Outside of Brian Shaw, are there any examples of American players who decided to play abroad rather than play for the team that drafted them? It makes sense that a number of international players would just decide to stay abroad (where they are oftentimes making significantly more money) but I can't think of an American first-rounder other than Shaw that decided to play internationally out of choice.
Good point, I thought the original question was about "how it would work" contractually regarding retainage of rights. I can't think of any americans who were drafted but went to Europe but the option exists for them same as with the foriegn players although many of the foriegn players already have contracts which certainly makes it easier for them to stay abroad. With the kind of money that is being thrown around by European teams coupled with the fact that rookies are younger and less developed these days, I guess the idea of using Europe or even South America as a lucrative (for the player) player development league may be something we start to see. I think in the past, teams were willing to wait for these players becasue they had to (vs. because they wanted to for development reasons). Now it seems like the idea of keeping a player in Europe to develop is actually the primary objective. This is definitely the case with Semih Erden and the Celtics. They don't want him now. They have put their claim on him and are happy to wait to see how he develops. This all could be for naught if Erden can make significantly more money in Europe than the rookie scale in the NBA (ala Splitter) and never comes over. It is certainly a risk the Celtics are taking but a reasonalbe risk.
The bottom line for the Celtics and Giddens and Walker is that I do not think the intent is to send these guys to Europe but perhaps is a last resort of sorts. Danny is either going to try to use them as chips in a trade for someone better or will sign them and let Doc get what he can out of them in between trips to the NBDL.
I know we are not under any obligation to give a gaurranteed contract to a second round pick so we can just "pass" on Walker if we want but what obligation do we have Giddens if he wants to play in the NBA but we would prefer he go to Europe?
We don't have to worry about Erden because we're not limited to the rookie scale as he is a 2nd round pick. That's why Pekovic was drafted with the #31, to avoid the rookie scale.
Topic: "We still have J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker's situation." (Read 10767 times)