DEVELOPING SITUATION NBA TEAMS TAKE WAIT-AND-SEE APPROACH WITH MINOR LEAGUE.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

For a player who admittedly knows little about the likes of the Arkansas RimRockers, Florida Flame or Roanoke Dazzle, Lakers guard Von Wafer nevertheless might be the poster child for the NBA Development League.

Wafer left Florida State after only two seasons and was taken by the Lakers in the second round of June's NBA Draft. He has played only 11 minutes so far in a rookie season split between the inactive list and the end of the bench.

The 20-year-old even has a relatively optimistic attitude about possibly being assigned to the D-League, something NBA teams can do for the first time this season.

``I never thought about going to the D-League,'' Wafer said, ``but if that's where they send me, then I'll just go into it 100 percent with my head held high.''

Yet Wafer isn't going anywhere, at least for now, and he is far from alone. The Lakers are in the majority of NBA teams that have taken a wait-and-see approach even as basketball has taken steps to follow baseball and hockey in setting up a minor-league system.

As part of its new collective bargaining agreement, the NBA now allows teams to send their first- and second-year players to affiliates in the D-League. As many as two players at any time can be sent down, though they will continue to be paid full NBA salaries.

The only problem is that it's going to take some convincing on the part of NBA general managers that the D- League is the right place to send their players.

``How teams are going to use that league will not be determined this year,'' said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, whose team is affiliated with the Fort Worth (Texas) Flyers.

The D-League opened its season last month, but the influx of young players from the NBA has yet to arrive. Out of the 130 players eligible to be sent down - 60 could at any given time - only nine have been assigned, and they are far from household names.

Along with the NBA's new 19-year-old age limit, the D-League has the potential to change how the business of professional basketball is conducted, creating a proving ground for young players entering the league.

Yet only seven of 30 NBA teams have committed players to the league so far.

``There are two issues with the D-League right now,'' Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. ``One is having your guys around to learn your system. Maybe after they know your system very well, then you can send them down. The other issue is that it's not a one-on-one thing.''

Instead, three or four NBA teams will share a D-League affiliate, with control issues a foremost concern.

The plan is to reduce the ratio of NBA teams to affiliates as soon as possible, with the D-League hoping to expand to 15 teams within two years, according to president Phil Evans. That would pair two NBA teams with every D-League affiliate.

``In a perfect world,'' Kupchak said, ``you'd like to have your own minor-league affiliate where you could hire your own coaches, use your own system, shuttle players back and forth, and tell your coaches who to play and how much to play them.

``We've made some movement in that direction, a lot of movement in the last year. It's going in the right direction, but it's going to take time.''

Welcome to Austin

The slogan of the D-League, formerly known as the NBDL, long has been ``The NBA Dream Starts Here.'' But that dream couldn't seem more distant than at the Parque Zaragoza Recreation Center in a rough-edged part of Austin, Texas.

This is one of two practice sites for the Austin Toros, one of four new franchises in the league this season. There is no shot clock available, no dunking allowed and no 3-point arc even taped down on the floor.

``They don't need one anyway,'' Austin coach Dennis Johnson said. ``They shoot the 3 (terrible).''

For those expecting the NBA life of Ritz-Carltons, charter flights, shoe deals and state-of-the-art practice facilities, this is anything but.

The Toros are one of the D-League teams that has yet to be assigned an NBA player, leaving them at somewhat of a disadvantage. Johnson said he thought he would get Denver rookies Julius Hodge and Linas Kleiza, but that was before the Nuggets lost Nene and Bryon Russell to injury.

The Clippers were reluctant to send rookie Yaroslav Korolev, fearing the culture shock for the Russian teenager. Houston had only one player eligible, rookie Luther Head, who was needed when Tracy McGrady was out with a back injury and is averaging 27.4 minutes a game.

And San Antonio prefers to keep its young players in Europe. Johnson said he could understand the reasons and was happy with the overall response from his affiliates. He got cell-phone numbers from coaches and general mangers and promises to stay in touch.

``It'll happen,'' Johnson said. ``The world wasn't built in seven days. You have to give it time. The D-League's only been here four or five years. We'll get to the point as it grows and everyone will grow with it.''

Johnson said he didn't think the issues of control were as significant as some general managers might say.

``I talked to (Denver general manager Kiki Vandeweghe),'' Johnson said, ``and he said, `Dennis, when we send our guys down, this is your thing, this is what you're supposed to be doing. We just want them back in shape.' ''

And so Johnson goes about coaching, even if the former Boston Celtics great has to towel up the sweat on the floor himself. He has 10 players on the roster, including Marcus Fizer, the former No. 4 pick of the 2000 NBA Draft.

Johnson's teachings are simple, about stepping up to make free throws late in games and throwing a good pass instead of the perfect one. He stresses everything in the job description of an NBA role player, including diving on the floor after loose balls.

As for D-League life, it is decidedly minor league. The players share apartments and fly commercial to away games. They play in front of crowds smaller than some high school games. They get $35 in meal money on the road and stayed at a Holiday Inn on a recent trip.

``What people don't remember is when I first came into the league, I stayed at the La Quinta,'' Johnson said. ``It takes time to build.''

`Something we wanted to take a look at'

One team that has committed to the D-League is the Minnesota Timberwolves, who sent rookies Bracey Wright and Dwyane Johnson to Florida in early November. They also sought an exception for third-year forward Ndudi Ebi, a former first-round pick out of high school, but were denied.

Both Wright and Johnson played for major college programs - Wright at Indiana, Johnson at St. Joseph's - but Timberwolves general manager Jim Stack said the team believed the two only would get better with game experience in an NBA-like environment.

``We thought at least in the short term,'' Stack said, ``this would be something we wanted to take a look at and we'll see how things progress one way or the other.''

Atlanta Hawks general manager Billy Knight, who has an NBA-high eight D-League eligible players on his roster, decided earlier this month to send down second-year guard Donta Smith, who was averaging three minutes a game.

``We don't want them sitting two years in a row,'' Knight said.

With no NBA players yet assigned to his team, Fort Worth coach Sam Vincent, a seven-year NBA veteran, said he would reach out to the likes of Kupchak and others in the coming weeks, trying to persuade them to take a chance on the league.

``As long as we're playing good, solid basketball,'' Vincent said, ``and our big guys are getting developed properly, the point guards are understanding how to run screen-and-roll, how to push it on the break, then they'll be able to carry that over into whatever system they run.''

There is another sticky issue for D-League teams in how many minutes to give an NBA-assigned player. Wafer, as an example, might not be as experienced as the other guards on the Flyers but he is a player in whom the Lakers have made an investment.

``I personally take the development angle of the league very seriously,'' Vincent said. ``because I believe our responsibility here is to take the guys who are NBA players and make them stronger for their NBA teams.''

(Wafer is back on the Lakers' active roster because Laron Profit ruptured his left Achilles' tendon Tuesday.)

The playing time available in the D-League is indisputable. Former UCLA product Dijon Thompson, a second-round pick of the Phoenix Suns, was assigned to the Albuqerque (N.M.) Thunderbirds. He averaged 38 minutes in his first two D-League games.

``I like the fact that I'm playing down here,'' Thompson said before getting recalled. ``It feels good playing and logging a lot of minutes. It's something that I haven't done in a little while.''

Wafer, meanwhile, hadn't heard much about the D-League except for one thing.

``I know there are guys down there,'' he said, ``fighting for their lives to get back to the NBA.''

Staff writer Joe Stevens contributed to this report.

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Dijon Thompson (UCLA), Phoenix's second-round pick, averaged 38 minutes in his first two games for the D-League's Albuqerque team.

Edna T. Simpson/Daily News

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NBA PLAYERS IN THE D-League