Report: Pacers to buy D-League team, leaving 11 NBA clubs in limbo

The Indiana Pacers are expected to purchase the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, turning the team into their exclusive affiliate, D-League Digest reports.

Indiana's decision stands to reverberate throughout the NBA, and could have far-reaching implications for other teams and the D-League as a whole.

Fort Wayne was the lone D-League team without an exclusive or hybrid relationship with an NBA parent club, and the 12 NBA teams without a D-League affiliation all shared the Mad Ants. With the Pacers purchasing the team, 19 NBA teams will have an exclusive affiliate, while 11 will be left without an affiliate at all.

The Pacers will become the 11th team to outright own and operate their affiliate, while eight other teams have a hybrid relationship, running the basketball operations of an independently-owned D-League team.

Owning the Mad Ants should improve Indiana's ability to develop players and staff, as D-League proprietorship affords NBA teams a unique opportunity to foster growth while maintaining player control - an attractive scenario most teams either are or would like to leverage.

With more incentive than ever for NBA teams to purchase or establish an exclusive affiliate, the D-League's growth should be expedited. The Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, and Brooklyn Nets are all believed to want a D-League team for 2016-17, and the lack of any shared affiliate will likely push those teams, and eventually others, to chase an exclusive affiliate.

A future where every NBA team owns its own D-League squad seems inevitable.

As a consequence of Indiana's purchase of Fort Wayne, the 2015-16 season becomes quite confusing for at least 11 teams: the Hawks, Nets, Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, and Washington Wizards.

The NBA will need to work out some system in which exclusive or hybrid affiliates host players from other teams, otherwise the aforementioned clubs would be unable to send players to the D-League.

That could create a moral hazard. A player assigned to another team's D-League affiliate is unlikely to receive adequate attention or playing time with the team totally uninvested in their development. That was a problem with 12 teams sharing Fort Wayne, and it will be an even bigger issue without any shared affiliates.

For 2015-16, it's likely the NBA will use some variation of the flex assignment system, which sees players assigned to exclusive D-League teams willing to accept an unaffiliated player, or otherwise directs them to one of the eight hybrid-relationship teams.

Despite the potential complications, the Pacers purchasing the Mad Ants is great for the NBA and D-League long term and a smart move on the part of Indiana.