- The Jazz recalled guards Alec Burks and Raul Neto from the Salt Lake City Stars and assigned forward Joel Bolomboy to the same team, the team announced in a press release. The guard duo was assigned there on Wednesday to get some playing time against the Grand Rapids Drive and Neto finished one rebound shy of a triple-double. This marks the 10th assignment for Bolomboy.
- The Knicks recalled forward Maurice Ndour and center Marshall Plumlee from their affiliate, the Westchester Knicks, the team’s PR staff tweets. That duo combined for 24 points and 20 rebounds against the Maine Red Claws after being assigned on Tuesday.
- The Nets recalled forward Chris McCullough from their Long Island affiliate and he was available against the Pelicans on Thursday night, the team tweets. McCullough poured in 37 points in Long Island’s 138-133 overtime win over the Greensboro Swarm earlier in the day, his 22nd appearance with the D-League club.
- The Pelicans recalled forward Cheick Diallo, who was also playing for the Long Island Nets, the team’s PR department tweets. He played two games there, averaging 12.0 points in 17.4 minutes after going there on Tuesday under the flexible assignment rule.
- The Thunder assigned guard Semaj Christon to the Oklahoma City Blue, the team announced in a tweet. Christon has appeared in 36 games with the Thunder this season, averaging 3.2 points and 1.4 assists in 15.4 minutes.
- The Trail Blazers assigned guard Tim Quarterman to the Windy City Bulls under the flex rule, they announced in a press release. The rookie has made 12 brief appearances with the Blazers this season.
Here are Wednesday’s D-League assignments and recalls from across the NBA:
10:20pm:
- The Jazz have assigned Alec Burks and Raul Neto to their D-League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the team’s website. Both players were in action for tonight’s contest against the Grand Rapids Drive.
- The Blazers have assigned Tim Quarterman to the D-League, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical tweets. Portland does not have its own affiliate, so Quarterman will play for the Windy City Bulls on this assignment.
1:41 pm
- The Raptors recalled rookie guard Fred VanVleet from their D-League affiliate following the team’s Tuesday night victory (Twitter link). VanVleet posted a double-double for the Raptors 905 on Tuesday, with 12 points, 11 assists, and four steals.
- The Nets have re-assigned Chris McCullough to the D-League, the club announced today in a press release. The second-year power forward has played sparingly this season for Brooklyn, but has appeared in 21 games for the Long Island Nets, averaging 18.8 PPG and 8.4 RPG.
Here are Tuesday’s D-League assignments and recalls from across the NBA:
10:40 pm:
- The Nets have recalled Chris McCullough from their D-League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, according to a team press release. The power forward played seven games with Long Island during his latest stint, averaging 18.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per contest.
3:17 pm
- The Kings have sent 2016 first-round pick Malachi Richardson to the D-League, the team announced today (via Twitter). In 11 games so far this season for the Reno Bighorns, Richardson has averaged 21.0 PPG and 4.3 RPG.
- The Pelicans have re-assigned rookie forward Cheick Diallo to the D-League, the team announced today (via Twitter). Interestingly, after being assigned to San Antonio’s affiliate twice earlier in the season, Diallo joined the Long Island Nets this time around. New Orleans doesn’t have its own NBADL squad, so the club needs to rely on other affiliates, using the flexible assignment rule.
- Maurice Ndour and Marshall Plumlee have been assigned to the D-League, according to a tweet from the Knicks. Both players are expected to suit up tonight for the Westchester Knicks, New York’s NBADL affiliate.
Here are Monday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA, with the latest moves added to the top of the list throughout the day:
11:24pm:
- The Clippers have assigned rookie center Diamond Stone to the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the team’s website. He previously played four games with Santa Cruz, as the Clippers don’t have a direct affiliate in the D-League. The 40th pick in this year’s draft, Stone has appeared in four games for L.A.
- The Kings have recalled Skal Labissiere and Georgios Papagiannis from Reno, tweets James Ham of CSNBayArea. Labissiere was activated for tonight’s game, but Papagiannis was not.
5:30pm:
- The Grizzlies have assigned Troy Williams to Iowa Energy, the team announced on its website. Up to this point, the undrafted rookie has played 24 games for Memphis and started 13 of them.
2:20pm:
- The Nets sent Chris McCullough back to their D-League affiliate today, the team announced in a press release. McCullough, who is playing in the Long Island Nets’ afternoon game, could be recalled prior to tonight’s contest between Charlotte and Brooklyn, which would allow him to suit up for both Nets teams today.
Here are Thursday’s D-League assignments and recalls from across the NBA, with the latest moves added to the top of the list throughout the day:
10:55pm:
- The Nets recalled forward Chris McCullough from the Long Island Nets, the team tweets. McCullough was assigned to the D-League Nets on December 9 and started the team’s last five games. He had 20 points and eight rebounds in 35 minutes against the Grand Rapids Drive on Thursday.
3:50pm:
- The Spurs have recalled Dejounte Murray and Bryn Forbes from their D-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs. Tom Orsborn of Spurs Nation relays. Both players will be available for tonight’s game against the Clippers.
- The Jazz have assigned Joel Bolomboy to the Salt Lake City Stars, the their D-League affiliate, according to the team’s website. This will be Bolomboy’s sixth assignment of the season.
- The Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo and Fred VanVleet to their D-League affiliate, according to the team’s Twitter feed.
Here are Friday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
10:30pm:
- The Nuggets assigned guard Malik Beasley to the Sioux Falls SkyForce of the NBA D-League, the team announced via press release. The rookie has appeared in in nine games this season for Denver, averaging 2.9 points in 6.0 minutes per outing.
- The Hawks confirmed via press release that Scott was recalled from Delaware. The forward was there on a rehab assignment as he continues to make his way back from a knee injury.
1:26pm:
- The Nets have assigned Chris McCullough to their D-League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, according to a team press release. McCullough is averaging 19.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game for Long Island this season.
- The Bulls have assigned Jerian Grant, R.J. Hunter and Paul Zipser to the Windy City Bulls, according to a team press release.
- The Hawks have recalled Mike Scott from the D-League, Chris Vivlamore of Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Atlanta doesn’t have its own affiliate, so Scott played his two games for the Delaware 87ers, the affiliate of the Sixers.
- The Jazz have assigned Joel Bolomboy to their D-League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the team’s website. This will be Bolomboy’s third assignment of the season.
- The Lakers have recalled Ivica Zubac from the Los Angeles D-Fenders, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link).
Here are Wednesday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
11:41 pm
- The Bulls have recalled R.J. Hunter, Doug McDermott and Paul Zipser from their D-League affiliate, according to a team press release. Zipser and Hunter were assigned to the Windy City Bulls just hours ago, so the duo presumably joined Chicago’s affiliate for practice.
- The Nets have recalled Chris McCullough from the Long Island Nets, the team’s D-League affiliate, per a team press release. He scored 19 points and 13 rebounds in Long Island’s game today.
12:21 pm
- Rookie forward Cheick Diallo, who had been assigned to the Austin Spurs, has been recalled from the D-League by the Pelicans, the team announced in a press release. New Orleans doesn’t have its own D-League affiliate, so Diallo has been playing for San Antonio’s D-League squad, averaging 12.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, and 2.1 BPG in nine games for Austin.
- The Hornets have sent Aaron Harrison and Christian Wood back to the D-League on assignments, according to a press release issued by the club. Harrison and Wood, who have played very sparingly for Charlotte, should get a chance to suit up and see some action for the Greensboro Swarm in Wednesday night’s game.
- The Nets have once again assigned Chris McCullough to Long Island, according to a team release. The Nets’ D-League affiliate plays this afternoon, so McCullough could be recalled after the game for Brooklyn’s Wednesday evening contest against Denver.
- R.J. Hunter and Paul Zipser have been assigned to the D-League, the Bulls announced today in a press release. Chicago’s affiliate, the Windy City Bulls, doesn’t play until Friday, so it’s not clear how long Hunter’s and Zipser’s assignments will last.
More NBA teams than ever have their own D-League affiliates in 2016/17, with three expansion D-League clubs joining the mix this year to bring the league’s count to 22 total teams. The NBA’s other eight teams can still send players to the D-League using the flexible assignment rule, but they may not be as inclined to do so as the clubs that operate and control their affiliates.
As expected, during the first month of the D-League’s season, the NBA teams most frequently assigning and recalling players from their affiliates generally met two criteria:
- They have young players on their roster who aren’t necessarily ready for regular NBA minutes, or can’t crack the NBA rotation.
- They’re geographically adjacent to their D-League affiliates, making it easy to send a player down for a practice, then recall him later in the day.
As Anthony Puccio of NetsDaily wrote last week, no team has taken advantage of the close proximity of a D-League affiliate quite like the Nets, who are temporarily sharing venues with the Long Island Nets, their new D-League squad. Long Island’s new building won’t be ready until the 2017/18 season, so when both teams are playing at home, it’s very easy for Brooklyn to send players back and forth between the NBA and the D-League. Chris McCullough has been the player most frequently affected, having already been assigned to Long Island nine times this season.
Like the Nets, the Raptors have a D-League affiliate that plays nearby — the Raptors 905 are based in Mississauga, a city in the Greater Toronto Area. And like McCullough with the Nets, Bruno Caboclo has been shuttled back and forth nine times between the NBA and D-League already this season, as Toronto takes advantage of having its D-League affiliate in the area.
While many NBA teams have established D-League teams – or relocated them – to ensure that sort of geographical proximity, not every club has done so. The Heat, for instance, might be more willing to assign and recall players from their D-League club more frequently if it wasn’t located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The distance between American Airlines Arena and the Sanford Pentagon (where the Skyforce play)? Over 1,800 miles.
Here are the players with the most D-League assignments early on in the 2016/17 season:
- Bruno Caboclo, Raptors (9)
- Chris McCullough, Nets (9)
- Dejounte Murray, Spurs (7)
- Josh Huestis, Thunder (6)
- Marshall Plumlee, Knicks (5)
- Fred VanVleet, Raptors (5)
- Bryn Forbes, Spurs (4)
- Demetrius Jackson, Celtics (4)
- Ron Baker, Knicks (3)
- Henry Ellenson, Pistons (3)
- Michael Gbinije, Pistons (3)
- A.J. Hammons, Mavericks (3)
- Aaron Harrison, Hornets (3)
- R.J. Hunter, Bulls (3)
- Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Sixers (3)
- Maurice Ndour, Knicks (3)
- Georgios Papagiannis, Kings (3)
- Kyle Wiltjer, Rockets (3)
Information from RealGM.com was used in the creation of this post.
Here are Monday’s D-League assignments and recalls from across the NBA:
10:54pm:
- The Nets have recalled guard Yogi Ferrell and forward Chris McCullough from their Long Island affiliate, the team announced in a press release. McCullough led the D-League team with 24 points and eight rebounds in today’s win over Sioux Falls. Ferrell is averaging 5.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in nine games with Brooklyn.
3:33pm:
- Bulls forward Doug McDermott has missed the team’s last nine games due to a concussion, but he may be nearing a return. The club announced today in a press release that McDermott has been assigned to the Windy City Bulls, presumably to practice with the D-League squad before he rejoins the NBA team.
- The Nets sent guard Yogi Ferrell back to the Long Island Nets for the team’s afternoon contest against Sioux Falls today, according to the club (Twitter link). Long Island lost the game, and Ferrell barely showed up on the score sheet, scoring four points on nine shots in 12 minutes of action.
- The Lakers have recalled 2016 second-rounder Ivica Zubac from the D-League, the team announced today (Twitter link). Zubac hasn’t seen much action with the NBA club so far in his rookie year, but has played well for the L.A. D-Fenders, averaging 17.3 PPG and 8.5 RPG in six contests.
- Jordan Mickey has returned to the Celtics, having been recalled from the Maine Red Claws, according to the team (via Twitter). Mickey was fairly quiet on Sunday, but had a huge game for Maine on Saturday, putting up 22 points, 15 boards, four assists, four steals, and four blocks.
Here are Friday’s D-League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- The Clippers recalled forward Diamond Stone from the D-League earlier today, the team announced. Stone appeared in four games for the Santa Cruz Warriors, where he was sent via the flexible assignment rule, and averaged 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 block in 17.0 minutes of action per outing.
- The Sixers sent Nerlens Noel to their D-League affiliate in Delaware earlier today in order for the big man to participate in the 87ers’ practice, the team announced. The center was subsequently recalled this afternoon, Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com tweets.
- The Hawks have recalled small forward DeAndre’ Bembry from the D-League, the team announced via press release. Bembry’s stint in the D-League was spent with the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s affiliate, since Atlanta does not possess an affiliate of its own. The 2016 first-rounder has appeared in seven games for the Hawks this season, averaging 1.3 points on 33.3% shooting.
- Chris McCullough has been assigned to the Nets‘ D-League affiliate, the team announced via press release. McCullough has averaged 18.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 29.1 minutes per contest in six games on assignment with Long Island this season.
- The Pelicans sent rookie forward Cheick Diallo to the Austin Spurs of the NBA Development League via to the flexible assignment system, the team announced. Diallo has appeared in six games with Austin already this campaign, averaging 14.3 points on .553 shooting from the floor, 6.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.