CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bulls announced Wednesday that they have purchased an NBA Development League team that will being play in 2016-17 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The new franchise will be the 22nd in the D-League and the 13th that will be fully owned and operated by an NBA team.
"It's big because we'll have control over staffing the basketball part of it," Bulls executive vice president John Paxson said. "And so you expect to have symmetry between our organization and that organization. As time goes on, we'll have a new collective bargaining agreement in a few years, the hope is at some point even if you don't have guys on your NBA roster, then you'll have some control over a number of players on that [D-League] roster where you truly can kind of grow and develop and maybe find a diamond in the rough so I think it has great value. This was the only model that has made any sense to us and so it's the right one."
Bulls general manager Gar Forman talked about his team's desire to continue to grow "from within." The example Forman used as a potential future scenario would be if young players such as rookie Bobby Portis and second-year big man Cameron Bairstow practiced with the Bulls in the morning and then played with the team's D-League club at night just to get some game action in.
"This will be another important tool for us to help our young players develop and grow," Forman said.
The Bulls are holding a contest beginning Wednesday through Nov. 25 so that fans can name the D-League team. The rules are that fans have to be legal Illinois residents and/or live within Chicago and the name must end with "Bulls."
