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In a further discussion --but no official announcement-- of the Nets D-League intentions, Billy King told NBA.com's David Aldridge that the Nets' "goal" is to have their own D-League team in 2016-17.
Aldridge writes the Nets' expansion team would play in Brooklyn its first year with a move to "perhaps Long Island" --presumably the revamped Nassau Coliseum-- after that. King is not quoted on that aspect of the Nets' D-League plans.
In a detailed discussion of D-League expansion plans, Aldridge writes...
The Nets, which had a hybrid agreement with the Springfield Armor for three years before the team was sold and moved to Grand Rapids in 2014 -- where it became the Pistons' D-League team -- hope to have a new D- League team in place that would play in Brooklyn in 2016, and perhaps on Long Island in subsequent years.
"The goal is to have one next year," GM Billy King said Friday. "Not having a team (last season), we didn't use Fort Wayne. We worked with Boston and Maine. The way it worked last year ... we timed it so when we had Markel (Brown), we worked it so we could send him to Maine."
The Nets, who didn't make a lot of use of their hybrid relationship with Springfield, sent Markel Brown and Cory Jefferson down to Maine for a week.. The Nets will have no D-League affiliate this season and will have to use the same arrangement, called "flexible assignment," that it did last year.
Although the new Nassau Coliseum will have a capacity of 13,500, there are plans for different arrangements with sections of the arena blocked off, creating smaller venues. One of the venues, said a league source, would be a "basketball hall," with a capacity of 4,000 to 6,000.
Nassau, which Bruce Ratner is rehabbing and remodeling, would not be ready for the 2016-17 season. In the meantime, a D-League team would likely play at Long Island University, a short walk from Barclays Center.
Back in May, King and Brett Yormark said they expected word on the Nets D-League plans in the "coming weeks."
Aldridge lays out various teams' D-League plans and suggests as well that once each NBA team has its own affiliate, the NBA Draft could extend beyond two rounds.
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