The Hornets plans for a D-League team in 2016-17 will help the franchise in multiple ways.
A few weeks ago the Charlotte Hornets announced their intentions to start a team in the NBA’s Developmental League, most commonly referred to as “D-League,” by the start of the 2016-2017 season. A D-League team is pretty much a minor league team similar to those of baseball and hockey. In fact, more than a quarter of the players currently on NBA rosters once made an appearance in the D-League. There are currently 18 teams in the D-League.
A large portion of the roster will be filled with players who weren’t drafted or good enough to make an NBA roster, but they aren’t ready to give up on their professional dream so they’ll decide to prove themselves in the D-League. There are, however, exceptions. If a drafted rookie is really raw and not ready to contribute to his team, it is common that he will be sent to the D-League for a few games to work on some kinks.
The Hornets have a perfect example of this happening just this season. Ninth overall pick Noah Vonleh apparently had a lot to work on and wasn’t ready to gain serious minutes for the Hornets, so he was sent to play a few games with the Fory Wayne Mad Ants. The Mad Ants are the only D-League team that isn’t owned by an NBA team, so they are commonly used by the 12 teams who don’t have a D-League team when they need to send a rookie down to work on some things.
There’s a good chance that this happening could have been one of the driving factors in motivating the Hornets to start a D-League team for themselves. Instead of having to send Vonleh all the way up to Indiana for a few games, it would be much easier if they had a team in the Carolinas just a few hours away.
Current college players can also use the D-League if they are kicked off their current teams or get ruled ineligible by the NCAA. The most recent example of this is P.J. Hairston. Hairston was gearing up for his junior season at UNC when he was ruled ineligible by the NCAA, so he decided to play that season in the D-League for the Texas Legends. After a productive season for the Legends, Hairston was taken in the first round pick by the Hornets (which by the way, was the first time a player from the D-League was taken in the first round). So if something happens and a prominent college player gets ruled ineligible, there’s a great chance he’ll just play out the season in the D-League then take his talents to the draft.
Also, be on the lookout for prominent high school prospects to begin using the D-League instead of playing a season in college. Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay took similar routes. Instead of playing in college for a year, they took their talents overseas and played professionally where they got paid and didn’t have to worry about the academic rigor that comes with the college game. This decision sure didn’t hurt either one of them. Jennings was a top-10 pick and Mudiay will probably go top-5 this June. Although an elite high school prospect has yet to forego college for the D-League, there’s a greater liklihood it happens in the near future for the exact same reasons as to why guys like Mudiay and Jennings elected to play overseas instead of playing a year in college.
Here are the possible locations for the team that the Hornets have released:
Asheville: Asheville was actually once home to a D-League team. The Asheville Altitude played in the Asheville Civic Center (now known as the U.S. Cellular Center) from 2001-2005 and they won two titles in that span. One positive aspect about putting the team in Asheville would be the lack of competition the team would be facing. The only other professional sports team in Asheville is the Asheville Tourists, the single A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. Asheville is also only a two-hour drive from Charlotte. The U.S. Cellular Center is also an ideal venue for a team like this. It’s the perfect size in a great location, and there’s actually a lot of basketball history in that building, but that’s a completely different story.
Greensboro and Raleigh: I went ahead and grouped these two together since they’re located so close to each other. There are tons of people in this area. Greensboro is the third largest city in North Carolina and Raleigh is the second largest, so there would be plenty of people to try to get to come out to games. Unfortunately there would be A LOT of competition for support in this area. These two cities are located right in the heart of Tobacco Road where college hoops will always hold prominence. In addition to competing with college hoops, the Carolina Hurricanes also play in Raleigh. So between an NHL team and college basketball there’s a good chance the Charlotte Hornets D-League team would get lost in the shuffle in either of these two cities. However there’s a ton of basketball history in this area, and multiple venues to choose from.
Fayetville: Fayetville is the fifth largest city in North Carolina and there are a lot of basketball fans in the area. It’s also home to the Fayetville FireAntz, a minor league hockey team. The FireAntz play in Cumberland Country Crown Coliseum which holds 9,500+ spectators for basketball. Similar to the U.S. Cellular Center this is the ideal capacity for a D-League team. Plus, competing with the FireAntz wouldn’t be a big problem because there is no way they could play a hockey game and a basketball game on the same night since both would be using the same facility.
Greenville (SC): Greenville is a really nice and growing area. Similar to Fayetville, Greenville is home to a minor league hockey team. Ever since 2010 the Greenville Road Warriors have played in the Bon Secours Wellness Center which holds right at 15,000 for basketball. Just like with the situation I don’t see the presence of a hockey team being a big deal because, again, basketball and hockey won’t be played on the same night in the same building. However, the Clemson Tigers do play right down the road. This would probably be the team’s biggest source of competition.
Columbia: Columbia is the capital and largest city in South Carolina. This has never really been a prominent basketball area, the University of South Carolina is in Columbia but I often times forget they have a basketball program. What they do have however is an incredible basketball facility. Colonial Life Arena is still new and it’s one of the largest and nicest arenas in all of college basketball. I assume the D-League team would be able to use the arena with no problems. There would also be very little other competition in Columbia.
Charleston: Charleston is one of the most famous cities in the south. I assume that the team would play in TD Arena, the home of the College of Charleston Cougars basketball team (capacity: 5,100). The only other professional sports teams in Charleston are the Charleston Battery (USL Pro soccer team) and Charleston RiverDogs (minor league baseball team) so there’s not really any serious competition here either.
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