The NBA Development League was ravaged quite a bit as 60 players were called up over the past few days to fill out training camp rosters, but games still happened. Not all of them were pretty and many didn't feature the usual allure of NBA prospects, but games still happened as the box scores located here will show.

Now that that's out of the way, though, it would seem that looking back on exactly what happened as far as NBA prospects and the NBA are concerned is of a bit more importance -- game recaps aren't particularly important when most teams have make-shift starting lineups in place and a few players stepping onto the court right off the plane.

The NBA has picked the D-League pretty clean, but there are still a number of players toiling in the D-League with legitimate basketball careers ahead of them ... or in their recent past, which should allow them at least another training camp invite).

Players like Durrell Summers (Charlotte Bobcats), Marshall Brown (Portland Trail Blazers) and Casey Mitchell (Miami Heat) all earned camp invites a bit later in the process than most and, if the NBA decision makers are smart, there are a few players that should still be headed to the NBA as camp progresses in the next couple of weeks.

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I originally planned on there being somewhere in the neighborhood from 25 to 45 players from the NBA Development League in an NBA training camp when they opened this week. Turns out I was low, however, as there are 55 players in camp that were called up from the D-League for their shot at the NBA.

How many of them stick will be another story, of course, but it can't hurt that they'll be entering camp in shape and with a bit of a chip on their shoulder.

The full list of participants is included below.

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NBA training camp invites for the 2011-12 season should be more interesting than most considering teams will have just two weeks to install new offenses, get into game shape and whittle themselves down to a 15-man roster before the games actually begin to matter. Those invited from the D-League will have a leg up on the competition in regards to game shape, too, considering the D-League has been running for a few weeks already after training camps opened in the Development League during the second week of November.

During the last NBA lockout, there were 176 players in training camps with 39 players invited from either the CBA or IBA -- the two domestic minor leagues at the time -- with players like Stephen Jackson, Adrian Griffin, Mikki Moore, Jeff McInnis and Troy Hudson all getting their first real shots at the big leagues via training camp invites.

It seems that number could be inflated this time around, too, which obviously opens up good opportunities for the D-League players that chose to play for less money in hopes of the NBA lockout ending sooner rather than later this season.

As a reminder, teams aren't technically allowed to agree to any sort of contracts prior to Friday's official opening of free agency. Via Ridiculous Upside's sources, however, the following players have agreed to attend training camps with the teams mentioned below.

There are roughly 20 other players that will be headed to training camp, too, but the NBA's moratorium on deals caused some to withhold confirming invites until the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was voted on and approved. Things could obviously change in the next 24 hours as free agency changes needs, but as of now, the below players are headed to training camp.

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The NBA Development League has needed new assignment rules ever since they made it possible for the D-League to receive its big league brethren during the last NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement. Those changes have been made, too, according to CBS Sports' Ken Berger.

The current rule had been that first and second-year players were eligible to be assigned to a team's D-League affiliate up to three times each season. The new rules, though, allow for unlimited D-League assignments within the first three seasons of a players career (though Berger reports the NBA wanted five years instead of three).

The bigger move, however, is that veterans will now be able to be assigned to the D-League with their consent, thereby allowing the possibility of injury rehab stints as players work their way back toward 100 percent.

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NBA training camps will open on Dec. 9 if all goes according to plan, meaning next Friday should be a pretty important day in the lives of many players hoping for their first chance to play in the Association. One might think the Development League will provide the majority of the players, but considering there were 154 training camp invites last season, that isn't in the realm of possibility.

Those around the league estimate that there will probably be 30 or 40 players called up to compete for NBA roster spots during training camp -- taking place from Dec. 9 to Christmas Eve, essentially -- though conventional wisdom would indicate that estimation should be at least slightly higher.

32 players that played in the D-League during the 2009-10 received training camp invites for 2010-11, but that was when they still had to compete with players that were sitting at home and waiting for an NBA look prior to taking their talents overseas. The lockout likely removed a fair amount of those players this year, however, as European and Asian teams swooped in and signed them to deals while the NBA season was in question.

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There's a huge project I've been working on behind the scenes regarding what happened during the first few weeks of the 1998-99 season following the last significant NBA lockout. It will stay on the back-burner until David Stern cancels our Christmas, too, but Springfield Armor head coach Bob MacKinnon summed up my reasoning for the research during an interview last week

"I think this is a great year to be in the D-League," MacKinnon told the Springfield Republican. "With the lockout, once things get settled and solved, I think the NBA is going to need players and they're going to want guys who are in shape and ready to go. It's going to be easy for them to look to the D-League and I think the D-League is going to be a great source."

As I reported a few weeks ago, 39 of the players invited to NBA training camps during the lockout-shortened season were playing in either the Continental Basketball Association or the International Basketball Association -- the two primary minor leagues at the time. Another 44 had played at least a portion of the season abroad prior to going to training camp, according to my research, though the new out-clauses and such will probably lower that considerably this time around -- adding to the number of NBA Development League players heading to training camp.

Of course I would prefer that none of this actually happens and the NBA season is saved by Tuesday, but my optimism has slowly dwindled as the news seems to get worse and worse after each passing deadline. If nothing else, though, the above notes represent a bright spot after I wrote about the downside of the NBA lockout and the D-League last week.

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The NBA lockout has now been going on for 89 days, or about 88 days more than I can handle knowing Brian Cardinal is locked out of the gym. That said, I've been looking back at the last extended NBA lockout for clues as to what might be in store for us basketball fans when the owners and players get everything together.

The 1998-99 NBA season, for those that don't remember, included a shortened 50 game schedule that didn't begin until early February. The current lockout isn't close to reaching that point yet. If the NBA's meetings this week go horribly wrong, however, there's a chance that this offseason could get that bad.

So, in anticipation of the worst, the 1998-99 opening day rosters should provide a good indication of exactly what to expect for the (hopefully) upcoming season. The players on the court are the biggest impactors, as SB Nation's Tom Ziller wisely noted Monday morning, though the always excellent Zach Lowe recently wrote about issues during the last lockout for Sports Illustrated (he went further in-depth on the back-to-back-to-back issues here, for those interested).

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Over the next couple of months, I will be a writing a series of articles exploring the depth charts of NBA teams, and more specifically, where the rookies from the 2011 draft fit into those depth charts. Thanks to MTD for the idea. Also, for the sake of my sanity, I will be writing as if there will actually be a season this year.

Previous Installments: Cleveland, Minnesota, Utah, Washington, Charlotte, Detroit

Many NBA teams were content to sit back, conduct their drafts, and wait for the lockout to begin. The Sacramento Kings, however, took a proactive approach and decided to re-tool their roster before league business was shut down. First, they bolstered their already talented front court by acquiring J.J. Hickson from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then, rather than keeping the seventh overall pick, Sacramento packaged it along with starting point guard Beno Udrih in a three-team trade that brought back John Salmons for his second tour of duty with the club as well as the 10th overall pick.

SAC Draft Picks: Jimmer Fredette (BYU), Tyler Honeycutt (UCLA), Isaiah Thomas (Washington)

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