players who dream of the NBA would prefer to play there as a "fast track" league. There is also the resources available from the NBA that would benefit another league. To say that any international league wouldn't benefit from a direct business relationship with the NBA and the Players Association is absurd and naive.

[MixxAOR]

Expecting a European league/team to be in such a financial trouble that they need NBA to step in is absurd and naive. I expect D-League to replace college basketball rather than NBA invading Europe.