Austin Toros Contribution to the Spurs Thread

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Originally Posted by gospursgojas

Can someone provide a list of DLeaguers who have made a legit contribution to any NBA team?

Not trying to be facetious, I really am curious

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Originally Posted by ohmwrecker

Sundiata James of the Jazz is the only one I can think of and that's not a great example.

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Originally Posted by ChuckD

Go down Golden State's roster: Azabuike and Morrow come to mind.

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You guys seriously forgot about Devin Brown?

Jamario Moon
Rafer Alston
Aaron Brooks
Marcin Gortat
Jose Barea
Brandon Bass
Ime Udoka
and Ian Mahinmi of course

I think we should also recognize that it takes time for any organization to build a succesful player development system in every sport that has minor league organizations. Half of the battle w/ this sort of franchise is putting the right people in place to manage it (coaching, etc.) and then developing the corporate knowledge to incorporate players into the line-up from it. The toros' issue is they are committed to winning at the lower level, not produce NBA players--the two are slightly different.

In any event, I see the Toros as a long term investment, and w/ the NBA and it's roster restrictions, it would only take one or two rotation players developed every 5 or 6 years to make the Toros a success.

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Originally Posted by RobinsontoDuncan

I think we should also recognize that it takes time for any organization to build a succesful player development system in every sport that has minor league organizations.

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The problem with this statement is that the d-league is nowhere near the equivalent to the NBA that triple-A baseball is to MLB. Most kids who played D-1 college basketball are probably taking a step backwards in terms of competition when they end up in the d-league.

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Originally Posted by coyotes_geek

Most kids who played D-1 college basketball are probably taking a step backwards in terms of competition when they end up in the d-league.

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so true. this is also often ignored when discussing if a player should go to Europe or play D-league. the D-league is better than not play at all, it makes some sense to get players used to heavy minutes per game, but that's it. the D-league isn't a natural step from college to NBA. Europe, only the better leagues of course, is such a step, if a player can't find his niche immediately.

btw. nice post count number.