Nets to announce D-League affiliate team

By foxsports
Published

The D-League is getting bigger and bigger, and the Nets want in on it. Apparently, Brooklyn will be starting its own D-League affiliate, per NetsDaily.

Here's more from NetsDaily:

The Nets will be the 22nd team to have a direct D-League affiliate leaving just eight NBA teams without a direct affiliate moving forward. At this point, if you're a valuable NBA franchise with money in ownership, and you don't control your own D-League team, you're behind the times.

This is all part of a move in the direction of each NBA team having its own NBDL affiliate. Against popular belief, Brooklyn actually has a few young guys it would like to develop, including Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Markel Brown and the recovering-from-injury Chris McCullough. If the Nets had a D-League affiliate today, any of those players could be participating there.

Eventually, it seems like the league could be moving toward a setup similar to MLB's minor leagues. Of course, for that to happen, the NBA will have to give organizations exclusive rights to the players on its affiliated D-League team, and that seems like it's at least a few years away.

The team is expected to announce the news and the team name --the Long Island Nets-- Friday, prior to the Nets-Lakers game at Barclays, an NBA source tells NetsDaily.

Brett Yormark hinted at the news Thursday at the groundbreaking for the Coliseum renovation, saying there will be a "major announcement" Friday regarding professional basketball at the arena. The Nets would be the 22nd NBA team to have a D-League affiliate.

The NBA source added that the team will play its first season at Barclays Center, then move in 2017-18 to the renovated Nassau Coliseum. Mikhail Prokhorov's ONEXIM Sports and Entertainment recently closed on a deal to purchase a controlling interest in Nassau Events Center, the entity that is rehabbing the 40-year-old venue.

Although details have to be fully worked out, said the source, there is the possibility that the Long Island Nets and the Brooklyn Nets will play some double-headers at Barclays next season.