He needs to be bought out first from DMo's old Lithuanian team. He was only loaned to the Vipers. Apparently the buyout could be as high as $600K. This should tell you how high Morey is on this kid.
Interesting. Had no idea. I say don't sign him them. Just keep stashing him, by refusing to pay the buyout. I'm not even sure if we have to extend the required tender to a player under contract in another league holding a buyout. Seems odd if a player can get FIBA clearance, take the required tender, but the NBA team doesn't want to pay the buyout. Isn't that a stalemate situation?
Fran Fraschella said this guy would’ve been a lottery pick if it wasn’t for some medical issues on draft night. Let’s see.
He has a big body, he's fairly mobile, he absorbs contact, and has good hands, so he can play right now. He seems like a good backup to me, with the potential to be a lot more if he can develop a 3pt shot.
It's indeed an interesting situation. But I think it's on the GM to research the contract situation and the possible buyout of the player he's interested in drafting. Morey kind of put himself into this position, I guess...
@heypartner it's also kind of surprising since there was an article in the Lithuanian media how the Rockets could just wait for a year and sign Hartenstein for free. But the Lithuanian media isn't really too savvy when it comes to NBA transactions/rules, so I'm not sure who to believe.
No. There is a freebie limit of $700k that teams can just pay...no consequences (called Excluded International Player Payment Amount). (Apparently, this covers Isaiah's buyout.) For other scenarios of players having bigger buyouts (like Llull), technically the player pays that out of his salary. So, it would only count extra to the cap in the case where we pay the player more salary than he's worth, so he can pay his buyout. That's an issue with 2nd Round picks (like Llull), but 1st round picks are locked into a salary scale, so the buyout truly comes out of their pockets.
That's what I mean. We just wait. Seems reasonable that the FIBA leagues would all agree that teams can't be forced to pay a buyout. @BimaThug made a comment that we have to give Required Tenders to maintain draft rights, and Isaiah could take it. But not sure if he was aware that Isaiah is still under contract. Maybe the Required Tender is rather meaningless (or not required), when a buyout situation exists. Team just refuses to pay it. Maybe Zalgiris has to actually waive/cut him before any of this matters to us, vs just not signing him/stashing him.
Did the Rockets give a required tender to Llull? It doesn't seem like the situation is any different here. Unless being loaned to a G-League somehow changed Isaiah's status
Gotcha. Thanks. Well, relative to your other posts, I mean he likely isn't "ready" to contribute in any meaningful way AT ALL on the active roster... ... BUT, I absolutely think at this point he would/could benefit from being on it in a way that would help him potentially become a real contributor next year, so I'm down with whatever DM decides to do here.