By John Diaz
The Charlotte Hornets took advantage of the D-League’s “flexible assignment rule” over the weekend and assigned forward, Jeffery Taylor, to the Austin Spurs.
Taylor, the third year forward out of Vanderbilt, joins the Spurs after averaging 1.0 point and 1.3 rebounds in six minutes per game for the Hornets this season, but has only appeared in three games for Charlotte.
The 6’7” Taylor found his way to Austin, after the Hornets became the second team this season to utilize the flexible assignment rule. The rule states, “a flexible assignment system will be utilized when an independent NBA team assigns a player at a time when the Mad Ants already have either the maximum of four NBA players on assignment or two assigned players at the position of the NBA player who is being assigned.
In either event, the NBA D-League will identify to the assigning NBA team any singly-affiliated NBA D-League team that is willing to accept the assigned player, and the independent NBA team assigning the player will choose a team from among those teams to assign the player. If no singly-affiliated NBA D-League team is willing to accept the assigned player, he will be assigned to one of the non-NBA-owned single affiliate teams pursuant to a lottery.”
It is the second time the Austin Spurs have taken advantage of the new D-League rule, after the Atlanta Hawks assigned center Adreian Payne to Austin earlier this month.
Taylor will join the Spurs (11-4) immediately, as they prepare for their first game of 2015, versus the Texas Legends, on Friday, January 2nd.