The NBA Development League's name has become a bit misleading as of late, a fact many were apt to point out this week as names from yesteryear like Marcus Banks and Rafer Alston joined the league already containing such luminaries as Antoine Walker, Antonio Daniels and Mikki Moore.

There are certainly still players signing in the D-League that are trying to enhance their overall basketball acumen, of course, but this season's rosters are increasingly making the league look like it's for guys latching on to one last chance rather than prospects hoping for their first shot at playing in the Association.

That said, it seems like maybe it's time for the D-League to take the next step in its transformation ... by changing its name to reflect more accurately exactly what it is. The next step in that process, however, is determining exactly what the D-League has become.

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Hello everyone,

It's been a few days since I've been able to write at Ridiculous Upside as I attempted to get over a vicious sickness -- apparently Mother Nature didn't want me running outside in shorts during January even if we did set a record up here in balmy North Dakota). Before this starts sounding like a Christmas letter, though, let's get into the meat and potatoes of why I'm reaching out to you on this lovely Sunday morning.

Some D-League coaching news happened while I was out as the Fort Wayne Mad Ants decided to replace Joey Meyer with up-and-comer Steve Gansey. Coach Meyer was liked by everyone I've ever heard talk about him, but it seemed the Mad Ants needed a bit of a shakeup as of late as the talent simply wasn't performing up to expectations.

Gansey, a 26-year-old with Ridiculous Upside, should be able to change things around as he was able to pick up his first victory as a head coach on Saturday night with a 107-98 victory over the Canton Charge. Congratulations to Coach Gansey as well as his de facto top assistant -- the all-knowing Sebastian Pruiti.

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The first game of TNT's Thursday night doubleheader featured a thrilling triple overtime tilt between the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks that saw the Heat survive when the Hawks ran out of gas in the third overtime. But what the devoted followers of this blog might find most interesting is that the game featured big performances by two former D-Leaguers.

Miami was without its top two players as shooting guard Dwayne Wade and small forward LeBron James each sat out while recovering from injuries. With two wings unavailable, Miami had to look to the bottom of the depth chart and call upon Terrel Harris, an Oklahoma State alum who began the 2011-2012 season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA D-League.

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Dear D-League Players,

I put out a call on Twitter last week looking for someone playing in the NBA Development League to write about their D-League season. There were numerous responses, but I realized that not everyone follows my Twitter account (or the website's)and decided to post it here before making a decision on our new contributor.

Ridiculous Upside has a rather high bar set when it comes to player blogs as the first player in site history was the memorable Mike Gansey. Gansey wrote about Kaley Cuoco, which D-League assistant coaches looked most like John Cena (Hint: His brother) and a comprehensive review of the 2010 D-League season while giving fans an inside look at the league.

Anyway, if you think you can follow in the footsteps of Mr. Gansey, please send me an e-mail (located here) and we'll get things moving. If there's enough interest in players interested in getting their stories to the masses, we might even be able to add multiple bloggers!

Have a great weekend!

NBA teams are officially allowed to talk to agents, essentially tipping off what should be an NBA free agency frenzy (even if the names involved aren't exactly the stars of the league). That shouldn't affect D-League call-ups quite yet as teams work to lock up the bigger names first, meaning Ridiculous Upside will have to focus on other things happening around the Development League.

There will be a random 10:30 a.m. matinee game between the Iowa Energy and Rio Grande Valley Vipers if anyone's looking to watch actual basketball this lovely Wednesday morning. Until then, however, Ridiculous Upside has rounded up the most interesting links from around the web.

Starting it off lighthearted, there was a fun feature on the Maine Red Claws' Kenny Hayes and Chris Wright published on Tuesday. Apparently they both were aspiring professional wrestlers before their basketball careers took off:

Kenny Hayes was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Chris Wright was The Rock. Or maybe The Undertaker. They would arrange the furniture in Wright's basement to simulate a wrestling ring. And then they would go at it, Hayes usually mimicking all the best moves of their favorite pro wrestlers at the time, Wright usually the victim of his moves.

"Oh yeah," said Ernestine Grigsby, Wright's mother. "Down in the basement. They did all that stupid WWF stuff -- the DDT, the Piledriver. They thought they were having a cage match, all that craziness."

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The opening night of the NBA Development League season is just over 48 hours away. Considering the D-League is going to be the only game in town and Ridiculous Upside strives to be the premier site for coverage of the NBA's official minor league, it makes sense that we'll begin to ramp up our coverage this week.

On Tuesday, the topic of the day was Western Conference power rankings and -- surprisingly -- there wasn't much in the way of outrage from coaches and front office personnel from around the league (aside from one that asked me to list all of the Ernest movies).

That might not be the case with the Eastern Conference power rankings, though, as there doesn't seem to be quite as much talent on that side of the minor league world. There isn't much continuity in the Eastern Conference, either, as five teams will break in new head coaches with four of them having undergone ownership changes since last season ended.

One thing that doesn't look like it will change this season though, at least judging from opening-day rosters, is the fact that the majority of the playoff teams will likely come out of the Western Conference once again this season. Only the top team in each conference is guaranteed a playoff spot, meaning there are six spots up for grabs -- and last year, five of those six spots belonged to the Western Conference.

Anyway, without further adieu, the Western Conference power rankings: Let's break it down!

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The NBA Development League season tips off on Friday night with seven games, highlighted nationally by the Canton Charge hosting the Iowa Energy on NBA TV, meaning that it's probably about time I start to talk about the D-League season in earnest.

My original plan was to compare all of the teams to Ernest movies, but since there were only nine movies made featuring Mr. Worrell, the next two days will instead be simple power rankings. These power rankings will be split into two columns -- the first being the stronger Western Conference -- so everyone has something to read during their Thanksgiving-shortened work week.

1. Austin Toros

The Austin Toros have a lot of continuity and, with just two weeks of training camp, that should play a big part early in the season. The San Antonio Spurs-owned team has the same coaching staff as last season and employs five players that have previously started in the D-League.

Brad Jones' team should have the chemistry needed to persevere through any sort of early season struggles considering Justin Dentmon, Lance Thomas and Leo Lyons all played for the USA's entry at the Pan-Am Games earlier in the fall. The starting lineup will likely be rounded out with Luke Zeller, a floor-spreading center, and rookie shooting guard Tristan Thompson (not that Tristan Thompson).

And, of course, Squeaky Johnson deserves a mention. He'll probably end up behind Dentmon on the depth chart, but he brings four years of prior Toros experience to the Austin lineup -- and that oughtta mean something, right?

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