Report: Indiana Pacers To Buy Fort Wayne Mad Ants
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers are looking to buy the Fort Wayne Mad Ants according to D-League Digest. The Mad Ants are the D-League’s only independent team.
In the past the Indiana Pacers had sent younger players like Miles Plumlee, Solomon Hill, and Shayne Whittington to the Mad Ants on assignment but had never called anyone up. For many teams their D-League affiliate has rarely been used as a minor league team where players can grow and develop like we see in baseball. It is sometimes forgotten that the D in D-League stands for Development and with the Pacers having so many young players (Rakeem Christmas, Glenn Robinson III, Myles Turner, and Joe Young), they’ll need them to grow as players as quickly as possible.
As ProBasketballTalk.com points out, the Pacers buying the D-League’s lone independent team could end up being a big deal as far as the structure of the D-League.
"This is a big deal because now there are no more independent D-League teams that aren’t owned by a single NBA franchise. It leaves the (deep breath) Hawks, Nets, Hornets, Bulls, Nuggets, Clippers, Bucks, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Blazers and Wizards all without representation in the D-League.Best-case scenario, this finally pushes one-to-one affiliation throughout the D-League. In 2015, there’s no excuse for every NBA team not to have their own affiliate. When you look around the league at the teams that have been the most aggressive about using the D-League, franchises like the Spurs, Rockets, Mavericks, Thunder and Warriors are some of the best and most well-regarded organizations in the league. Much like with some teams being early adopters of SportVU cameras, if those particular teams decide something is worth the investment, that might be a sign that the rest of the league should follow suit. With the new TV money coming in next year, it’s well worth the investment for every team."
No word at this time to whether it will affect the hiring of Will Voigt, which D-League Digest is reporting will be the Mad Ants’ next head coach.
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