Throughout the offseason and preseason, NBA teams are permitted to carry 20 players, but that total must be cut down to 15 (plus a pair of two-way players) in advance of opening night. However, up to four players waived by teams prior to the season can be designated as “affiliate players” and assigned to their G League squads.
As we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, if a player’s NBA team has designated him as an affiliate player and he signs a G League contract, he is automatically assigned to that team’s NBAGL roster.
Of the G League’s 30 teams, 28 are directly affiliated with an NBA club. Only the Mexico City Capitanes and G League Ignite are unaffiliated, while only the Suns and Trail Blazers don’t control a G League team. Here are the affiliate players for those 28 squads to start the 2021/22 season:
Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario (Clippers)
Austin Spurs (Spurs)
Birmingham Squadron (Pelicans)
Capital City Go-Go (Wizards)
- Jaime Echenique
- Jordan Goodwin
- Jordan Schakel
- Note: Devontae Shuler was also an affiliate player for Capital City, but was waived before the regular season began.
Cleveland Charge (Cavaliers)
College Park Skyhawks (Hawks)
Delaware Blue Coats (Sixers)
Fort Wayne Mad Ants (Pacers)
- Nate Hinton
- Keifer Sykes
- Terry Taylor
- Note: Derek Culver was also an affiliate player for Fort Wayne, but was waived before the regular season began.
Every team should own a G-league team. Wonder why the two toxic FO teams . Are only ones that don’t own one. Like AAA MLB teams. Teams should be refining the talents of their best young players. Only way you get better, improve your game. Is by playing real mins against real talent. Few teams really use the G-league to their max benefit. NBA is nowhere close to MLB on this.
Probably because minor league baseball has been around for 120 years.
Baseball and hockey have much better developmental leagues than the NBA.
This list is pretty worthless. It doesn’t tell anything about the big clubs interaction with the G-League. It has been well reported that the Warriors will send Moody, Kuminga, and Wiseman to Santa Cruz to get more playing time. The coaches with the Sea Dubs work directly with the big club.
MLB developmental leagues are relatively new. The skills needed to succeed in baseball are greater than those in basketball.
This list is about “affiliate players,” which are defined in the intro. We’ve written in previous stories about Moody, Kuminga, and Wiseman going to the G League, but they aren’t affiliate players — they’re NBA players on G League assignments.
To me, lists like this are anything but worthless.
This site is for true basketball nerds, of which I am one.
Much appreciated.
@luke Adams By ‘worthless’, it seems that there is not a lot of effort to develop these players. The relationship seems purely contractual. Not a lot of reason for a fan to follow a team.
I live about 5 minutes from where the Maine Celtics play and I go to about 3-4 games a year. People around here don’t really “follow” the team. We go to games because it’s cheap, fun, and there is beer there. Often there will be a younger Celtics player down for a game, or a guy on a two-way contract, and that’s cool, but no one around here cares about whether the team wins or loses. It’s just watching good players play hoops.
@Al I agree with you. MLB teams have affiliations with at least 6 minor league teams, sometimes more. They don’t own teams. Some players will go to Central America for Winter Ball. It generates a lot of fan interest.
If draft pick players play for the G-League affiliate for the team that drafted them, would they be considered affiliate players even if they didn’t sign camp contracts?
Yeah know. I think that is a screwy thing about the G-League. An NBA team can sign a player off of another NBA teams G-League affiliate mid season. I don’t understand the real connection.
@phenomenalajs No, those players fall into a separate category (“NBA draft rights players”).
Devontae Shuler is no longer on the Capital City Go Go roster. He wasn’t on the boxscore of the first 2 Go-Go games. Are you sure he’s still with the team? Can’t find any info anywhere
Good catch. They didn’t announce an opening night roster and didn’t announce that they’ve waived him, but it looks like they did so on Wednesday.