With the D-League Almost "Full Strength", should a "real" AA league try to develop?

Minor League Mania
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Post by Minor League Mania » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:02 pm

Yeah, my comment was supposed to read teams are often operated and owned by the parent club. While your statement is still true for a lot of clubs, more and more parent clubs are now owning and managing their own teams.

Take the Braves for instance. They own the AAA, AA, and low-A teams. They have also bought a High-A franchise and are building a stadium and moving them in a couple years. So now they will own AND operate each one of their long season teams.

This is not the case for every club but is becoming the trend. You are correct though in cases that they do not own the team they still manage the players, coaches, trainers, and a couple full time personnel like team video operators.

Sam, what is your thoughts on the D-League ever having a sub league like a AA? I seem to recall you were not too optimistic on them even getting to a 1 to 1 affiliation this quickly.

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Post by suge night » Fri Mar 24, 2017 2:26 pm

MLM,it would need to be an independent system I will address your other letter leagues first, as I have stated before most of the players in the leagues like the PBL,ABA and any other letters I may miss are in age relation mid to late 20's so lets make that level low A and high A ball.

The D League is currently the only AAA level league, so with that established what about a AA level here you could establish teams based around the fresh out of college players that NBA teams probably have in many cases already talked with during drafting period, but either want them to play another position or develop more of their game.

Finally a rookie instructional level whereas in the NBA could select those high school players but place them into the rookie level for a season then move them into the AA level to watch the development cycle, sure some will wash out as they do today with college players actually drafted.

Now all players would be free agents until they reach the D League by then being in a NBA teams system which could claim rights to the player, now one other thing that would need to absolutely have to part of this system to control conflict, no players contract would be sold until they reached the D League and then only the organizations that served that player would be in this conversation a set fee would be in place whereas the amount would be split between the teams from this total amount, any development level is not based around making large sums of cash so organizations participating in this wouldn't be the fly by night guys.

The system would require that all levels have a working relationship keeping down the in fighting and cut throat tactics to get talent, now this is simply a rough draft of how something like this could be done, I'll leave it there do to space constraint on a message board.

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Post by bectond » Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:44 pm

With the G League, the NBA pays the player, say 24,000 -30,000 over 20 weeks. However, an NBA team will pay that player 20,000 - 250,000 to attend training camp in Oct. Therefore, G-League players make between 24,000 - 280,000. That kind of money (100K +) will attract top notch talent; as well as retain a number of career minor league players.

If the NBA agreed to pay the salaries of players in an independent lower level league, say 12,000 for 16 weeks. I believe we will see an NBA sanctioned 'A' level league created in the next 5-7 years for inexperienced kids that stayed in college 4+ years, but could not make a G-League roster fresh out of college - Kids that were forsaken by the NBA for early out, and foreign players. The NBA can then move the top 10-15% (8-12 players) on to the Summer League to compete against NBA draftees, and the top G-League players to determine which ones have the skills to contribute on an NBA/G-League roster.

I don't see a need for an extensive minor league system in Basketball where a player spends 3-4 years working their way up to the show.
Last edited by bectond on Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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suge night
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Post by suge night » Mon Mar 27, 2017 2:44 pm

With the G League, the NBA pays the player, say 24,000 -30,000 over 20 weeks. However, an NBA team will pay that player 20,000 - 250,000 to attend training camp in Oct. Therefore, G-League players make between 24,000 - 280,000. That kind of money (100K +) will attract top notch talent; as well as retain a number of career minor league players. [bectond]

$30,000 tops for D League unless top draft choice but since this conversation doesn't really involve the D League operating system form the business side The going rate used to be $500 not sure where the pay scale is now, but $20,000 AA Level and everyone shouldn't receive the same pay these guys aren't supposed to make large amounts of money, they are developing thereby should have a life away from basketball to prepare for real life even if they are going to be a minor league lifer, the push for them to develop real life skills is important. It should be similar to minor league baseball pay which is not great.

Some of your other comments have some merit, however would be tweaked.
Last edited by suge night on Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by bectond » Wed Mar 29, 2017 6:09 pm

I'm not referring to the average D-League player.

Many veterans sign partially guaranteed contracts to attend NBA training camps in October, these guarantees range from 20,000 for young players to 250,000 for well regarded veterans. If these players are waived in October, then decide to play in the D-League that November. The NBA will pay them an additional 30,000.

Remember, the new two-way players will be the 16-17th NBA roster spot.

An in order for a two-way player to make 234,000, the two way player would have to spend the max. 45 days allowable on an NBA roster. (24,000 for their D-League salary, an estimated 160,000 for their 45 days in the NBA @ the rookie min., and 50,000 for attending NBA training camp in Oct.).

If a two-way player does not play on an NBA roster he'd only make 74,000.

The average D-League player would continue to make 24,000 per season or 1,200 per week.
Last edited by bectond on Wed Mar 29, 2017 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by mbond » Wed Mar 29, 2017 6:10 pm

IMO, the D-league players should be making a little more since the NBA has gotten all this money from TV deals and has explosive amounts of money to hand out to everyone. NBA role players scoring 6 or 7 points a game are walking around with 12-15 million/year. (Which is normally the type of player you're going to get from the D League anyway.)

The D-League did adjust player pay for 2016/17

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/24 ... -17-season

D-League guys are now essentially making 10-12 dollars an hour as it stands now.

Also, the season is about 7 months long (including playoffs) so keeping a job "outside basketball" when you're in and out of a city most of the year isn't very easy to do. It's not like their local State Farm insurance agency is going to be ok with their NBA D-league employee being gone 6 months of the year to play basketball (with the hopes of making the NBA and quitting State Farm altogether). Besides, it's not like these guys are all playing in Erie, IN (fairly low cost of living). A lot of these guys are playing in much more expensive cities like LA, Chicago, Austin, etc.

I don't see a real reason why they can't make the pay range 35-40k per season. As the league grows to a 1:1 relationship with the NBA, I hope pay will continue to go up. It's crazy that a player that's called up to the NBA can make almost triple on a 10 day contract than what they make all year playing in the D-League.
Last edited by mbond on Wed Mar 29, 2017 6:23 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Post by Minor League Mania » Wed Mar 29, 2017 6:45 pm

I agree with you about pay. The new deal is better but still not there. This is just another reason I dont think the NBA could support a sub league right now.

One thing to consider is that a two way player will kind of be viewed and paid like a member of a MLB 40 man roster playing in the Minor Leagues. Making a good deal more than the others and actually signed to a MLB deal.

Just a note to consider, I dont thing regular D-League players have a union like the NBA players do. I could be wrong, if so someone please correct that.

So NBA players are having to work to get these guys more because we all know the owners dont want to hand out any extra money!

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Post by bectond » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:13 pm

[quote=""Minor League Mania""]I agree with you about pay. The new deal is better but still not there. This is just another reason I dont think the NBA could support a sub league right now.

One thing to consider is that a two way player will kind of be viewed and paid like a member of a MLB 40 man roster playing in the Minor Leagues. Making a good deal more than the others and actually signed to a MLB deal.

Just a note to consider, I dont thing regular D-League players have a union like the NBA players do. I could be wrong, if so someone please correct that.

So NBA players are having to work to get these guys more because we all know the owners dont want to hand out any extra money![/quote]

NBA teams only pay G-League players for attending NBA training camp, or after they are called up. The NBA league office pays G-League salaries. Starting next year the two-way players will be union employees.
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Post by mbond » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:15 pm

And as far as an official AA system from the NBA, the only thing I could see is them turning the Summer league into the Rookie/AA league. Extend the season for a few weeks. Have 8 different pods of 4 teams (30 NBA teams + 2 D-League "select" teams) and play 12 games in each pod. Each winner of the pod then goes to the final tournament

Pods:
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Utah, Dallas (or Houston), Chicago, Orlando, New York, and Atlanta(or Miami).

Total of about 5 weeks.

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Post by bectond » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:23 pm

[quote=""mbond""]IMO, the D-league players should be making a little more since the NBA has gotten all this money from TV deals and has explosive amounts of money to hand out to everyone. NBA role players scoring 6 or 7 points a game are walking around with 12-15 million/year. (Which is normally the type of player you're going to get from the D League anyway.)

The D-League did adjust player pay for 2016/17

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/24 ... -17-season

D-League guys are now essentially making 10-12 dollars an hour as it stands now.

Also, the season is about 7 months long (including playoffs) so keeping a job "outside basketball" when you're in and out of a city most of the year isn't very easy to do. It's not like their local State Farm insurance agency is going to be ok with their NBA D-league employee being gone 6 months of the year to play basketball (with the hopes of making the NBA and quitting State Farm altogether). Besides, it's not like these guys are all playing in Erie, IN (fairly low cost of living). A lot of these guys are playing in much more expensive cities like LA, Chicago, Austin, etc.

I don't see a real reason why they can't make the pay range 35-40k per season. As the league grows to a 1:1 relationship with the NBA, I hope pay will continue to go up. It's crazy that a player that's called up to the NBA can make almost triple on a 10 day contract than what they make all year playing in the D-League.[/quote]

Next year the salaries go up to 24K or 25K for B-Level and 30K for A-Level. A lot of the A-Level players are also good enough to get NBA training camp invites, they'll make an additional 20K to 250K. (Elliott Williams spent 2015-16 with the Santa Cruz Warriors, a Greek team, and the Memphis Grizzlies. This year, Golden State gave him 250,000 for a training camp deal. The top G-League players are well compensated.
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