it's not just that, he had a huge buyout to pay Tau that would have made him play for free for two years. And it's not like he's made millions so far, he's yet to guarantee lifetime financial security. First you achieve that, than you can start going for the glory.
This is what I would do if I were a top manager in a reasonably rich european team: I'd try to sign a top american highschooler when he's like 16. I could offer him a contract that is like 5-6 years long with a NBA excape when he's 20, starting at somewhere around 80k per year. The guy will get some decent money several years earlier, could finish highschool in Europe and would be exposed to better coaching (more time to play and train, no AAU, stretching on fundamentals) and to a much better competition. You need to find the right guy, mature enough to handle it and with a game that could translate, but that would be a great experience that would be very valuable for his development. If you were a 16yo stud forced to wait 4 years to turn pro, would you consider it? That's basically what happened to Tiago Splitter, you'd just need a more "NBA friendly" contract.
