Atlanta Hawks: Future D-League Team Huge For Player Development

The Atlanta Hawks are dipping their toes into the D-League waters sooner than expected. This could be huge for their player development.

The Atlanta Hawks organization has been praised for their player development during the Mike Budenholzer era. They’ve helped turn players that were thought of as bench-warmers by other organizations into valuable role players. Kent Bazemore and DeMarre Carroll are just two examples.

With the future of the organization a mystery, having several key contributors with expiring contracts always makes the future cloudy, player development may be more important than ever in the coming years.

One tool they’ve used to help their young players grow this season has been the NBA Development League. Rookies DeAndre’ Bembry and Taurean Prince have each spent time in the D-League this season, getting a chance to play when minutes for them in Atlanta have been sparse.

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Currently, the Hawks do not have a D-League affiliate. They’ve sent players to multiple teams this season. Bembry spent time with the Salt Lake City Stars, while Prince and Mike Scott have played with the Long Island Nets (Scott also spent time with the Stars). That’s fine, but it’s certainly not ideal.

You can try all you want to send a player to a team that plays the same style you do, but at the end of the day that team is not a part of your organization. They don’t have the same goals with your players that you do. It makes for a very strange situation.

The Hawks won’t have to deal with that much longer. It’s long been reported that the Hawks are planning to own and operate a D-League team in nearby College Park starting with the 2019-2020 season.

That’s a long time to wait for an important developmental tool. The Hawks have found a solution to that problem, giving them a perfect stopgap until things in College Park are up and running.

Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com reported earlier in the week that there were rumblings that the Hawks would take over operations of the Erie BayHawks starting next season. Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed that it would indeed happen.

This is fantastic news for the Hawks organization. This gives them a chance to have a D-League affiliate that is all their own, a team that they can infuse with their culture and philosophies. The two-year wait has been eliminated. This is especially important for a franchise that places such a high value on culture.

This will be beneficial to the aforementioned Prince and Bembry, if they still are having trouble finding minutes in Atlanta next season. This will also be beneficial to the young players Atlanta brings in over the next few seasons with their plethora of draft picks.

Erie obviously isn’t nearly as convenient in terms of location as College Park, but it will be fine for the time being. When 2019-2020 rolls around young players could conceivably practice with the Hawks during the day and play with the D-League team at night.

Professional basketball is changing. Playing in the D-League is no longer viewed as a sign of failure (it never should have been viewed that way in the first place). It’s a place where players can hone their skills with an eye on making it in the NBA long-term. It’s also a place for organizations to develop their young players.

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The next Kent Bazemore or DeMarre Carroll will likely be a player that spent a significant portion of their rookie season in the D-League. That’s exciting for the Hawks and exciting for the future of player development in general.