Ridiculous Upside Q&A: What Would Be The Ideal Location For A G League Bubble

Without a doubt it would be Las Vegas. For one, the league has experience within the city due to holding the 2019 G League Winter Showcase there last December. Also, it’s the one place where you have the infrastructure to temporarily house hundreds of players, coaches, and team staffers while allowing it so that multiple games can go on at the same time. In addition to housing and the arenas that individuals can play games in, the hotels within Vegas are high quality enough where they’d also have places to eat while still being within the bubble.

As there hasn’t an active G League season for around eight months, I’d have to go back to the 2019-20 campaign. Although he probably wouldn’t be your typical example as a big, I’d probably have to go with former Memphis Hustle standout Jarrod Uthoff. Standing 6’9, 220 pounds, the Iowa alum has mostly worked as a small or power forward dating back to his time in the Big Ten. However, he did a lot of work at center while with the Hustle. Within that role, he did a fantastic job of being able to move the ball to cutters, or work it to shooters while working the low-post.

As much as I’d love to answer this question, I simply can’t because I’m not quite sure when the next G League season will begin. While I can say there are currently discussions taking place within the league, there’s not a concrete plan in place just yet.

Honestly, there’s two ways that you can answer this question. If we’re talking about players that were just on standard G League deals, the answer would be Tyler Johnson, who received a a 4 year/$50 million deal from the Miami Heat in 2016. However, if we’re looking at guys like VanVleet that were undrafted guys on standard NBA contracts when they were in the D/G League, it would be Kent Bazemore. In 2016, the Hawks gave Bazemore a 4 year/$70 million dollar deal.

As we stand, Will Conroy holds the single-season scoring record for the G League when he put up 1,300 points in the 2008-09 season. To put up that amount of points, he had to averaged 26.5 points per game in 49 games. To answer your questions, Howard would have to put up 26 points per game if he were to play a full 50 game G League season to clear that number. For clarity sake, that average would have to go up to 28.9 points per game for a 45 game run and 32.5 points per game if he spent 40 games in the G League.

As I mentioned in a previous question, the league is currently having discussions about how to go about hosting the next season. These debates and discussions honestly change every day, where things go from pessimism to considering multiple options that involve different types of bubble situations.

I’m leaning more towards pessimism due to how COVID is still rampaging across the United States and the financial burden that would come from creating a bubble for the hundreds of G League players, coaches, and front office members. If I were you, I’d be waiting to hear an official announcement from the league itself as information that you see in a report from a journalist covering the league could change in the following day or week.