commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the league to fifteen teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with each team affiliated with one or more NBA teams. Although the system has been run for a few years, most of the rookies in the NBA are still drafted out from NCAA. At the conclusion of the 2008–09 NBA season, 20 percent of NBA players had spent time in the NBA D-League. By the end of the 2016–17 season, 44% of players in the 2017 NBA playoffs had some experience in the D-League. The league signed a branding agreement with Gatorade in 2017 to become the NBA G League. Independent teams Some sports allow the operation of independent feeder teams. In professional cycling, for example, feeder teams such as Vendée U and Trek Livestrong, act as feeders for Bouygues Télécom and Team RadioShack respectively, and compete at levels below the UCI ProTour. Most pro-cycling teams use this format. Such agreements may be less formal; in English football, for example, the operation of an external feeder team is prohibited. However, casual relationships may exist between teams to allow a sharing of larger clubs' resources with smaller clubs, in return for the smaller teams taking young players on loan. This allows both clubs to maintain separate identities, and to exit from the arrangement if necessary. Such an agreement exists between Preston North End and Holker Old Boys, for example . Alternatively, clubs may use teams playing abroad, particularly if they want to follow the progress of players who they cannot sign due to work permit regulations. Please see List of feeder teams in football for a comprehensive list. In North American baseball, several independent leagues exist outside of the control of Minor League Baseball or Major League Baseball and without any formal developmental agreements, but may still exist as informal places for talent to develop. Professional wrestling Professional wrestling utilizes a farm system that allows inexperienced wrestlers to develop their skills and gain in ring experience in smaller, often regional promotions before they are called up to compete in front of a global/national audience. These are generally called "farm leagues" or "developmental territories". Some of the more notable ones for WWE include World Wrestling Alliance (1998); Power Pro Wrestling (1998–2000); International Wrestling Association (1999–2001); Memphis Championship Wrestling (2000–2001); Deep South Wrestling (2005–2007); Heartland Wrestling Association (2001–2003), which was