[in this thread: somewhat far-fetched preliminary idea about stashing players in Jazz Europe]
Some NBA teams have decided to stash their raw prospects in the NBA D-League instead of overseas((Josh Huestis from OKC, Thanasis Antetokounmpo from NYK for example). I have a very big concern if we are going to do it with our stash players - the D-League is home to a lot of experimenting, a lot of hero ball and players attempting to shoot their way into the league. Half the teams don't play defense and scores in the 140s and 150s are not rare. I am not sure how well a prospect can grow in those circumstance and how much can they learn when opponents are not playing defense against them.
Several weeks ago there was a question in Kevin Pelton's chat if there is a rule for NBA owners to not be able to own foreign teams. Pelton said that as far as he knows there is no such rule. And here comes a great opportunity. In European soccer a lot of teams have affiliations with other teams from lower divisions or other countries. The parent club usually helps the daughter club financially and sends young prospects "on-loan" to develop a game while actually playing in a competitive environment. Imagine if the Millers bought one of the small ACB teams(lets call it Jazz Europe) and started developing our stash prospects in those teams specifically. For example, we draft Vezenkov, he has 250K buy out clause from Aris, the Miller's Spanish team buys him out and we start developing him the way we want to develop him while he's playing in an extremely competitive games in the second best league in the world. We have 11 second round picks and 6 first round picks in the next 4 years and we don't really have many roster spots available right now. There is a great opportunity to stack on assets overseas, get them all together, develop them the way we want them to get developed, coach them in our system so they'd be ready once they come over. The ones that don't pan out - just let their contract expire and either let them leave to other teams in Europe...
According to some online sources the budgets of those ACB teams are between 3 and 30 million. I think something in the range of 10M would be a great investment of resources for having an almost perfect environment and almost full control into the development of stash players.
Now there are some problems with that idea -
1. The NBA might crack on that at some point and prevent owners of NBA teams from owning foreign teams. Maybe the ACB league would do the same?
2. They might implement very strict rules to avoid salary cap limit violations. For example, you might circumvent buy out limits by buying out the right of a prospect through your foreign team and then simply release the guy to go to the NBA without financial claims.
3. The biggest problem I see is the drafted players not wanting to go to your Spanish team. In European sports a trade cannot be completed without the player agreeing to it, so I guess the main question is... if you are a young prospect, you've declared for the draft and have been drafted by the Jazz, would you be willing to play for the Jazz' Spanish team or would you want to keep playing for your current team? What if Barcelona, for example, offers him a contract? How do you compete with the biggest fish in the sea of Spanish basketball? I think the fact that those prospects will be given playing time in the best league in Europe helps and if they want to make the jump to the NBA, it probably is better for them to play in a Jazz-like system with coaching approved by the Jazz FO, etc.
So what are your thoughts? Do you think Jazz Europe is a feasible idea? Do you think it will justify its cost to the Millers and would they be willing to do something like that? 10M+whatever it takes to buy the team initially is not a small amount, but in the context of getting more competitive in the NBA it might be worth it. Do you have any other concerns and do you see any other problems with it?
Some NBA teams have decided to stash their raw prospects in the NBA D-League instead of overseas((Josh Huestis from OKC, Thanasis Antetokounmpo from NYK for example). I have a very big concern if we are going to do it with our stash players - the D-League is home to a lot of experimenting, a lot of hero ball and players attempting to shoot their way into the league. Half the teams don't play defense and scores in the 140s and 150s are not rare. I am not sure how well a prospect can grow in those circumstance and how much can they learn when opponents are not playing defense against them.
Several weeks ago there was a question in Kevin Pelton's chat if there is a rule for NBA owners to not be able to own foreign teams. Pelton said that as far as he knows there is no such rule. And here comes a great opportunity. In European soccer a lot of teams have affiliations with other teams from lower divisions or other countries. The parent club usually helps the daughter club financially and sends young prospects "on-loan" to develop a game while actually playing in a competitive environment. Imagine if the Millers bought one of the small ACB teams(lets call it Jazz Europe) and started developing our stash prospects in those teams specifically. For example, we draft Vezenkov, he has 250K buy out clause from Aris, the Miller's Spanish team buys him out and we start developing him the way we want to develop him while he's playing in an extremely competitive games in the second best league in the world. We have 11 second round picks and 6 first round picks in the next 4 years and we don't really have many roster spots available right now. There is a great opportunity to stack on assets overseas, get them all together, develop them the way we want them to get developed, coach them in our system so they'd be ready once they come over. The ones that don't pan out - just let their contract expire and either let them leave to other teams in Europe...
According to some online sources the budgets of those ACB teams are between 3 and 30 million. I think something in the range of 10M would be a great investment of resources for having an almost perfect environment and almost full control into the development of stash players.
Now there are some problems with that idea -
1. The NBA might crack on that at some point and prevent owners of NBA teams from owning foreign teams. Maybe the ACB league would do the same?
2. They might implement very strict rules to avoid salary cap limit violations. For example, you might circumvent buy out limits by buying out the right of a prospect through your foreign team and then simply release the guy to go to the NBA without financial claims.
3. The biggest problem I see is the drafted players not wanting to go to your Spanish team. In European sports a trade cannot be completed without the player agreeing to it, so I guess the main question is... if you are a young prospect, you've declared for the draft and have been drafted by the Jazz, would you be willing to play for the Jazz' Spanish team or would you want to keep playing for your current team? What if Barcelona, for example, offers him a contract? How do you compete with the biggest fish in the sea of Spanish basketball? I think the fact that those prospects will be given playing time in the best league in Europe helps and if they want to make the jump to the NBA, it probably is better for them to play in a Jazz-like system with coaching approved by the Jazz FO, etc.
So what are your thoughts? Do you think Jazz Europe is a feasible idea? Do you think it will justify its cost to the Millers and would they be willing to do something like that? 10M+whatever it takes to buy the team initially is not a small amount, but in the context of getting more competitive in the NBA it might be worth it. Do you have any other concerns and do you see any other problems with it?
