Those players cannot be sent to the eight-team D-League more than three times in any one season, though, and there is no minimum or maximum length of assignment.

Ten other NBA players currently are assigned to D-League teams — Minnesota's Dwayne Jones and Bracey Wright, Miami's Earl Barron and Dorell Wright, Dallas' Rawle Marshall, Atlanta's Donta Smith, Toronto's Pape Sow, New Orleans/Oklahoma City's Sean Banks, Washington's Peter John Ramos and Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova — but none with Albuquerque.

Marshall is the top scorer of the bunch, averaging 23.0 points per game for Fort Worth, followed by Bracey Wright, who is averaging 20.6 for Florida.

It's the first year the Jazz and other teams in the league have had formal affiliations with specific D-League teams, with each shared by three of four NBA franchises.

The NBA assigned the Thunderbirds to be an affiliate not only for the Jazz, but also Phoenix, Sacramento and Albuquerque.

While down in the NBDL, all NBA players will receive their full NBA pay — in Miles' case, reportedly the league minimum for this season of nearly $399,000.

Miles has 48 hours from Wednesday afternoon to report to Albuquerque, and the first game in which he can dress for the 8-6 Thunderbirds comes Friday at Forth Worth — a short drive from his family's home Dallas-area home.

"The kid is going to get some playing time," said O'Connor, adding that the possibility of playing for Albuquerque was discussed with Miles and his parents before he opted to spurn a scholarship offer from the University of Texas and sign instead with the Jazz.

"Let's take a look at this and see what it looks like," O'Connor added. "We've had good reports from other people on how things have gone down there."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com