The NBA G League is transforming into a legitimate minor league for the NBA right before our eyes. In the last five years, 10 new teams have joined as an affiliate for an NBA franchise bringing the total to 26 teams. In the next few years each NBA team will have their own affiliate to use as they see fit. That last part will be the key moving forward.

Teams have ramped up their use of the league to develop their young players and ultimately build depth from within. Looking at the numbers over the last five years it’s easy to see the shift in the minor league’s importance. From 2012 to 2015 NBA teams averaged sending 189 assignments to the league which included an average of 59 different players each season. In the last two season those figures have risen exponentially to an average of 400 assignments with 80 different players each season.

From an NBA team’s standpoint the objective for each player is increased repetition in a live-game setting, increased learning and functionality with the team’s offense and terminology and improvement in areas of deficiency. For each team with their own affiliate, their minor league cohort works in alignment with those goals while also carrying the additional burden of needing to win games and developing their rostered players congruently. Many fans forget coaches and front office executives in the G League are constantly trying to build their own case for a call up to the NBA as well.

Tracking how teams perform with NBA assignees in tow versus how they fare without them is important to assess how players assimilate to different teams, but is certainly not the driving force on whether a player will succeed. Chemistry is one of the more illustrative traits for any professional team. Some players show up and immediately fit in, while others make waves with their injection into a locker room or lineup. The majority of the players in the G League understand guys will be come from the NBA and receive preferential treatment, fair or not.

The majority of people assume better talent equates to more wins, however due to numerous factors specific to each assignee, this is hardly the case. If a certain player is seeing playing time in the G League to work on his pull-up 3-pointer, then in the process of taking those shots he could actually be hurting the team he’s assigned to. That player’s overall talent level is not rendered obsolete, but the talent gap is closer because he’s not always playing to his strengths and many cases he’s playing to his weaknesses in an effort to improve them in a live-game setting.

This table shows the win percentages for G League clubs during the 2016–17 season, both with and without NBA assignees, along with the impact in their chances to win. There were many cases where teams had more than one assignee with their club at one time, however these figures factor any game with any number of assignees. It’s also important to note the difference in number of games each team had with an assignee. For example, the Los Angeles D-Fenders had the fewest games with an assignee at just 16, while the Rio Grande Valley Vipers led the entire league with 46 games with at least one assignee (there are only 50 games in a G League season).

Here are some interesting aspects pulled from this data:

Eight teams were actually hindered by having NBA assignees

By and large, NBA assignees help teams win more as 14 teams saw their win percentage increase when at least one assignee played with their team

Only four teams with a plus .500 record without assignees won more games with an assignee

Quality teams (look at win percentage w/o assignee) were generally better with their rostered players

As a league teams won more (.511) without assignees as opposed to with them (.491)

Most of this shows the pivotal nature of chemistry. Coaches and players alike game plan around the players they have on their roster, so when as assignee is thrust into the mix, a monkey wrench of sorts can jumble their plans. Throw in the fact that eight teams didn’t have their own affiliate last season, so they sent their players to alternate teams’ affiliates, and some of this data starts to make sense. Constantly adding and removing players will certainly impact a team’s performance and we see the same thing in the NBA around the trade deadline, and from season-to-season as rosters change.

In the past, assignees have played a massive role in a team’s performance, eventual playoff runs and even past championships. The landscape of the G League is changing and assignees are at the crux of that change. Two years ago during the 2014–15 season NBA there were 56 players assigned 195 times and they appeared in 325 games (38 percent of total games) with a win percentage of 0.591. Again this season that number dropped to just 0.491 and some of that is due to the number of games going way up. NBA teams assigned 92 players 479 times this year (both all-time records) and they appeared in 609 games (55 percent of total games).

Let’s take a look at how individual players fared during their time in the league last season.

These are the players who appeared in at least 10 games in the D-League last season and their subsequent win percentage in those games. Context is vital when trying to break down this data, because in a vacuum someone could make the argument that Bruno Caboclo is better, or has a bigger impact, than any other assignee. Clearly that would be the incorrect outcome for this chart. However, there is value in seeing a player’s impact on their affiliate when they go there for increased reps. For example, the trio of Deyonta Davis, Wade Baldwin IV and Jarell Martin land in the bottom three for win percentage but they still helped Iowa win more games than when they were absent from the lineup. Iowa was the worst team in the league last year at 12–38 and the team only won two games without an assignee present. Comparatively, Bruno Caboclo led the league for assignees’ win percentage at 0.765, but the Raptors 905 — who won the title this year — actually were better without him with a win percentage of 0.800 (12–3).

While NBA front offices want their minor league affiliates to win games, it’s much more important that their budding assets are constantly improving. Iowa finishing 12–38 becomes inconsequential if Memphis’ trio of Davis, Baldwin and Martin (or even just one) become contributing members of the Grizzlies next season. The overall goal from the NBA’s perspective is to give their prospects a constructive environment where kinks can be ironed out, all within the constructs of their schemes and watchful eyes.

With the genesis of two-way contracts in the 2017–18 season, how players develop will only become more and more pivotal as NBA franchises will have two additional players to oversee. Teams who can turn this new wrinkle into an advantage faster than others are going to set the table for what this league can really morph into.