17 NBA teams have single D-League affiliate, leaving 13 other NBA teams to share one

By Dan FeldmanSep 15, 2014, 2:50 PM EDT

Next season, 17 NBA teams will have their own D-League affiliate. Those teams have the advantage of controlling the affiliates’ basketball operations – managing the roster, hiring a coach, setting a style of play, dictating playing time.

The relationship comes with a real-dollar cost, but NBA teams have seen the advantage. More and more want single affiliates.

Unfortunately, the D-League hasn’t grown fast enough to keep up.

Here are the 2014-15 affiliations, as released by the NBA today. One D-League team is not like the others.

AUSTIN TOROS (TX)

San Antonio Spurs

BAKERSFIELD JAM (CA)

Phoenix Suns

CANTON CHARGE IO(OH)

Cleveland Cavaliers

DELAWARE 87ERS (Newark, DE)

Philadelphia 76ers

ERIE BAYHAWKS (PA)

Orlando Magic

FORT WAYNE MAD ANTS (IN)

Atlanta Hawks

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Bobcats

Chicago Bulls

Denver Nuggets

Indiana Pacers

Los Angeles Clippers

Milwaukee Bucks

Minnesota Timberwolves

New Orleans Pelicans

Portland Trail Blazers

Toronto Raptors

Washington Wizards

GRAND RAPIDS DRIVE (MI)

Detroit Pistons

IDAHO STAMPEDE (Boise, ID)

Utah Jazz

IOWA ENERGY (Des Moines, IA)

Memphis Grizzlies

LOS ANGELES D-FENDERS (CA)

Los Angeles Lakers

MAINE RED CLAWS (Portland, ME)

Boston Celtics

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER NBA D-LEAGUE TEAM (OK)

Oklahoma City Thunder

RENO BIGHORNS (NV)

Sacramento Kings

RIO GRANDE VALLEY VIPERS (Hidalgo, TX)

Houston Rockets

SANTA CRUZ WARRIORS (CA)

Golden State Warriors

SIOUX FALLS SKYFORCE (SD)

Miami Heat

TEXAS LEGENDS (Frisco, TX)

Dallas Mavericks

WESTCHESTER KNICKS (White Plains, NY)

New York Knicks

Yup, that’s 13 NBA teams sharing the Mad Ants. The other 17 NBA teams each get their own D-League squad.

So, what happens when the Hawks, Nets, Bobcats, Bulls, Nuggets, Pacers, Clippers, Bucks, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, Raptors and Wizards all want to assign players to Fort Wayne?

To accommodate assignments to Fort Wayne, a flexible assignment system will be utilized when an independent NBA team assigns a player at a time when the Mad Ants already have either the maximum of four NBA players on assignment or two assigned players at the position of the NBA player who is being assigned. In either event, the NBA D-League will identify to the assigning NBA team any singly-affiliated NBA D-League team that is willing to accept the assigned player, and the independent NBA team assigning the player will choose a team from among those teams to assign the player. If no singly-affiliated NBA D-League team is willing to accept the assigned player, he will be assigned to one of the non-NBA-owned single affiliate teams pursuant to a lottery.

The Spurs, Cavaliers, 76ers, Lakers, Thunder,Warriors and Knicks own their own D-League teams, so they’ll be exempt from taking unwanted players. The singly affiliated NBA teams that don’t own their D-League squads – the Suns, Magic, Grizzlies, Pistons, Celtics, Kings, Rockets and Heat – will take part in the lottery. The Mavericks, whose D-League team is owned by Don Nelson, operate in a gray area, but it sounds as if they’ll be in the lottery.

This is all a temporary solution, though. In due time, every NBA team will have its own D-League team. We’re headed in that direction – more rapidly than ever.

Magic Johnson: Former Pelicans GM Dell Demps leaked Anthony Davis trade-talk details

Getty Images

By Dan FeldmanMay 20, 2019, 2:20 PM EDT

Lakers haven for failed coaches

Rob Carr/Getty Images

By Dan FeldmanMay 20, 2019, 1:16 PM EDT

1 Comment

In the last two decades, 16 teams changed coaches, gave a majority of their minutes to returning players the following season and won 15 more games than the year prior (or equivalent in lockout-shortened season).

Only one of those 16 deposed coaches has gotten another non-interim NBA head-coaching job.

The Lakers will introduce him today.

His lead assistant is also one of the 16. Another member of the 16 was instrumental in hiring them.

Frank Vogel, Jason Kidd and Kurt Rambis make quite a trio.

The Lakers’ new head coach, Vogel is only one year removed from guiding Orlando to a 25-57 record. The Magic’s roster seemed to be the main culprit when they fired him, but Steve Clifford led a similar roster to a 42-40 record. That certainly didn’t reflect well on Vogel.

Ditto how the Bucks responded to Kidd’s departure. After going 44-38 and losing in the first round last season, Milwaukee ascended to 60-22 and is leading the Eastern Conference finals this season under Mike Budenholzer. Yet, Kidd – who’ll assist Vogel – was clearly a priority for the Lakers.

In 2011, the Timberwolves finished 17-65 and fired Rambis. Minnesota went 26-40 the following year under Rick Adelman. After bouncing around other jobs, Rambis is now playing a leading role in Rob Pelinka’s front office.

Every team changes between seasons. Players come and go. Those who stay get older and develop. Injuries happen inconsistently. The NBA hardly runs controlled experiments on coaches.

But these situations don’t instill confidence in Vogel, Kidd and Rambis. That they’re all working together now is remarkable.

Vogel has the most prominent role. Fortunately for the Lakers, he’s also the one least likely to be defined by his fixed-after-he-left tenure. Before Orlando, Vogel had plenty of success with the Pacers.

Kidd also did some positive things with the Bucks. Rambis…

People can learn from their mistakes. Second chances are sometimes warranted.

But the Lakers have LeBron James, whose prime years are dwindling. They’re a prestigious franchise in a premier market. High-end coaches and executives are particularly important and attainable.

The Lakers have given power to this group – maybe for good reason, maybe not.

I hope they explain why today, though there are several other issues they’ll have to address, too.

Magic Johnson on Lakers GM Rob Pelinka: ‘If you’re going to talk betrayal, it’s only with Rob’

By Dan FeldmanMay 20, 2019, 11:50 AM EDT

2 Comments

Around the time Magic Johnson stunningly resigned as Lakers president, rumors swirled about his poor work ethic. The source of that rumor was suspected to be Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka. Johnson acknowledged an internal problem the night he quit, citing “backstabbing” and “whispering.”

“If you’re going to talk betrayal,” Johnson said in an incredibly candid interview on ESPN today, “it’s only with Rob.”

Johnson admitted to spending only limited time on the Lakers. But he said Lakers owner Jeanie Buss approved that plan when hiring him.

“I told her, I said listen, ‘I can’t give up all my businesses. I make more money doing that than becoming president of the Lakers. So, you know that I’m going to be in and out. Is that OK with you?’ She said yes,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘Do I have the power to make decisions?’ Because that was important for me to take the job, as well. She said you have the power to make the decisions. So, I said, ‘OK, let’s go do it.’ She said, ‘I’m going to put you with Rob Pelinka,’ because I didn’t know Rob.

“And then I started hearing, ‘Magic, you’re not working hard enough. Magic’s not in the office.’ So, people around the Lakers office was telling me Rob was saying things – Rob Pelinka – and I didn’t like those things being said behind my back, that I wasn’t in the office and so on and on. So, I started getting calls from my friends outside of basketball, saying those things now were said to them outside of basketball. Now, not just in the Lakers office anymore. Now, it’s in the media and so on.

“Just Rob. Other people didn’t bother me. It’s really funny, as I sit here. I don’t worry about those type of things. I’m not a guy who is like, oh man, he said this about and I worry about it. What happened was I wasn’t having fun coming to work anymore – especially when I’ve got to work beside you knowing you want my position. And I’m OK with that. Because this is what happened, Stephen A. I told him in year two, I’m only going to be here three years. So, my job is, Rob, to get you ready for this position. So, I was going to help elevate him to the president’s position. And so, when all this was coming back to me and guys calling me saying, ‘You better watch out for him’ – and then what crazy was, when I took the job, you know how many agents called me and said, ‘You’ve got to watch out for him.’ And I said, ‘Eh, I’ve got to give the guy a fair chance.’ I can’t listen to people. But he was a hard-worker, smart guy. But now you have that position, so I’m good with that.”

Though he said the backstabbing came from only Pelinka, Johnson clearly had friction with other members of the organization.

Johnson described mentoring Joey Buss (Vice President, Research & Development) and Jesse Buss (Assistant GM / Director, Scouting). Johnson made clear he had no problem doing so and liked those Buss brothers. But he also indicated he saw ambition that created complications.

“They felt they should have been in powerful positions, whether that’s the general manager or the president,” Johnson said.

And there’s Tim Harris President (Business Operations, Chief Operating Officer).

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was, I wanted to fire Luke Walton,” Johnson said. “And we had, Max, three meetings. I showed her the things he did well and the things he didn’t do well. And I said, ‘Listen, we’ve got to get a better coach. I like him. He’s great. Former Laker, the whole thing.’ The first day, ‘Well, let’s think about it.’ Second day, ‘OK, you can fire him.’ Then, the next day, ‘No, we should try to work it out.’ So, when we went back and forth like that and then she brought Tim Harris into the meeting with some of the guys. And Tim wanted me to – he wanted to keep him, because he was friends with Luke. Luke’s a great guy. He’s a great guy. So, when I looked up and said wait a minute, I only really answer to Jeannie Buss. Now, I’ve got Tim involved. And I said it’s time for me to go.”

Walton, since hired by the Kings, has been accused of sexual assault.

There’s a ton to digest here, but I can’t escape two ironies:

Johnson – who had never worked in a front office before, didn’t work hard enough running the Lakers, felt his power wasn’t concentrated enough, didn’t build a winner – said people should ascend in the organization only “once you show that you can drive excellence.”

Johnson – who described the Lakers as a mess, called their general manager a backstabber, said their owner is failing to define clear roles – plans to help them recruit free agents this summer.

Report: Tim Connelly rejects Wizards, staying with Nuggets

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

By Dan FeldmanMay 20, 2019, 10:29 AM EDT