Washington Wizards

What will Washington Wizards do without a D-League affiliate?

Published Sep. 10, 2015 6:48 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Washington Wizards are officially without a D-League affiliate. The Indiana Pacers just bought the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, leaving several NBA teams—Wizards included—scrambling for a place to develop their own prospects.

Is this a crisis, or merely a bump in the road? The Washington Post's Jorge Castillo answers that question right here:

This doesn't look like a great situation for Washington, a team with at least one youngster—Kelly Oubre Jr.—who would conceivably benefit from time in the D-League this season.

It seems the Wizards and their ownership are on their way to solving the problem, but not nearly soon enough.

(h/t: Washington Post)

So where does that leave the Wizards and the 10 other organizations without a D-League home for the upcoming season? In a dicey spot. If one of the teams wants to send a player to the D-League, a process called the flexible assignment system will be used. Every D-League team will be offered the player and the NBA franchise can then choose to send the player to one of the interested teams. If no D-League team volunteers to take the player then he will be assigned to one of the nine hybrid affiliated teams — D-League franchises that control their own business operations — via a lottery. The NBA franchise can then decline to send the player to that team. The system was implemented for the first time last season whenever the Mad Ants had four players on assignment or two at the player’s position – the maximum allowed. It will now be the default method for every situation.