To be fair, I think Rudy was a good player better than the names you listed. If the Ariza incident never happened I bet his career would be a lot different.
He's "out of the league" because he's been offered much more money in Europe. There are several players who have actually chosen Europe over the NBA this offseason, including Sergio Llull, who turned down the Rockets, and Pero Antic who said it was a much better atmosphere in Europe. Of those, Monia is the only one who probably couldn't make an NBA roster. Why earn the minimum for sitting on the bench and slogging round Minnesota in January when you could be a star playing in Athens or Madrid? And of course we've seen players like Antetokounmpo and Gobert taken much lower than they should because some genius overvalued American College players.
I would consider that being out of the league. Freeland wasn't getting MLE money and no team was signing him to be a regular rotational player. Same for Pero Antic; there were games he didn't play at all. Sure either guy could've made an NBA roster if that was all they wanted. But when your worth far more to lesser international teams than NBA teams the player is "effectively" out of the league even if not technically.
Great read on CSKA Moscow (Freeland's new team, the richest team outside the NBA). Revealed: Sonny Weems turned down the Hawks for another year (and better money) with CSKA, and this year signed for less money with Phoenix.
The NBA is still, and always will be, hands down, the best basketball league in the world. It will always attract the best players during the primes of their careers. For guys who have marginal NBA talent - good enough to make a roster, not good enough to be part of the regular rotation let alone start, they get to choose if they want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in the Pacific Ocean. Guys like Freeland and Antic chose the former. The quality of the NBA product will not suffer from their exit. Their leaving will not make the NBA worse, but it will make their new teams and their new leagues better. That's the difference in overall quality between the NBA and the international leagues. Guys who can't even crack the rotation on an NBA team can be stars playing internationally. I hardly consider than a ringing endorsement for the quality of international play. BNM
Until China gets some REAL money. (And incidentally, given that you can see into the future, you should probably use that talent on something more useful.) A team in China just offered some Greek player I'd never heard of $1M. Not much by NBA standards, but I've heard of a lot of Greek players, and not him. Eventually the only thing that will keep the NBA's quality up is the xenophobia and fear of American basketball players. And their agents will cure them of that.
I should let this pass, but it's kind of moronic (and steeped in the standard pomposity). Freeland is probably better right now, in terms of usefulness to team winning, than a good 20% of players who can play his position. And CSKA Moscow could probably beat at least a couple of NBA teams in a playoff series. Part of that is because of the weird gambles that the draft system drives teams like Philly to, but part of it is because teams have non-winning-related incentive to play rookies in the NBA which they don't in notoriously hard-on-rookies Europe. (Compare Brandon Jennings' rookie stats with his previous year's stats in Europe.) Also: it's not so much about "big fish in a small pond" - it's about the money. Europe (and to an increasing extent, China) will pay certain players significantly more money than the NBA is prepared to. You'd have to be some kind of stubborn idiot to turn that down. (What would motivated you to? The Glory attached to the Sacramento Kings franchise? So that you could say on your deathbed - "I played for the Atlanta Hawks!!!!!") The NBA has done some very good things to make small market teams competitive, but there are some weird side-effects. If you're a player who's better than minimum wage but not a star, you're stuck in a no-man's land. You have to hope some team with cap space is prepared to splurge or be prepared to take minimum wage. But Europe and China are handing out $2M and up (and that's with a bunch of incentives like housing and cars not included), so it only makes sense.
Pretty Sure Josh Childress did spurn the NBA for more money in Europe....How did that turn out for him? Weren't there articles stating sometimes they wouldnt even pay him?
It would seem if Denver does waive him it won't be until Oct 4th so they can explore trades. Would he be interested in playing for the Blazers? We certainly have the cap space to claim him off waivers. Supposedly he didn't want to come here when we had his draft rights. Maybe now he has a new attitude or maybe the same old feelings would come back after a few months here. I'd want him to be a happy camper regardless of how many minutes we have for him. If other Blazers beat him out for minutes we don't want a locker room distraction. Montero would be a player that yes has upside potential but is just happy to be in the league as the 14th man if he doesn't get a minute. The last Rockets castoff we took was Thomas Robinson so I'd be weary of a player that Houston franchise discards; they are a good judge of fringe NBA talent. But if Papanikolaou has a chance of being a solid rotational NBA player it is an option that is interesting to explore.
If we don't do any claim we can instead use that cap space in future trades. We could burn cap space by taking on luxury tax team salary for at the least second round picks. So Papanikolaou has to be worth something for claiming him to benefit us.
He is no all-star obviously but he is no scrub either. I think he is worth something although we have a lot of guys already at the 4/5 position. Can he play the 3 @Rastapopoulos ?
Yes - that's his primary position. He can get beat off the dribble by quick wings but he's a smart team defender.
Cool. Maybe if the overall quality of play dips in the league we will be have a better chance of winning the championship! Here's to mediocrity and let's hope the dollar fails!
