"Detroit announced after the game that rookie Amir Johnson would report to the NBDL on Monday"

**link** - see bottom

looks like we have another team besides the pistons to start paying attention to if we sign delk i foresee acker headed down there with amir

Glad to hear that... I'll try to keep folks updated on Amir... they play NBDL games on NBA TV at least twice a week during the day..... hear that Lee?

My only question is... WHAT TOOK SO LONG?!?! Johnson should have been down there months ago. I'd rather he started the year in the D and then maybe brought up later in the season. Not to play - which he hasn't anyway, but just to get the feel of a playoff run on a Championship caliber team. They've done it all backwards IMO.

Something else to ponder. I wonder how differently the "Darko experiment" would have turned out had we had access to the NBDL 2 years ago?

jammer, at the beginning of the year no one in the NBA even knew how the NBDL would be structured and if it was a good option for the youngsters. plus i disagree with you, i think it was better that the rookies spend a lot of time with the team, learn the offensive and defensive sets, get comfortable with the system/players/coaches, and then go apply that to the NBDL.

Fair points Warthog, I guess I'm just a bit afraid of "the Darko" syndrome reering its ugly head again.

Is it better for an 18 year old to sit for an entire year and watch from the first row, or to play through his lumps in the D league? If he was the only player in that situation, then I probably wouldn't worry as much, but we also have Acker and Maxiell in their first year and Delfino (and Darko until last week) still trying to find their places on this team all ahead of AJ on the depth charts.

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Amir is different from Darko in that he's dominated an entire season...even if it was at the high school level. Reports from Europe before Darko's draft showed that Darko dominated games but generally was pulled up to the next level before he could ever stand head and shoulders above his peers.

NBDL experience is decent for game time experience and I guess its good for a preps to pros guy but I don't think that's as good as a good college team.

This is great news. Hopefully Acker can get down there as well.

I will look forward to tracking his games. Hopefully he gets a ton of PT.

Please see my very recent post in the Win Now or Develope the Rookies thread!!!

The NBDL is specifically designed for Amir, Acker, Maxiel type players so they can get a lot of game experience against better-than-college competition. Is it the NBA? Of course not. Darko would have benefited GREATLY from two years in the NBDL. But he came out before it was available. From a $$$ standpoint, he made out well, from a development standpoint he lost out greatly, and so did we. (except we'll get another good #1 pick down the road - maybe HE can use the NBDL)

oh i don't disagree with you at all. i wanted acker/johnson to head down to the NBDL after the all-star break (and maybe jmax too since it looks like dale davis will be just fine). i think it'd be great for them to start applying all of their gym rat and pistons knowledge stuff to game situations.

it would be cool for all three to go down there for a little bit. They can keep each other in line.