This past season the NBA Development League rebranded to the NBA Gatorade League or G League. The reason behind this change is to focus on player enhancement and optimizing a player’s performance. Players in the G League will be able to access the Gatorade Sports & Science Institute to better understand the science that goes into performing at an optimal level.
The G League teams operate differently than traditional NBA franchises. We will explore the intricacies of how rosters are created, the movement between parent teams and their affiliate team, and finally a new type of player known as a “Two-Way Player” introduced for the 2017-2018 season.
How are G-League rosters formed?
There are 10 unique ways that G-League rosters are formed. Here they are:
- Two-Way Players (see below)
- Returning Players
- Teams hold rights to any player who has played with them within the last two seasons that they have not released. (Ex: Vander Blue of the South Bay Lakers & Los Angeles Lakers)
- NBA Affiliate Players
- Teams trimming rosters and sending players down to their G League affiliate and have first dibs at retaining their players
- The “affiliate player rule” allows them to retain up to four of the players that they waive.
- Local Tryouts
- Exactly what it sounds like, G League teams hold tryouts to attract local talent
- Example: Jonathan Simmons was a local tryout player who was called up by the San Antonio Spurs and just signed a contract 3yr/$18 million deal with the Orlando Magic.
- NBA G League Draft Picks
- About 200 are signed by the NBA league office and placed in the G League draft
- Draft Rights Players
- The “draft rights player” rule allows NBA G League teams to directly acquire players on their NBA parent club’s draft list, bypassing the usual NBA G League player selection processes, including the Draft and waiver wire
- NBA Assignees
- Can assign players to D League with 3 years or less of service, an unlimited amount of times
- NBA Draft-Eligible Players
- A player who has not yet entered the draft can instead enter the NBA G League and maintain his Draft eligibility
- These players are not eligible to be called up by teams
- Free Agents
- Can enter the Player poor at any point in the season
- Expansion Draft
- Each team can protect up to 10 players and the expansion teams can select up to 12 unprotected players with no more than TWO selections from any one team. Teams hold rights to those players for 2 seasons
Movement from NBA team –> G-League Team
All 26 NBA G League teams are singly affiliated with an NBA Franchise, but that does not mean that NBA franchise owns their rights to players on their roster. The majority of players in the G League are available to be called up by any NBA Franchise because most players have signed contracts with the NBA rather than the individual team, so they are technically free agents.
The Two-Way Player
Starting this year NBA rosters have expanded from 15 to 17 players with the addition of two spots for players under “Two – Way Contracts”. These players will spend the bulk of their time in the G League and a maximum of 45 days with their NBA team. They are paid corresponding to the amount of days they play in each league. While in the NBA, Two-Way players will make the rookie minimum salary and when sent back down they will resume with their G-League salary. These new contracts offer NBA teams with the privilege of retaining talent to their affiliate team without any risk of being poached by another team. Additionally, the Two-Way contract does not appear in the final salary cap calculation for NBA Teams.
Other features of the Two-Way Contract:
- Only players with four or fewer years of service can sign a Two-Way deal
- Two-Way players cannot be on the playoff roster or play in a playoff game but can be on the inactive list and travel with the team
- Two-Way contracts can be converted to NBA contracts at the team’s option
Source(s): http://www.cbafaq.com/ , http://gleague.nba.com/, Picture courtesy of NBA G-League
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