Atlanta Hawks will have local NBA D-League team

Following in the footsteps of other competent NBA teams who are serious about player development, the Atlanta Hawks announced that they will be putting an NBA D-League team in their own backyard. The team will start play in 2019 and will be based in nearby College Park, GA with a new, 3,500-seat arena.

Of course, since we’re writing about it here, that means that it’s time to speculate about what the team’s visual identity will look like once it’s officially unveiled. If the most recent examples are anything to go by, then we should expect an identity that is very close and very similar to what the Atlanta Hawks are looking like in 2019. So, if you happen to be a fan of the volt green that the Hawks are pushing right now, then you should probably look forward to seeing that in their D-League affiliate’s identity.

Are we going to see a simpler version of these for their D-League affiliate?

I’d also expect the nickname to be bird-related. They could also go the Bulls route and go with a nickname for the city while giving the team the Hawks nickname. Who really knows at this point? Again, this is mostly speculation, but it’s always excited to speculate about stuff like this — even if it is just for a D-League team. It’ll be interesting to see what the team comes up with in terms of an identity, that’s for sure.

What do you all think about this, though? Should the Hawks’ D-League team stay close to the Hawks’ identity with their own look, or should they be unique and deviate from their parent club?