The NBA’s relationship with the D-League continues to grow, and this season a total of 19 NBA teams had one-to-one affiliations with D-League clubs. Those NBA organizations without their own affiliates were required to assign players to D-League clubs associated with other NBA franchises. D-League teams could volunteer to take on the assigned players, and if no volunteers emerged, the players were assigned at random.
This significant change from the 2014/15 season came about after the Pacers purchased the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and turned them into their one-to-one partner for the 2015/16 campaign. Other NBA teams have interest in following suit in the years ahead, and the NBA’s ultimate goal for the D-League is for all 30 NBA franchises to have their own D-League squads. You can view the complete list of D-League affiliates here.
We at Hoops Rumors are recapping the D-League-related activity for the 2015/16 campaign for each team and we’ll continue with the San Antonio Spurs, whose D-League affiliate is the Austin Spurs:
The Spurs made 12 assignments for the 2015/16 season, sending three players to the D-League for a total of 32 days. Listed below are all the assignments and recalls made by San Antonio for the 2015/16 campaign:
- November 7th: Assigned Jonathon Simmons (1st) — Recalled November 14th
- November 16th: Assigned Jonathon Simmons (2nd) — Recalled November 18th
- December 4th: Assigned Boban Marjanovic (1st) — Recalled December 6th
- December 4th Assigned Ray McCallum (1st) — Recalled December December 5th
- December 16th: Assigned Ray McCallum (2nd) — Recalled December 21st
- December 27th: Assigned Ray McCallum (3rd) — Recalled December 28th
- December 29th: Assigned Ray McCallum (4th) — Recalled December 30th
- January 2nd: Assigned Ray McCallum (5th) — Recalled January 4th
- January 30th: Assigned Ray McCallum (6th) — Recalled February 1st
- March 17th: Assigned Jonathon Simmons (3rd) — Recalled March 19th
- March 20th: Assigned Boban Marjanovic (2nd) — Recalled March 22nd
- March 20th: Assigned Jonathon Simmons (4th) — Recalled March 22nd
Here’s how San Antonio’s players performed while on assignment to the D-League this season:
- Boban Marjanovic: In three appearances the big man averaged 23.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocs in 26.4 minutes per outing. His shooting line was .805/.000/.625.
- Ray McCallum: In nine appearances McCallum averaged 17.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 38.6 minutes per outing. His shooting numbers were .431/.375/.750.
- Jonathon Simmons: Simmons made four appearances and averaged 16.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 34.6 minutes per night. His slash line was .431/.231/.773.