RealGM

Not big news as we weren't likely to sign him, but he was mentioned in one of the Childress S&T proposal on the board. I'm not sure which teams were in the market for a swingman, but he could have definitely contributed for a lot of teams.

link here

It does further illustrate how teams abroad are thinning the overall league depth and the difficulties of filling out a roster with league minimum salary positions. Years ago it was where guys went if they couldn't get signed here almost as a last resort. Now they are inking deals with a lot of open roster spots on teams here. This is particularly important with restricted free agents like Delfino.

The teams that adjust to this new landscape best will be rewarded while some will struggle with it and get left behind. My theory is the best way to deal with it is to be more aggressive and focused in your actions. The passive GM will often wind up with only a good choice of scraps (crappy alternatives). It seems a lot of teams fear the 7 day tie-up of their money, but in the new landscape your target might sign overseas before you ever make a real offer.

Just food for thought.

I wanted to add on to this about the irresponsible reporting on the subject of what players are making to go abroad. I've sees a couple of articles that indicate that players signing with different European clubs are getting paid in Euros and it's tax free. Getting paid in Euros makes sense, but the tax thing seems iffy. What I'm seeing is another case of poor reporting standards. For instance, the latest Marc Stein article (
link here) claims that Carlos Delfino's contract will pay him the equivalent of 9M dollars (American) because of exchange rates and the lack of taxes. If true that would make going abroad a simple choice because he wouldn't get anything near that here. However, it is just bad reporting. Let me break it down.

The reported contract for Delfino is actually 3 yrs for 8.5 Million Dollars. No math necessary because it is already in US Dollars. He would be getting under 3M Dollars per season. If stated in Euros it would be 3 yrs for 5.35M Euros provided by the current exchange rate of 1.59 to 1 (it fluctuates). Taxes? Russia still has taxes. A little basic Internet research tells me that they tax non-resident income at a flat rate of 30% there. It's a savings, but it isn't the no tax system that reporters seem to flaunt. It's enough that European teams are offering comparable salaries without scare tactic reporting distorting the truth.

There one important thing to note: when media are talking about contract being "tax free", it doesn't really mean that there is no tax at all, but that the contract is actually bigger than that, as if tax is paid by the team and not the player.

Some countries can have an exception for their sport team and reduce the tax, but the important thing is that they are talking about what the player will really get after all kind of tax.

So if there's a 30% tax in Russia, it is possible that his real contract is at about $12M, with 30% ($3.5M) going to taxes.

Now, what I see about this new players going (back) to Europe is for me a part of a NBA problem: the best players are overpaid. OK, team doesn't want to see their players going elsewhere, OK their always another team ready to sign your best player for more... but this is exactly why you only get minimum contracts to fill your roster.

If a contract could only goes up to "only" $15M/yr, there would certainly be no problem to keep Delfino. That could be the worst example because he is not worth his contract anymore, but Jermaine O'Neal getting x6 Delfino's contract is stupid.