Nuggets send 3 including first-round pick Tyler Lydon to G League

Tyler Lydon, and Monte Morris, have been assigned to the G League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Denver Nuggets announced. Torrey Craig was assigned to the Sioux Falls Skyforce.

With G League training camps set to get underway Monday, Denver’s two-way players’ 45-day clocks begin. Morris and Craig, who the Nuggets agreed to two-way contracts with this summer, can only spend 45 days with the Nuggets.

Since the Nuggets are one of four NBA franchises without a G League affiliate, they can assign players to G League teams using the flex-assignment rule. Rio Grande Valley is the G League affiliate for the Houston Rockets. The Vipers play their home games at State Farm Arena, in Hidalgo, Texas. The Skyforce are the affiliate Denver used at times last season and is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Per G League rules, teams can only send two players to the same affiliate using the flex-assignment rule.

Neither Craig, Morris or Lydon saw any action in Denver’s opening two regular-season games.

About the G League

For the 2017-18 season, the G-League will field 26 teams all but four of which are direct one-to-one affiliates with an NBA franchise. The Nuggets, along with the Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans and Washington Wizards are the four NBA franchises without a D-League affiliate. The Pelicans and Wizards have both announced plans for affiliates beginning in the 2018-19 season.

About two-way contracts

Two-way contracts are new to the NBA this season after the league added them into the Collective Bargaining Agreement that came into effect this summer. Players signed to two-way contracts can spend up to 45 days with their NBA team and can earn a maximum of roughly $275,000. During their time in the NBA, two-way players earn 1/170 of the minimum rookie contract per day and if a player does not spend any time with their NBA club, they’ll earn $75,000.

The 45-day clock starts ticking on the first day of G-League training camp and ends on the last day of the G-League season. Last year, the G-League regular season ended on April 1 while the NBA season lasted through April 12. In that scenario, those final 11 days of the NBA season would not count towards a two-way players’ 45-day maximum.

A two-way player cannot be a part of an NBA team’s playoff roster. If a team wants one of their two-way players on their playoff roster, they can convert their two-way contract to a regular NBA deal. Of course, that team would need to have an open roster spot for that player.