Teams Leaving CBA for NBDL

[Pounder]

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/NEWS03/604050354

It's apparently to be announced Thursday.

[SignGuyDino]

I think ultimately this is in the best interest of the players. I hope the fans feel this way because I fear a backlash and that would hurt the team owners and basketball in their cities in the future, not the players.


Just my .02....

[panchess]

Looks like the fearsome foursome left is Gary, Yakima, Rockford and Albany, along with the new Hunter franchise.

Wonder if the CBA could buy the ABA?

[Chuck the Writer]

Looks like the fearsome foursome left is Gary, Yakima, Rockford and Albany, along with the new Hunter franchise.

Wonder if the CBA could buy the ABA?

If that's the only four teams left, the CBA needs some serious expansion NOW. Rockford and Gary aren't exactly the strongest franchises out there, and the league really needs to operate with a minimum of six strong franchises - eight to ten would be ideal.

Solution -

if the D-League's going to cherry-pick the CBA, it's time for the CBA to cherry-pick the ABA. Teams that should move up to the CBA from the ABA should include the San Jose SkyRockets, the Rochester RazorSharks, the Montreal Matrix, a merged version of the Bellingham Slam / Tacoma Navigators, and maybe a resurrected Tri-City Chinook. Look for expansion into Bend OR, Great Falls MT, Caspar WY, and maybe Vancouver BC. And if the Vermont Frost Heaves want to get into the CBA... hey, at least we would get written up each week in Sports Illustrated...

As for the CBA buying the ABA, I could see that happening, sure. Joe Newman running the CBA. 3-D lights all over the league. Franchises with 2-25 records making the playoffs, while undefeated teams "step aside" so that another city can play in the playoffs without participating in a regular season. Uh huh. And monkeys might fly out of my butt.

[panchess]

..that would be fun.

More than likely, two "pods" will be constructed for the CBA, with one road trip between the pods for next season.

I would pick Buffalo over Montreal, but a pod of Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, Vermont and Gary might work.

The western pod would be Yakima, Great Falls, Bend, and so on. What happened to Wyoming the first time, anyway.

[Minor League Man]

My proposal:

NEW CBA
EAST
Albany Patroons
Buffalo Rapids
Gary Steelheads
Rochester Razorsharks

WEST
Bellicoma Slamigators (lol)
San Jose Skyrockets
Tri-City Chinook
Yakama Sunkings

[bectond]

The CBA if it last should be much stronger than the D-league next year for the following reasons....
1-All the older players will continue to play in the CBA
2-The D-League will only get about a eighth of the CBA talent because the NBA only wants players that are young and developing. therefore Idaho may only keep Freije and Davis, Sanchez will go to Bloomfield, Sioux Falls may only keep Myles, Diggs and Castleberry. Dakota will keep most of their talent.
3-The NBDL will be extremely diluted because of all the new teams and only 12-14 CBA players moving over with the teams.
4-The CBA should not go over 8-9 teams so that the level of play does not decline like the NBDL's will.
The CBA will return to being the unquestioned top Minor league

West East
Yakama Albany
Tri-Cities (expansion) Gary
Reno (Expansion) Rockford
San Jose (ABA) Rochester (ABA)

[Chuck the Writer]

According to the Gary Post-Tribune, it looks as if the CBA might acquire as many as six new teams, including three ABA squads (San Jose SkyRockets, Buffalo Rapids, Rochester RazorSharks), two cities that had CBA teams in the past, Great Falls MT and Reno NV (Golden Nuggets and Bighorns, respectively), and Bend OR. This is of course assuming that all five teams from the CBA return for another season (Yakama, Michigan, Rockford, Gary, Albany).

So a 10-team, 2-division league could look like this -

EAST

Albany
Rochester
Buffalo
Gary
Rockford

WEST

Michigan
Yakama
Bend
Great Falls
San Jose

And if this remains solid, then bring on Hartford and Montreal and Trenton and Allentown and Scranton and Kennewick and Eugene and Saskatoon and Vancouver and Caspar and Butte...

[Shootmaster_44]

I'd love to see a CBA team here in Saskatoon again. But I figure that it won't be well supported as fans in this city won't support a team until it proves that it won't be here for one season and then die.

[mikel]

East
Albany
Rochester
Buffalo
Rockford
Gary

West
Yakama
San Jose
Great Falls
Reno
Bend (may now go to D-League)

Others that are rumored...Rapid City (hurts now that the other dakotas left), Kansas City, Tri Cities, Bellevue, etc.

[Pounder]

FWIW... and who knows how much it's worth...

The speculation out of here... why bother merging with a league when you can take half the teams and leave the rest decimated.

Meanwhile, when you read this Yakima article, you can see the hedge.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/sp/285805691290669

I see NO recent rumors from the Bend newspaper regarding CBA or NBDL. I realize that there are times when things are not an issue until the last minute, but this doesn't have any buzz locally. Furthermore, after the IBL team announces their high school location for this year, they're already ferreting games out around Central Oregon again.

[Shootmaster_44]

So for next season, where does this leave the CBA? Will they play with the remaining teams or will they add teams from the ABA or will they expand? If they expand where are the most logical places in terms of ready arenas, proximity to the other teams and a fanbase?

[toad455]

The CBA currently has 5 teams and supposedly is scrambling to find three more teams to join the league for the 2006-07 season.

The D-League will likely have 12 teams. Expect either Fayetteville or Roanoke to fold. And if the Florida PitBulls of the ABA join the league, expect the Flames to fold also.

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

The following is an excerpt from an interesting Gary Post-Tribune article. Please keep in mind while reading it that Jewell, Sr. wants to remain with the CBA and Jewell, Jr. would like to defect to the NBDL. Jewell, Sr. is the owner:

With four CBA teams defecting to the NBDL, the Steelheads could be looking to make the switch in the near future as well
April 16, 2006

By Michael Osipoff / Post-Tribune staff writer



The landscape of minor league basketball certainly is changing.

After several years of mostly unfulfilled talk, this offseason has seen movement toward consolidation into a single entity.

Where the Steelheads fit on that shifting landscape has yet to be determined.

Four teams — three existing and one expansion — have left the CBA to join the NBA Development League, leaving Gary as one of five teams remaining in the CBA, along with the Rockford Lightning, Michigan Mayhem, Yakama Sun Kings and Albany Patroons.

Officials from that league have insisted it will return in 2006-07 for its 61st season, and have talked about the possibility of adding perhaps a half-dozen or more new teams.

Still, whereas the two minor leagues had been on relatively equal footing, the balance of power clearly has shifted to the so-called D-League.

This season has been the first in which NBA teams have had specific D-League affiliates — with each NBA team having three or four; for example, the Bulls, Pacers, Bucks and Hornets are affiliated with the Tulsa 66ers — strengthening the league’s position. And particularly in light of recent developments, the NBA-owned league has emerged as the dominant one.

So, where does that leave the Steelheads?

They generally have been satisfied being members of the CBA. But the D-League, with its NBA support and affiliation, also is attractive.

“It’s just a fact — the NBA controls basketball, just like Major League Baseball controls baseball,” Steelheads chief operating officer Jewell Harris Jr. said.

“We’re in the CBA, and we respect that. We would still go forward with another CBA season unless something else worked out. We’re actively exploring our options. We want to do what’s in the best interest of the team and our fans.”

Harris Jr. says he has had ongoing, if preliminary, discussions with the D-League — specifically league president Phil Evans, who was the CBA’s deputy commissioner when the Steelheads first joined the league — about the Steelheads potentially making the jump. He expects to know more about their prospects next month.

“It puts us in a good position,” Steelheads owner Jewell Harris Sr. said. “We have multiple choices, which is always good.

“It depends what can be negotiated as it relates to each given league. We like the CBA, we’re comfortable with it. We’re also comfortable with the NBDL.”

Harris Jr. said the four defecting CBA teams combined to write “a glowing recommendation” to the D-League for the Steelheads.

But D-League senior director of communications Kent Partridge said via e-mail “there are currently no plans for Gary” for next season, and “we are not ready to begin talking about (2007-08) at this point.” Evans said via e-mail he received a phone call from Harris Jr. expressing interest, and they “agreed to speak again in a few months once we were ready to start thinking about 2007-08.”

...............................

Later on in the article, Jewell Jr. states that the fans would not notice a difference in the quality of play since the CBA and D-League are basically the same.

WRONG! I've watched games from both leagues. More veteran players in the CBA translates into more enjoyable basketball. I'm not sure I would pay money to see the D-League play (in its current form).

[HKF]

I think Gary will be in the D-League personally because the Bulls would put their young players in Gary, which means Bulls fans would support the team there as well (as local Gary fans).

The D-League is not going to be the D-League everyone saw this year, but it will evolve, which is what has to happen. It obviously can't be the CBA in terms of experience (at least not at first), but I expect the D-League to be for ages 18 to 28 and if you haven't made the NBA by then, more then likely it's time to go to Europe or other avenues to get your payday.

There are literally thousands of guys playing basketball.

[bectond]

The NBA continues to practice age discrimination (they will pay a
young 18-22 yr old glorified high jumper over a skilled basketball player aged 26-32) because they view the athletic high jumper as having more upside. However, those players can not play, therefore the overall product will always be bad. In fact, the whole idea behind the D-league is their insane belief that they can make basketball players out of high jumpers, which is a joke in itself, so all the real basketball players that have a feel for the game, a jump shot and some experience will continue to choose the CBA as the place to play if they stay stateside. Plus, the NBA needs the CBA as a proving ground for players that do not fit the NBA stereotype. For instance, Micheal Adams, Earl Boykins, Mario Ellie, D. Armstrong are all players that would be looked down upon by the NBA because they are so-called tweeners or too small for their position, If NBA teams have a say so on who gets sign (all D-league players must sign NBA contracts) players like them will never get a chance because of the NBA's practice of height discrimination will be in effect in their minor league as well as the big league. The NBA needs the CBA in order to save itself from it's group think appoach to evaluating talent. The Rimrockers had to cut O.Miiler and T.Day last year because they were too old and this year will be K.Reid's last year because he is too small for the NBA's taste. However, they were the Rimrockers best players. The D-League is more of an experimental league (make ballplayers out of high jumpers), so the CBA will always have more talent because it is a league where talented player's with what the NBA considers as flaws (lack of vertical leap, height or age) will have a chance to play.

[HKF]

This is not true. The D-League is going to be for their youth players correct, but that's because they want to fill their benches with older more experienced veterans (like the Elie's, Armstrong's and Boykins) who can help their teams win now.

[bectond]

The top 100 players coming out of college will never play in the D-leauge because they can earn more playing elsewhere and the nba will never co-sign on a player that does not fit there stereotypes (a PF must be 6'9-250 or a OG must be 6'5 and over 200 ILB) those players will have to play in the cba with (veterans Who are developed). The CBA players will learn all the little tricks of the trade from the veterans that the d-league players will not be exposed to because the NBDL does not allow or want veterans in there league. That will leave the D-league with euro league rejects, high jumpers they hope to develop into basketball players and a few high school kids that could not make the grade. When the NBDL expands to 30 teams they will only have a pool of 2 inexperienced nba bench riders per team (on a good day).
If the cba stays at 8 teams their games will continue to be watchable because they will have 2-3 veterens on each team that CAN PLAY and 1-2 young players on each team that are too small, too thin or have personality issues (an black-balled from the nba) ,yet CAN PLAY. Therefore, most cba teams will be watchable and most NBDL teams will always be unwatchable.

[Motownboy]

Guys:

This is my first post in this forum, but its a good discussion. I used to go watch the CBA in Detroit where I live in the early 80's. I recall seeing Terry Duerod, Walker D. Russell, Kevin Smith, Eric Turner and seeing seasoned pros like Campy Russell (Cavs, Knicks) and guys like that.

I can see how the nba wants young guys to play in the nbdl and the Pistons placed two players , Amir Johnson and Alex Acker who did well. But it puzzled me to see guys like mateen cleaves and Mikki Moore, who are in their late 20's playing in that league. Haven't they already reached their peak as players. What players get assigned to the D league seems kind of inconsistent.

Good discussion,
Tom

PS-Has anybody heard about a NBDL team being placed in suburban Detroit? It was mentioned in the paper recently

[WHAFAN]

I'm going to start a Whiffle Ball League starting next spring. The WBL will consist of 4 players on each team. One pitcher, one catcher, one infielder and one outfielder. Franchises can be purchased for $6.99, the cost of a bat and ball. The only rule changes that will occur will be as follows:

We will only play when wind gusts are at least 20 MPH.
If you hit the ball into a neighbors yard, your automatically out.
No strong wind......No game.
Players will be compensated with Twinkies and warm Gatorade.

As Joe Newman stresses......... family fun at affordable prices. We will need to get Whiffle Ball ringtones, dance teams, and maybe a few ex cons to rap at halftime. We should have 120 teams in 20 divisions of 6 teams each. If any member of your team can spell ABA.........you make the playoffs.

Stay tuned for more details as the erupt !!