National Basketball Association

LA D-Fenders Set Roster and Announce Media Day Schedule

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The NBA Developmental League held their draft on Sunday, with the Los Angeles D-Fenders organization set to hold their media on November 9th, 2016

Former Lakers player Anthony Brown was picked No. 1 overall by the Orlando Magic D-League affiliate the Erie BayHawks in the D-League draft which took place on Sunday.

Lakers fans were pulling for Brown to make the 15-man roster, but to their dismay, he was waived. Their last hope was that Brown would be picked up by the D-Fenders, but that didn’t happen either.

The D-League Draft is a bit different from the NBA Draft. Coaches want to pick the players with the most experience, opposite from what their NBA team might want: the youngest and most moldable group of draftees. The coaches want to win, and the NBA wants to bring up talent to the big league. Hence, you can only imagine the difficulty in being a D-League coach.

The D-Fenders didn’t draft until the third round when they chose three picks. First on the list was 6’7″ forward Gerald Beverly out of Daemen College, a liberal arts school in Amherst, New York. Beverly, who went undrafted in the 2015 NBA Draft then went overseas to play in Germany last season.

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With the tenth pick in the third round, the D-Fenders picked 6’6″, 200-pound Wally Ellenson out of Marquette University. Brewtown Andy from  AnnonymousEagle.com was surprised he was drafted at all, “He [Ellenson] averaged 1.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in a shade under nine minutes per game as a redshirt junior for MU last season while appearing in 29 of Marquette’s 33 games.”

D-Fenders coaches must have seen something in him they were looking for because they passed up a whole bunch players with better college stats. Maybe they felt he was coached well at Marquette?

Last, coach Koby Karl chose UNLV combo guard Jerome Seagers, Anthony January from Cal State University of San Bernadino, and Dii’jon Allen-Jordan out of Campbellsville University in Kentucky.

Following the draft, the D-Fenders traded Jamal Branch and Anthony January to Reno in exchange for David Nwaba, Kourtlin Jackson, and the returning player rights to David Wear.

The move is pending the successful completion of physicals as reported by the D-Fenders front office.  Note, the D-Fenders only acquired the player rights to David Wear through their draft day trade, meaning that he will be on their team if he ever returns to the D-League. For now, he is playing overseas.

To have the Wear brothers back together would be monumental as they were unmatched on the court when they both played for the UCLA Bruins.

Most importantly there are six returning veteran players on the roster: Vander Blue, Justin Hawkins, Josh Magette, D.J. Shumpert, Kenneth Smith and Roscoe Smith. Blue, Hawkins, and Magette were huge assets in last season’s championship run, and Karl is fortunate to have these experienced professionals.

Other notable roster adds include a few other Pac-12 players; Julian Jacobs (USC) and David Foster (Utah). We looking forward to seeing what they can offer.

Here is the official 17-man roster going into D-League training camp beginning Wednesday, November 2 and continuing through Wednesday, November 9:

Note: Former Laker Shannon Brown is back in the NBA so to speak; he was drafted No. 19 to Grand Rapids. Happy to see him playing again, he brings a lot of NBA experience to their team.

More to come on the D-Fenders as they begin training camp.

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