The Washington Wizards haven’t utilized the NBA Developmental League very often throughout the course of the past few seasons.

Since the team currently doesn’t have an independent affiliate, it’s difficult to use the system to its purpose. For instance, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers — the Houston Rockets’ affiliate — play the same style of basketball as their NBA team does.

So, when the Rockets send a player down to the NBA D-League, their isn’t much confusion. The players that spend time in the D-League already know what to expect. The team runs the same system and the coaches run the same plays.

However, that isn’t the case with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants — the NBA D-League’s lone independent affiliate.

Currently, there are 11 teams (if the Indiana Pacers deal goes through) without a D-League affiliate. Those teams, including the Washington Wizards, used the Mad Ants for assignments this past season.

Last year, the Wizards didn’t use the team very often. When they did, Glen Rice Jr. spent some time in Fort Wayne before ultimately getting waived.

Their limited use of the system could be decreased even more next season, though. According to a report from the D-League Digest, the Pacers will look to purchase the Mad Ants — a team that 11 others were expecting to utilize:

The Indiana Pacers have expressed interest in purchasing the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League in a deal which could take place before the 2015-16 season, multiple sources tell D-League Digest.

So, what do the other 11 teams without D-League clubs do?

As the D-League Digest pointed out, the NBADL will probably utilize a flex assignment rule. Here’s a quick breakdown of how that would work:

… a flexible assignment system will be utilized when an independent NBA team assigns a player at a time when the Mad Ants already have either the maximum of four NBA players on assignment or two assigned players at the position of the NBA player who is being assigned. In either event, the NBA D-League will identify to the assigning NBA team any singly-affiliated NBA D-League team that is willing to accept the assigned player, and the independent NBA team assigning the player will choose a team from among those teams to assign the player…

With all that said, the teams that don’t have an independent affiliate obviously didn’t utilize the system very often this season. But what does that mean for the Washington Wizards?

Randy Wittman‘s team is full of veteran players and probably won’t be using the D-League anytime soon. Even though it would’ve been nice to see Kelly Oubre get some playing time in the system, because he probably won’t get much in Washington, the team was reluctant to use the system with Otto Porter who was in a similar situation a few years ago.

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has already expressed interest in potentially having an independent affiliate, but that will likely happen after the team builds a practice facility.

According to an earlier report, the Wizards would use that facility for practice and the D-League team would then have a place to play its games. The Los Angeles Lakers run a similar system with the L.A. Defenders.

Unfortunately, the Wizards aren’t a team that utilizes the D-League very often anyway.

While they could benefit from having their own team, I don’t see how that would help them this upcoming NBA season. Oubre might be the only player on their roster that *might’ve* been sent down.

This Pacers deal might seem like a bummer to some, but in reality, it probably won’t make a difference to the Wizards.