The Maine Red Claws will finally begin to take shape today.
After months of talking about renovations to their home at the Portland Expo, modeling new uniforms, selecting a dance team and selling tickets, the first-year Red Claws finally will get some bodies on their roster.
Well, maybe.
The Red Claws and the Springfield Armor will participate in a 10-round NBA Development League expansion draft at 2 p.m today. Each team will select the rights to 10 of the 25 players available in the draft.
"This is the beginning of us actually getting to talk about basketball," said Red Claws General Manager Jon Jennings. "For me, being a real basketball guy, this is the first time we get to talk about bringing guys to (training) camp."
The draft will be conducted during a teleconference call. Springfield will have the first pick of the draft -- and the first pick of every odd-numbered round. The Red Claws will have the even-numbered rounds.
The teams actually are selecting the rights to players of former D-League teams: the Anaheim Arsenal, which was sold to Springfield, Mass., and the Colorado 14ers, which won the league championship last year but was sold to Frisco, Texas, and will not have a team this year.
After the draft, each team will send a list of its selected players, in order of preference, to the league office. All players are signed to contracts by the league, which will negotiate with the players' agents to try to get them to go to either Springfield or here with the Red Claws.
"This is a different expansion draft than, say, the NFL," said Jennings. "We draft the rights to the players and then you hope they can come to your team. Some of the players have already signed with teams in China or Europe, but sometimes they can get out of those contracts."
Others, such as 6-foot-7 guard James White, who won the D-League's slam-dunk contest last year) and 6-9 forward Trey Gilder, have signed with NBA clubs. White signed with Houston and Gilder with Memphis.
"If we draft someone like White and something happens in Houston, then we have his rights," said Jennings.
He and Coach Austin Ainge consider this a very deep expansion draft. Colorado, last year's champion, obviously had a strong roster. Other players, such as 6-1 guard Eddie Gill (a veteran of 187 NBA games) and 6-5 guard Billy Thomas (the former Kansas standout with 53 NBA games), have made their marks in other organizations.
"We'll be starting off with players who potentially are very talented already," said Jennings. "We feel this is a great opportunity to draft the rights to (the teams') players, and then the hope is that they will sign with us."
Jennings said he and Ainge already have spent much time looking at players' video clips and have talked to several agents to determine who would likely sign a D-League contract.
"This is a very talented expansion draft, one we're looking forward to," he said. "And at this point, it's all about getting the best players."
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at: mlowe@pressherald.com
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