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Bryan Gates is one of the latest NBA D-League coaches to join an NBA staff. Otto Kitsinger/Getty Images/NBAE

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I'm currently on my way to the annual NBA D-League Coaches Meeting, which is always an exciting event because it signals that a new season is upon us!

Every year we bring all of the head and assistant coaches together from around the league to review key rules and requirements, cover any new items for the upcoming season, and discuss this season's referee points of emphasis (always a very interesting discussion!). We also conduct the draft lottery right in front of the coaches, which always inspires a healthy amount of trash talk and brings out the competitiveness in all. Perhaps most importantly, the meetings provide an opportunity for the coaches and the folks from the league to all get to know each other better. Even though coaches compete intensely on the court, they often have to work with one another -- and obviously with the league -- off the court. Tensions can run high during the season, which makes it even more important to establish good, strong, face-to-face relationships right at the start.

There are a lot of new faces in this year's coaches meeting, and a big reason for that is that we keep promoting coaches to the NBA! Once again this year we had three coaches get the "call-up" -- our two-time Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year Bryan Gates (Idaho Stampede) is now an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings, Scott Roth from the Bakersfield Jam is now an assistant with the Golden State Warriors, and former Rio Grande Valley Vipers assistant coach Robert Pack now holds the same position with the New Orleans Hornets. That makes 22 NBA coaches in total that have been "called up" from the NBA D-League, and surely there will be many more from the extremely strong crop of coaches who will be working this year in the league -- as far as I'm concerned, they're among the best anywhere outside the NBA.

NBA D-League coaches have an unusually difficult job. Like all coaches, their employers expect them to win. However, since we are the "Development" League, we also hold coaches equally accountable for accelerating the basketball development of the top NBA prospects playing in the NBA D-League. NBA teams, when sending a player on assignment, typically expect the coach to be able to execute a specific development plan for that player -- which the NBA D-League coach has to balance with not only winning games, and the development of his other players. The ideal outcome of the "development" side of our coaches' job is a player call-up to the NBA...however, typically, losing one's best player is not necessarily the best formula to win a lot of games. A difficult job, to say the least, but those who have made the jump to the NBA tell me it's perhaps the best possible preparation for the job at the next level.

Our coaches are the key element in our development system, and as such, we're always looking for ways to invest in their own development. This year we will once again employ a "coaches consultant" to work hand-in-hand with all of our coaches -- and this season, 3-time NBA Coach of the Month Bob Hill will likely play this role once again. We will also provide a specific "big man" and "shooting" coach who will not only work directly with our players, but will surely enable our coaches to pick up some new tricks of the trade. We also work to provide our coaches with new technology that will aid them both now and in the future. For example, last season we worked with a company called Fast Draw to provide our coaches with access to their software, which allows coaches to design, store, and share plays electronically. Our coaches used it not only for their own play-calling, but also found it useful for advanced scouting purposes. This is cutting-edge stuff that's now in use at the majority of NBA teams as well as many top college programs, and we wanted to be ahead of the curve to help our coaches development and help them prepare for the next level.

Get ready, the season will soon be upon us!