Phoenix Suns finally adding G League affiliate

The G League – previously known as the National Basketball Developmental League and the NBA Developmental League (D League) before it took on Gatorade's sponsorship in 2018 – currently has 31 teams. 

Until Wednesday's announcement, 29 of those teams were affiliated with a big brother NBA team. The unaffiliated teams are the NBA G League Ignite – which has a roster of elite prospects who play a schedule in and outside of the league – and the Capitanes de Ciudad de México (Mexico City Captains), the first NBA-associated franchise outside of the U.S. and Canada.

Phoenix previously had a team in the G League when it purchased the then-Bakersfield Jam and relocated the franchise to Prescott Valley, 85 miles north of the city. The Northern Arizona Suns played in the state from 2016 until 2021 before the Detroit Pistons bought the affiliate and moved them to Wayne State University, rebranding the team as the Motor City Cruise.

Adding a G League team is another dramatic change of the Suns' stewardship under Mat Ishiba, who purchased the NBA team and the Mercury, its WNBA sibling, last February. In just over a year since the mortgage lending magnate and former Michigan State walk-on bought the team, he pushed for the stunning trade that brought Kevin Durant to the desert, dismissed former Coach of the Year Monty Williams, pulled Suns and Mercury games from Bally Sports Arizona for broadcast stations and traded for Bradley Beal.

The G League team may not move the meter right away but it provides dual functions. Primarily, it will give the Suns full control of its player and coaching development. In a business sense, it will provide a relatively low-cost form of entertainment wherever the team ends up in the Phoenix metropolitan area as all other G League teams do for their respective big brother teams. To the point of the business around the Suns, the press release noted that Ishiba plans to create an umbrella company for the three basketball teams and their associated facilities.