Walnut Creek to host team of NBA prospects

The NBA G League will base its new Pro Pathway team in Walnut Creek, a league source confirmed with The Chronicle on Monday.

The Athletic was first to report the news.

The G League considered basing its the team in Los Angeles, but it ultimately decided on Walnut Creek, 24 miles from the Warriors’ home arena.

League officials have yet to announce where the G League Select Team, which will feature six NBA draft prospects, will play exhibition games. One possibility is John Muir Health Ultimate Fieldhouse, a 40,000squarefoot basketball facility in Walnut Creek.

The team is expected to have an intensive training program that will include 1012 exhibitions against G League teams, foreign national teams and NBA academies.

This will be outside the G League’s traditional team structure. The team, which will include older players in addition to the half dozen elite prospects fresh out of high school, was created in April as an alternative to college basketball that offers players salaries of up to $500,000.

Jalen Green, a Fresno native who spent his final high school season at Prolific Prep in Napa, was the first to announce his plans to join the team in midApril. In recent months, such top prospects as Isaiah Todd, Daishen Nix, Princepal Singh, Kai Sotto and Jonathan Kuminga have also decided to bypass college and play for the G League Select Team.

In June, the G League announced that Oakland native and former Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw will coach the team.