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The D-League has grown a lot since its inception and is slowly becoming a better place for NBA teams to develop their young players. Sacramento has been affiliated with the Reno Bighorns for a while now, and while they have used it to send players like Hassan Whiteside and Tyler Honeycutt in years past, they've never really had any control in how the team is run or those players are handled.
That is all set to change under Vivek Ranadivé's new ownership group though, as the Bee's Tony Bizjak reports that the Kings and Bighorns have signed a two-year deal for the Kings to run the basketball operations.
Breaking: Sacramento Kings will announce tomorrow they have signed a deal to take over basketball operations of the Reno Bighorns
— Tony Bizjak (@TonyBizjak) July 10, 2013
Kings owner Ranadive says Kings will choose coach, players and system for Bighorns - essentially giving Kings a minor league team
— Tony Bizjak (@TonyBizjak) July 10, 2013
Vivek says Kings tried to buy Bighorns outright, but Reno owners agreed only to turn over basketball ops. Kings do have future right to buy.
— Tony Bizjak (@TonyBizjak) July 10, 2013
Kings and Reno Bighorns will hold 1 p.m. press conf in Reno tomorrow to announce two-year deal that gives Kings control of b-ball operations
— Tony Bizjak (@TonyBizjak) July 11, 2013
Several NBA teams who have gone this route have seen good results, particularly the Houston Rockets. Hopefully the Kings will now be able to maximize the value of having a D-League team.
UPDATE: Here's The Bee's story.