Jazz get new affiliate team

MINNEAPOLIS — The Jazz will have a new NBA Development League affiliate, beginning next season.

Utah's new minor-league partner will be the Idaho Stampede, which is leaving the CBA to join the D-League, Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said Thursday.

The NBA assigned Idaho to the Jazz, and Jazz officials had no say in the matter, O'Connor said.

But O'Connor suggested the move is favorable for the Jazz, who this season shared the Albuquerque Thunderbirds as an affiliate with three other NBA clubs.

"I like being closer (geographically)," O'Connor said, "and I like the fact it's in Boise."

The Jazz have held fall training camp at Boise State University on and off over the past several years, including last October.

The Stampede had been a fixture in the CBA, which is losing other teams as well to the D-League as the NBA's minor-league program aggressively expands. The CBA's Sioux Falls (S.D.) Skyforce and the Dakota Wizards of Bismark, N.D., also are headed to the Development League, as is expansion-franchise Broomfield (Colo.).

They and previously announced Bakersfield (Calif.) join existing D-League teams in Albuquerque; Little Rock, Ark.; Austin and Fort Worth, Texas; Fayetteville, N.C.; Fort Myers, Fla.; Roanoke, Va., and Tulsa, Okla.

"I believe having a team up there for all the years they've had it, and a good team, they have fan support and people who are used to going to games," O'Connor said. "It's good that it's an established franchise."

The Stampede — who began CBA play in 1997, advancing to the playoffs five times since — have previously employed players with Jazz ties, though never as an affiliate.

This season, both Weber State product Jermaine Boyette, who attended multiple Jazz training camps, and ex-Jazz guard Randy Livingston played in Idaho's backcourt.

NO COOP: The downside of Utah's D-League affiliate switch, according to O'Connor, is that Jazz players who go to the minors will lose out on the tutelage of ex-Los Angeles Lakers star Michael Cooper.

Utah shipped second-round draft choice C.J. Miles to Albuquerque, which is coached by Cooper, for multiple games this year.

Miles is one of 29 players that was shipped to the D-League by 19 NBA teams this season, the first in which there has been a formal affiliate program. (Only first- and second-year NBA players can be sent down while under contract). Another 13 D-League players have been promoted to the NBA this season.