The NBL's G-League Connection

Xavier Munford, Jaylen Adams, Rayjon Tucker, DJ Hogg, Cam Oliver. If you were to throw that quintet of players onto an NBL floor you’d have a team that would almost certainly be competing for a championship.

All of these current and former stars of our competition are inter-linked though, and it extends past the fact that they’re all remarkable talents who have graced our league over the past few seasons.

That linking factor even extends past the fact they’re all import players. At some point in time all five have represented the Wisconsin Herd at the NBA G-League level – an incredible association given it’s an organisation that has only been a member of the competition since 2017.

Based on the picturesque shores of Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin – roughly 140km away from Milwaukee – the Herd have quickly aligned themselves with the values of their associated NBA club, the Milwaukee Bucks.

Cam Oliver played for the Herd in 2017-18 before heading to Cairns for the 2019 season. He earned his first NBA opportunity in 2021.

Oliver – who earned All-NBL Second Team honours in 2020 as a member of the Cairns Taipans – is the only outlier due to the fact he found his way to the Herd after his stint in the NBL. The star quartet of other players all suited up in the green of Wisconsin, before finding their way to Australia.

The NBA G-League – formerly known as the NBA D-League – is often discussed with a certain level of reverence in international basketball conversations. 

On its website the G-League states its primary function is “preparing players, coaches, officials, trainers and front-office staff for the NBA while acting as the league’s research and development laboratory”.

That standing as the "research and development laboratory" is a role that can take various different forms. From things as simple as providing young players with a platform to launch through taking part in the competition, to becoming the first competition in the world to trial a new free-throw rule in 2019, it's a league that's well-placed to put its finger on the pulse of the basketball world. 

Current Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Milwaukee Bucks Dave Dean acted as the General Manager of the Herd from its inception in 2017 until late 2021.

He discussed the key elements on which the Bucks have built its affiliate side with NBL Media.

“We have three pillars,” Dean said. “We want to develop our Bucks players – whether they’re a two-way player or a rostered player. Whenever they’re with the Herd we want to make sure their development is continuing and not stagnating.

“We also try to look for any potential Bucks down the road – if any of our G-League rostered guys could end up being a Bucks player at some point, whether that be on a two-way contract or as a rostered player."

That second pillar is a prime example of the opportunity that has been afforded to a select few Australian players over the years. Current Tasmania guard Matt Kenyon represented the Capital City Go-Go and South Bay Lakers in a season long stint in the competition.

Drafted to the Go-Go with the 19th pick in the 2019 G-League Draft, Kenyon had made his way to America in the hopes of continuing his basketball journey, after parting ways with the Brisbane Bullets.

You only have to tune into a JackJumpers game to see the abilities those sides felt could potentially translate into the NBA – his energetic and lockdown defence and his proficiency when shooting the three-point shot, particularly from the corner.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Call him Mirror-Image Matt (Kenyon) ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on 10 Peach, 10play and Kayo Freebies. <a href="https://t.co/ayBRWM7bLm">pic.twitter.com/ayBRWM7bLm</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1578961863114903553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“The third pillar is we want to win games. It’s easy to say winning games comes third, but when you’re not winning things get tight. You feel it and you don’t want to be losing, plus winning games creates the environment you’re looking for – guys need to feel that experience of winning, but it’s also ok to lose once in a while to gain an understanding of what it takes to go from losing to winning,” Dean added.

“It’s hard to do some of those things simultaneously. A few years ago, Chase Buford was our head coach and he and our staff did a great job of all of it.”

Current Sydney head coach Buford is the sixth notable Herd alum to ply his trade in the NBL. If you put him at the helm of that aforementioned line-up of Munford, Adams, Tucker, Hogg and Oliver, well, that becomes a genuine championship side.

Current Sydney coach Chase Buford and former NBL MVP Jaylen Adams celebrating

With the way Buford manages his Sydney team, it’s easy to forget he’s into just his fourth calendar year as a head coach. In fact, sometimes the only way to remember he’s still so early into his coaching journey is he looks so much younger than so many of his counterparts around the world - at just 34 years old.

While it was marred by Covid interruptions and the eventual cancellation of a season in which Wisconsin was emerging as title fancies, Buford’s time at the helm of the Herd proved fruitful for all involved.

He arrived in Oshkosh with some serious G-League pedigree, despite never having held a head coaching position before. He was an assistant at the Erie BayHawks and the Delaware Blue Coats before being handed the reins of his own side.

It was that two years in charge of the Herd, more than anything else, that persuaded the Sydney Kings to take a chance on the young American and name him as current Cairns coach Adam Forde’s replacement.

Before the fateful Covid cancellation of the 2019-20 season, Buford had led the Herd to a league-best 33-10 record, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact the program had finished the prior season with a 12-38 record – tied for worst in the competition with the Northern Arizona Suns.

Leading that exceptional side of the cancelled season were two familiar faces to NBL fans; former league-MVP and NBL champion Jaylen Adams and current Melbourne United star Rayjon Tucker.

“I have the best memories of Chase,” Dean said. “I love him. He was a great partner to work with, he has an unbelievable passion for the game, he’s got great relationships with his players, and he’s a great young coach.

“We developed our players, we found some players who ended up contributing to the Bucks and other NBA teams, and we had the best record in the league under Chase’s watch. It was a perfect time for us then.

“He helped three guys get into the NBA that year. Rayjon Tucker, Jaylen Adams, and then Justin Patton also won a contract.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see all the success he’s having this year, or the successes he had last year with winning the championship.

“I believe if you can coach in the G-League, you can coach anywhere, because there’s so much change over the course of the year … he’s got the brightest of futures as a head coach, in my opinion, wherever he wants to go.”

There have been plenty of recognisable faces to pull on the Herd uniform at one stage or another in the organisation’s short existence. 2010 NBA All-Rookie First Team member Brandon Jennings played seven games for the side in 2017-18. 2010 NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans pulled the Herd's uniform twice in 2021-22, and current Dallas Maverick Christian Wood split his time between the Bucks and the Herd for large parts of the 2018-19 season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not a bad Wisconsin Herd debut for Brandon Jennings. The former Milwaukee Bucks standout ends with 31 points, 8ast, 3reb, 1stl. <a href="https://t.co/V66KYrSuQ4">pic.twitter.com/V66KYrSuQ4</a></p>&mdash; Mike Cianciolo (@MikeCianciolo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeCianciolo/status/966509124598059008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

While the trio of Jennings, Evans and Wood may be the most recognisable names to have played for the Herd, few players have managed to mould themselves to that second pillar of values better than current Melbourne import Rayjon Tucker.

Tucker, like so many NBA-hopefuls, went undrafted out of college. Despite failing to make an NBA roster at the first point of asking his promise and athleticism was obvious to see, and the Bucks quickly signed him up to an Exhibit-10 training contract and gave him a Summer League opportunity.

He came within inches of making the Bucks roster, and had impressed two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo so much ‘The Greek Freak’ thought he had made the roster – however he was waived before signing on with the Herd.

After 16 games in the G-League averaging almost 25 points per game Tucker signed on with the Utah Jazz before moving to Philadelphia 76ers, however he would return to Oshkosh.

Rayjon Tucker (R) with Tyrese Maxey during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Three games representing the Denver Nuggets split his second stint at the Herd, but three years after signing his Exhibit-10 contract out of college Tucker would pull on a Bucks uniform for the first time in 2022.

Tucker is far from the only player to try and utilise the G-League as a platform to launch himself into the NBA, and he says his time within the Herd laid down the bedrock for him to forge a successful career.

“They had a great group of guys that fit the mould of who Milwaukee and the Herd wanted to be,” Tucker told NBL Media of his time in Wisconsin.

“The guys there were very selfless basketball players who put the team before themselves, and the coaches and staff took as many chances as possible to develop us both on and off the court, and really teach and help develop us.

“I enjoyed my time there even though it wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be – nobody necessarily wants to be in the G-League when they’re so close to the NBA but that comes with the territory.

“I feel like the team and the organisation in general made it a great experience for me in terms of getting a chance to grow and learn how to play NBA-style basketball.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rayjon Tucker averaged 17.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game in 13 appearances (all starts) with the Wisconsin Herd before getting called up to the Timberwolves.<br><br>Enjoy the BEST of <a href="https://twitter.com/th3flighttuck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@th3flighttuck</a> ?? <a href="https://t.co/yC6tzbdOT6">pic.twitter.com/yC6tzbdOT6</a></p>&mdash; Wisconsin Herd (@WisconsinHerd) <a href="https://twitter.com/WisconsinHerd/status/1473704888764825600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The pressure of being so close to the pinnacle of basketball can make or break some players. South East Melbourne Phoenix forward Mitch Creek recently spoke of the mental and physical toll being so close to the NBA can take on even the most seasoned of players.

There must be an overwhelming temptation to put your best foot forward, teammates and results be damned, but Tucker says the best way to earn that NBA opportunity is to showcase your ability as a team player.

“I’ve heard guys on some teams talk about getting on a team and it’s all like ‘I want to get my stats and I want to get this’, but you have to come to terms with that every NBA team has their guys already,” he said.

“They’re not looking for guys who are out there scoring 20 points on 30 shots. They want to look for guys that can fill out a roster.

“You can still go out and have great games where you’re playing team basketball – you’re taking great shots and making good reads. In my first year at the Herd everyone had the same goal where we wanted to win games, but we understood that for one of us to look good, we all had to look good and use each other.

“If you can go out there and get 20 and everything’s efficient, you’re playing within a system and playing team basketball then it looks so much better.”

Discussing Tucker’s thoughts around playing team basketball suddenly makes it so clear as to why the Bucks organisation was so keen to present him with an opportunity, first in the G-League and then in the NBA.

Watching the way DJ Hogg applies himself on both ends of the floor makes it easy to make the same assumptions. There's an easy comparison to make with how each approaches their game.

Whether it be Tucker fulfilling an unfamiliar point guard role during Melbourne's early-season injury crisis, or Hogg passing up strong looks to allow the likes of Shannon Scott or Tahjere McCall to take the limelight - the team always comes first.

“What we try to do is find players that fit the Milwaukee Bucks,” Dean said of the Herd’s recruitment tactics. “The Wisconsin Herd is an extension of the Bucks in every facet – from our front office to our coaches to our performance staff.

“We all speak the same language, we call things the same things, our shootarounds are the same, our practices are as similar as they can possibly be.

“We try to find players who would fit into the Milwaukee Bucks and how we like to play, but it’s hard because you can only emulate what we do in Milwaukee so much. There’s no Giannis Antetokounmpo in the G-League. No Brook Lopez, Jrue Holiday or Khris Middleton.

“How we try to replicate those players is to find people who could fit in well around those pieces.

“Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t. You can’t have 10 G-League rostered guys make the NBA each year – that’s just not going to happen. There are only so many spots available, so we try to do our best to find guys that fit what we’re about.

That lack of NBA roster spots available isn’t just felt in the NBA G-League. It’s felt in competitions all around the world.

Prime NBL talents like Xavier Cooks, Jo Lual-Acuil, Brad Newley and Chris Goulding have taken their talents to tackle the NBA Summer League over the years, while Cooks only recently discussed the idea that he may not fulfil his NBA dreams.

The opportunities, while difficult to come across, do present themselves. In fact, plenty of NBL stars have used the G-League as a vehicle to hit greater heights.

Tasmania’s Will Magnay signed a two-way contract with the New Orleans Pelicans after his breakout season with the Brisbane Bullets. His time with the Erie BayHawks led him to suit up for the Pelicans on one occasion in 2021.

Melbourne’s Isaac Humphries also spent time with the BayHawks, but he instead managed five appearances and one start for the Atlanta Hawks in 2019

Mitch Creek famously debuted against Milwaukee and guarded Antetokounmpo while playing for the Brooklyn Nets – an opportunity he earned by biding his time with the Nets’ G-League affiliate in Long Island.

He played four games with Brooklyn before adding one appearance for Minnesota in the 2018-19 season.

Even Jock Landale – who is only going from strength to strength this season as a member of the Phoenix Suns – was forced to earn his stripes at the Austin Spurs while a member of San Antonio in 2021-22.

Jock Landale playing for the Austin Spurs in 2021.

Some of the Australians drafted into the NBA also used the G-League as a way to adapt to the rigours of professional basketball. Patty Mills represented the Idaho Stampede during his time in Portland at the start of his career, fellow Olympic medallist Josh Green was assigned to the Texas Legends by the Dallas Mavericks in his rookie season.

There is one genuine flag-flyer for the NBL in the G-League at the time of writing. Former Melbourne United forward Jack White signed a two-way contract with the Denver Nuggets this season, and his absolute domination with the Grand Rapids Gold has seen him suit up for the Nuggets five times so far.

Dean says it’s no coincidence more NBL talent is earning the opportunity to impress in America.

“Basketball is such a global game right now. We have scouts all over the world watching as many games as they can,” Dean said.

“Australia has proven to be such a high level of competition – especially over the last few years.

“There are great players and great coaches, so we make sure we keep a very, very close eye on the NBL. We have scouts watching games in Australia and internationally every day writing reports and sending them back to us.

“There are a lot of really, really good players not on NBA rosters tight now and I think some of the best talent that isn’t in the NBA is in the G-League and in Australia. I really believe that.

“Both leagues have shown a great capacity to have great coaching and the ability to develop players into NBA-calibre players, and the NBL has definitely proved that through the players and coaches that have made the transition into the NBA.

“The G-League is expanding into Mexico City, and there’s already the 905 in Toronto, so it really is a global game.

“I’m more biased now that Chase is there because he’s a friend of mine, but I’ve been watching the NBL more closely than I ever have before. I don’t think you can go wrong studying both competitions really hard.”