I’ve attended the NBA D-League Showcase for five years. I’ve been to the event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and watched prospects at South Padre Island, Texas.

But this year — after spending four days holed up in a small gym in Reno as I watched 12-hour sessions of middling basketball — I started to develop an interesting impression.

It seems like NBA Commissioner David Stern’s vision might finally be coming to fruition.

The NBA Development League is (slowly but surely) creeping toward its goal of becoming a proper minor league farm system for basketball, even if there’s still plenty of work left to do.

Jonathan Givony is spending a few days at the NBA D-League Showcase, where NBA scouts and executives are evaluating the talent in the league. Here’s a look at what’s happening in Reno this week.

In conversations at the NBA D-League Showcase this week, three names seem to pop up more than any others: Mickell Gladness, Squeaky Johnson, and Terrel Harris.

All three played multiple seasons as backups in the D-League, where they were cut or traded in favor of better prospects. All three struggled to produce in lower-level leagues in Europe, and all three found themselves back in the States, primarily owing to a lack of other professional basketball options.