James Ennis' signing with Perth has prompted the NBL to look at developing a relationship with the NBA James Ennis sets the offense for Miami Heat against the Phoenix Suns during an NBA Summer League basketball game earlier this year. PERTH Wildcats signing 2013 NBA draft choice James Ennis has prompted calls for the NBL to establish closer links with The Show and to keep its season running in summer. Wildcats chief executive officer Nick Marvin - one of the architects of the Ennis signing - today said the NBL needed to establish a working relationship with the NBA. "The NBL playing in summer actually does work and I think, after spending time with seven NBA clubs and watching the summer league, we can establish a relationship," Marvin said. Marvin suggested the NBL, acting on behalf of its clubs, could stage its own summer league to look at potential imports, or court the NBA to release players to Australia instead of the D-League. MORE: Opals favourties in Oceania Series "If we could get the NBA to release say 16 players to the NBL instead of the D-League, the quality of our league and the resultant spin-off advantages would be huge," he said. We'd need to play more than one game per round - I think it's at 1.5 per team now - but it would work. If they (the NBA) wanted a player in-season, the only difference would be a 16-hour flight. Ennis, 23 and 200cm was taken at 50 by Atlanta Hawks and traded to Miami Heat. With the Heat unable to fit him into their 2013-14 roster, they still wanted him to play at a tough professional level. The dual and reigning NBA champion has a wealth of superstar wing players but traded for Ennis expecting him to be a perfect fit in 2014-15 when several of their veterans, including Shane Battier and Ray Allen, become free agents. The only drawback for the Wildcats is if the Heat call Ennis up in-season. "James had huge offers from Russia and Europe to play but we can let him go back to the Heat at any stage," Marvin said. It's a reasonable risk to take on one (import) player who you possibly might lose, but not both. Marvin said the NBL could run its own summer league, as Korea already does, and he could conceive of it being played in Sydney one year. These are the kinds of longer-term things we can achieve as the NBL, rather than as individual clubs," he said. Sydney Kings director and interim NBL chief executive, Steve Dunn said such a proposal and association with the NBA would have myriad spin-off effects, not the least of which "the number of eyeballs" watching NBL.TV on multiple platforms. "That association with NBA clubs is not new," he said. "When we had Jerai Grant at the Sydney Kings a couple of years ago, he was given to us by the Houston Rockets," Dunn said. The Rockets were anxious for Grant to evolve as a player in an NBA-friendly environment. "We are throwing around a lot of ideas and a summer camp is one of them," Dunn said. Korea does it quite well. I think it's about relationship-building with the NBA. We need to do that as a league. NBL directors are meeting this week at the Gold Coast ahead of announcements expected later this week.