This week's coffee: I completed much of this post at the new Alterra on 68th in Tosa- it's awesome!
As we head into August, the free agent frenzy has calmed and few transactions remain for each team before training camp. Our attention begins to gravitate towards football, and the final trickle of NBA moves often fly under the radar.
Such late-summer activity becomes even more covert when foreign players are signed, since the casual fan lacks familiarity with the names (not to mention their pronunciation). These international signings sometimes involve a player who had been drafted by an NBA team years ago; that player was "stashed" overseas while an NBA team held dibs.
Since 1985, NBA teams have consistently found gems by waiting for
their "draft-n-stash" players to break ties with international squads. By the same token, it's a very risky draft strategy.
Some ballers stay overseas for many years before signing with their NBA team, while others never sign at all. NBA teams cross their fingers during those
years of waiting, in hopes that their draft pick continues to develop their skills & physique.
Below I've documented a complete list of every draft-n-stash international player who eventually signed with the NBA team that held their rights. I've excluded those who attended college in the United States, because their situation (i.e., contract and transition) is far less complicated.
***Updated 8/16/14***
Past
What type of international player (besides elite talent) would intrigue an NBA team to the point of making a risky draft-n-stash selection? My answer: Supply & Demand (I didn't like Econ class, so I'm probably not using these terms properly!)
By taking a quick look at the list below, I notice many pure shooters and skilled big men who epitomize the traditional half-court European style. Moreso than today, the NBA playing style in the 90's and early-00's was slower and focused on crisp half-court execution. With that being said, there was a high demand for those European sharp-shooting big men who also happened to be skilled-passers; especially since the supply of such fundamentally-sound big men was scarce in US amateur circuits.
In other words, NBA teams will risk a draft pick for the chance to have a unique talent that fits the style of today.
*Format: Name (Position, Country, Year drafted) - Most notable NBA experience*
All-Star caliber:
Arvydas Sabonis (C, Lithuania, 1985) - POR '95-03
Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C, Lithuania, 1996) - CLE/MIA '97-11
Mehmet Okur (C, Turkey, 2001) - DET/UTA '02-12
Dino Radja (PF, Croatia, 1989) - BOS '93-97
Peja Stojakovic (SF, Serbia-Mont, 1996) - SAC/NOR '98-11
Andrei Kirilenko (SF, Russia, 1999) - UTA '01-14
Drazen Petrovic (SG, Croatia, 1986) - NJN '89-93
Manu Ginobili (SG, Argentina, 1999) - SAS '02-18
Starter-worthy:
Nikola Pekovic (C, Serbia-Mont, 2008) - MIN '10-16
Nenad Krstic (C, Serbia-Mont, 2002) - NJN/OKC '04-11
Toni Kukoc (PF, Croatia, 1990) - CHI/MIL '93-06
Luis Scola (PF, Argentina, 2002) - HOU/IND '07-17
Sasha Danilovic (SG, Serbia-Mont, 1992) - MIA '95-97
Gordan Giricek (SG, Croatia, 1999) - ORL/UTA '02-08
Sarunas Marciulionis (SG, Lithuania, 1987) - GSW '89-97
Marko Jaric (PG, Serbia-Mont, 2000) - LAC/MIN '02-09
Role players:
Zan Tabak (C, Croatia, 1991) - HOU/TOR/IND '94-01
Zeljko Rebraca (C, Serbia-Mont, 1994) - DET/LAC '01-06
Peja Drobnjak (C, Serbia-Mont, 1997) - SEA/LAC '01-05
Primoz Brezec (C, Slovenia, 2000) - IND/CHA '01-10
Tiago Splitter (C, Brazil, 2007) - SAS/ATL '10-17
Omer Asik (C, Turkey, 2008) - HOU/NOR '10-18
Joffrey Lauvergne (C, France, 2013) - DEN/SAS '14-18
Alexander Volkov (PF, Russia, 1986) - ATL '89-92
Donatas Motiejunas (PF, Lithuania, 2011) - HOU '12-17
Carlos Delfino (SF, Argentina, 2003) - DET/MIL '04-13
Mickael Gelabale (SF, France, 2005) - SEA/MIN '06-13
Juan Carlos Navarro (SG, Spain, 2002) - MEM '07-08
Rudy Fernandez (SG, Spain, 2007) - POR '08-'12
Raul Lopez (PG, Spain, 2001) - UTA '03-05
Minimal return:
Dragan Tarlac (C,Serbia-Mont, 1995) - CHI '00-01
Efthimios Rentzias (C, Greece, 1996) - PHI '02-03
Wang Zhizhi (C, China, 1999) - DAL/LAC/MIA '00-05
David Andersen (C, Australia, 2002) - HOU/NOR '09-11
Mario Kasun (C, Croatia, 2002) - ORL '04-06
Andreas Glyniadakis (C, Greece, 2003) - SEA '06-07
Mile Ilic (C, Bosnia, 2005) - NJN '06-07
Oleksiy Pecherov (C, Ukraine, 2006) - WAS/MIN '07-10
Kosta Perovic (C, Croatia, 2006) - GSW '07-08
Cheikh Samb (C, Senegal, 2006) - DET/LAC '07-09
Semih Erden (C, Turkey, 2008) - BOS/CLE '10-12
Ognjen Kuzmic (C, Bosnia, 2012) - GSW '13-15
Tibor Pleiss (C, Germany, 2010) - UTA '15-16
Walter Tavares (C, Spain, 2014) - ATL '15-17
Lucas Nogueira (C, Brazil, 2013) - TOR '14-18
Stefano Rusconi (PF, Italy, 1990) - PHO '95-96
Mirsad Turkcan (PF, Serbia-Mont, 1998) - MIL '99-00
Uros Slokar (PF, Slovenia, 2005) - TOR '06-07
Joel Freeland (PF, England, 2006) - POR '12-15
Furkan Aldemir (PF, Turkey, 2012) - PHI '14-15
Sergei Monia (SF, Russia, 2004) - POR '05-06
Christian Eyenga (SF, Congo, 2009) - CLE '10-12
Victor Claver (SF, Spain, 2009) - POR '12-15
Kostas Papanikolaou (SF, Greece, 2012) - HOU '14-16
Sun Yue (SG, China, 2007) - LAL '08-09
Nando De Colo (SG, France, 2009) - SAS '12-14
Igor Rakocevic (PG, Serbia-Mont, 2000) - MIN '02-03
Vassilis Spanoulis (PG, Greece, 2004) - HOU '06-07
Roko Ukic (PG, Croatia, 2005) - TOR '08-10
Present
Over the past 10 years, many NBA teams have opted toward a fast-paced style of basketball with smaller lineups. Following this run-n-gun trend, the active draft-n-stash players below have offered more quickness and athleticism than the generation before them. However, since these are both common characteristics of college players in the US, there aren't that many active draft-n-stash players; particularly, there are very few active wing players and point guards.
Alas! Just when you thought draft-n-stashing was a fading strategy, NBA teams have started to target another unique international mold. In today's game of "small ball", bruising big men who run like gazelles are a rarity and they pose major matchup problems for opponents. There are indeed a plethora of strong & athletic big men overseas, since many young players gain physical maturity while playing against grown men on their national teams for years on end. Ah, and those European fundamentals are still a big plus too!
All-Star Caliber:
Marc Gasol (C, Spain, 2007) - MEM '08-present
Nikola Jokic (C, Serbia-Mont, 2014) - DEN '15-present
Starter-worthy:
Marcin Gortat (C, Poland, 2005) - PHO/WAS '08-present
Jonas Valanciunas (C, Lithuania, 2011) - TOR '12-present
Ersan Ilyasova (PF, Turkey, 2005) - MIL/PHI '06-present
Serge Ibaka (PF, Congo, 2008) - OKC/TOR '09-present
Nikola Mirotic (PF, Serbia-Mont, 2011) - CHI/NOR '14-present
Dario Saric (PF, Croatia, 2014) - PHI '16-present
Bojan Bogdanovic (SF, Croatia, 2011) - BKN/IND '14-present
Bogdan Bogdanovic (SG, Serbia-Mont, 2014) - SAC '17-present
Ricky Rubio (PG, Spain, 2009) - MIN/UTA '11-present
Role players:
Ian Mahinmi (C, France, 2005) - DAL/IND/WAS '07-present
Willy Hernangomez (C, Spain, 2015) NYK/CHA '16-present
Ante Zizic (C, Croatia, 2016) - CLE '17-present
Nemanja Bjelica (SF, Serbia-Mont, 2010) - MIN/SAC '15-present
Davis Bertans (SF, Latvia, 2011) - SAS '16-present
Cedi Osman (SF, Turkey, 2015) - CLE '17-present
Tomas Satoransky (SG, Czech Rep, 2012) - WAS '16-present
Raul Neto (PG, Brazil, 2013) - UTA '15-present
Minimal return:
Zhou Qi (C, China, 2016) - HOU '17-present
Guerschon Yabusele (PF, France, 2016) - BOS '17-present
Furkan Korkmaz (SG, Turkey, 2016) - PHI '17-present
