Phoenix Suns strengthen relationship with NBA D-League affiliate

PHOENIX — Scan the Phoenix Suns roster and you’ll find seven players with NBA Development League experience.

That’s the most of any NBA team; though the 29 other clubs all can boast of having at least one NBA D-League veteran in uniform on game day.

Because of that impact, 17 of the 18 NBA D-League teams have a single-affiliation with their NBA parent clubs.

The latest team to join that group is the Bakersfield Jam, now in a hybrid relationship with the Suns, where Bakersfield handles the business side, i.e. marketing and promotions, and Phoenix controls the basketball operations, i.e. roster.

The new setup allows for the Suns to be the one and only NBA team to send players to Bakersfield for development as opposed to the five teams which had that option the season before.

“That wasn’t ideal,” GM Ryan McDonough said, “because if you had a player at a certain position, like we did last year with Archie Goodwin, as a guard going down there, if there were other guards there who were on assignment from other NBA teams, they all wanted to play.

“Also, the systems are obviously different that each of the five NBA teams run. The terminology is different for the offensive and defensive calls. It was as good as it could be a year ago, but it certainly wasn’t ideal. We want a control over that process.”

The Suns named Bubba Burrage, their head pro personnel scout, as the general manager in Bakersfield and hired Nate Bjorkgren as the head coach.

“The idea is that the system (of both the Jam and Suns) is the same,” McDonough said. “Really, we want it to be seamless, so if we do send a player down this year, we’ll have them work on specific things and those things obviously being what they will or what they would do if they got into an NBA game for the Phoenix Suns.”

Bjorkgren owns a 92-58 record in three prior NBA D-League coaching stints, including last season with the Iowa Energy, a team he led to the Central Division Championship.

To help understand how the Suns want Bakersfield to play, Bjorkgren spent a considerable amount of time with the NBA team in the offseason, first as an assistant in the Las Vegas Summer League and then working with the team during training camp and part of the preseason.

“It’s one heck of an advantage because the stuff that (Jeff Hornacek) runs is really good stuff. It’s the way I like to coach basketball,” Bjorkgren said, prior to his leaving for Bakersfield. “His offensive philosophy and his defensive philosophy, it’s perfect. It helps everybody.

“They’re asking me to do something that I full-heartedly believe in. It’s a great way to play the game.”

Hornacek himself seems to have plenty of confidence in Bjorkgren.

“He knows what we do and he’s going to try to get those guys,” the Suns head coach said. “And if we need to assign some guys down there to get some reps and some runs, they can jump right into it. We can put a variety of guys down there that will know our offense. I think it’s going to be great.”

According to the NBA, 33 percent of its players last season had spent time in the NBA D-League during their careers.

Bjorkgren has coached several players that have been called up to an NBA roster, including Anthony Tolliver, who is one of six current Suns players with D-League experience.

“The biggest thing for me in doing this over the years and seeing guys get called up and seeing guys stick and seeing guys go up and down is just to give them that playing time,” Bjorkgren said. “Put them in successful situations and then maybe a player who gets assigned to me, they’re playing 35-40 minutes a night, they hit a big shot for us and then maybe when they’re in that same situation with the Phoenix Suns, maybe they win a game for the Phoenix Suns this year. You never know what can happen. Or making a big play or a big stop on defense.

“The great thing about the D-League is that when the Suns do assign players, they get to come down and play and the scoreboard is on, the lights are on, the officials, the fans, so it’ll be fun.”

The communication between Bakersfield and Phoenix will be constant, according to McDonough, who added they’ve given Bjorkgren and his staff the flexibility to test ideas rather than that be done in an NBA game and risk the outcome.

“We talked about it before when we hired (Bjorkgren),” Hornacek said. “We’re going to run our system, offensively and defensively. It’s a good opportunity for him to throw wrinkles on things that if he sees. He’ll send us clips and say, ‘Hey look we tried this. It seemed to work pretty well’ if we’re not doing it. It’s great to have him down there to experiment with things. He’s a great coach. He’ll get guys to play hard.”

The Bakersfield Jam open their season Friday, Nov. 14.

“The most important thing is the individual player development and developing kind of the Suns’ system and style and culture down there,” McDonough said. “So if and when those guys do get called up to the Suns, they fit right in.”

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