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The current lockout of NBA referees has provoked a handful of thoughtful responses. Howard Beck reminded us of the 1995 lockout, a process which revealed that NBA players secretly adored their whistle-blowing adversaries. Things haven’t changed much since then. We’re only a few days into the current standoff and, once again, it’s all winks and hugs between the players and referees.

So, in a few weeks, when Tim Duncan blasts an official with a faceful of disbelief, know that he’s just passing a little affection toward the ref. Like tripping the pretty girls at recess. Or so the union would have us believe.

Henry Abbott has suggested that we’ll soon beg for the regulars to return. On the other end of the spectrum, Andrew Feinstein wonders why we’re not happier to see the current crop sitting on the curb? I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Fans and players alike are always quick to question the competency of NBA referees, and so I’m okay to let the replacement experiment play. I’m open to the possibility that the NBA will identify some referees who are, in fact, qualified for big league assignment.

Zach Lowe of CelticsHub demurs our temptation toward lockout fatalism:

The union’s doom and gloom argument is silly, and it’s not going to pan out. Ditto for another extreme argument, one the NBA won’t make publicly—at least not directly—but one the league is probably happy to have others make for it: That the replacement refs will be just as good, or better, than the “real” ones, proving the regular refs are incompetent, biased or even corrupt.

I’m with Lowe. If the NBA plays its cards right, it has a winning hand. But that’s neither because the union is wrong to defend the success of its members nor because the regular refs are woefully inept. The NBA has the advantage of a taut, carefully drawn safety net.

At least 21 of the replacement referees called games in the D-League last season. This is significant. Earlier this year, D-League President Dan Reed told me that the NBA has already begun filling its junior ranks with former D-League officials:

We are the official referee development program for the NBA, and every referee hired by the NBA has come through the NBA D-League. Of the 61 officials currently in the NBA, 16 are formerly of the NBA D-League (over 25%), and we had 3 make the jump last season. Ron Johnson, Bernie Fryer, Joe Borgia, and George Toliver have done an excellent job managing our referee development program across both the NBA and the D-League, and all of the changes we’ve made to our program over the past year impacts both leagues.

FIBA referee Alejandro Sanchez Varela (via TrueHoop) questions Joel Litvin’s statement that the replacement refs are the best referees available to the NBA. Varela wants to argue that top FIBA officials are the most qualified replacements because they oversee the second most talent-rich league in the world. This is a strong point, but he’s careful to qualify himself. Varela prefaces a list of differences between Euroleague and NBA officiating styles with this statement:

Well, is not THAT easy. This takes a whole transition (and takes a considerable time), basically because NBA and FIBA rules and mechanics are really different. [italics added]

On this point, Mr. Varela is entirely correct. Go look at that list, which is an admittedly small sample from a long list of similar distinctions. Keep in mind we’re only talking about the different approaches to officiating at this point. One could easily create a list that charts the differences between the NBA and FIBA’s rule books. And a third list that delineates between the differing styles of play that exist on each continent. In some ways, the best FIBA refs call an entirely different game than what is played in the NBA.

If Varela’s point is to say that FIBA refs are the best referees in the world at officiating international competition, but are not properly prepared to guide the NBA through a lockout, then I agree. My argument is that the D-League referees are better prepared-it’s what they’re ultimately being groomed for-to stand in for the NBA during the lockout. The D-League referees are the second best set of NBA officials in the world.

There is no doubt that the talent level of Euroleague players most closely matching the talent of the NBA. But Varela proves too much by pointing toward the readily identifiable differences between international and NBA basketball. It’s not the same game, and there isn’t enough time between now and preseason to bridge the difference. Because of this I’m convinced the NBA is making the right move by reaching into its developmental ranks for replacements.

And I’m hopeful that this lockout will give the league an opportunity to reshape its current set of referees. This is another reason I prefer the D-League refs to FIBA. FIBA refs would represent a stop-gap measure in the midst of crisis. The best of the D-League refs, on the other hand, are already on a trajectory that terminates in the NBA. The current lockout is unfortunate, but I see it as something akin to allowing the best guys on JV to substitute for an injury depleted varsity squad. That’s not all bad, right?

And what about the D-League? Who will ref their games this season? It’s a good question. Hopefully the answer is a promising young AAU referee who will eventually earn his way into the NBA. That progression has to start somewhere, and now is an opportune time.