How Does The NBA D-League Evolution Impact The Sixers?

The NBA D-League in the past has been a shallow, sorry excuse for a minor league farm system. Today, it’s a little bit different, and more expanded, but still, it’s not at the extent of minor league systems that other pro sports have.

Take, for example, the minor league system for the MLB. In the MLB, most teams have an affiliation with a minor league team (if not more than one) and the system is deep enough for there to be multiple levels for players to move up in the rankings. The entire system consists of 240 teams altogether.

Hockey has a pretty deep system as well, that deals with multiple different leagues including the ECHL and the AHL. It works similar to the MLB’s farm system where they can send players down for development and call them up as the season progresses.

The NBA Development League (D-League) is much different than these two. It’s nowhere near as deep, and only 19 teams are involved, which is much less than a one-to-one ratio (which DLeagueDigest suggests some NBA teams are striving for) and leaves several teams without an affiliate in the minor leagues.

The Sixers are lucky enough to have one of these teams as an affiliate, the Delaware 87ers. We’ve seen them send down and bring up several players over the past few years from the 87ers.

The Sixers are a team that an intense minor league system really makes sense for right now. They’ve got lots of players who aren’t NBA ready, and may need to spend some time getting game experience in a setting that doesn’t have as much pressure. For other, more competitive teams, it might not seem like as big of an issue, but still, they probably have at least a few players that could use some work in the D-League.

DLeagueDigest.com goes on to suggest that the NBA will in fact see this one-to-one ratio, it’s just a matter of when. And really, what it comes down to is that no one knows, and even team owners will give differing answers.

Envisioning a deeper farm system in the NBA, similar to hockey and baseball, I think it’s something all teams could benefit from. There’s tons of players that are thrown into the NBA too early that were not “NBA ready” and could have used experience elsewhere. At the moment, for teams without D-League affiliates, often the solution is to send them overseas, which brings about a context issue. These players may have success overseas, but the game is different internationally. Having them play at home, and scouting them in the context of a minor league NBA would be best.

For the Sixers, right now, they have a little bit of an advantage over the 11 teams without farm systems in the NBA. They have options in the minor leagues that some teams don’t. If it’s expanded to be 30 teams, the Sixers may lose that edge, but gain in some other aspects.

What would more teams mean? First off, it means that the league as a whole is leaning towards developing players before calling them up to the big leagues. That means the Sixers wouldn’t be the “odd man out” doing this any longer. It would be a common practice, and they wouldn’t be considered “behind in the times,” in doing so.

Additionally, more teams in the D-League means more competition, which ultimately means the very best players who are willing to put the most work in will succeed. Overall, it will just mean that only the very best of the D-League will come through, and only the great players will get called up to the NBA.

The expansion may not directly impact the 87ers, since they already have a farm team in place, but the secondhand effects of the expansion could definitely have large impacts on the players that are produced by the 87ers.

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