The Allure of Overseas Basketball

I think the sudden impact that overseas teams are having on Free Agency is going to drastically alter the face of the NBA game for years to come. While it's only medium level players at the moment, the fact that club teams in europe are financially viable for big contracts to players indicates that the wind might be blowing differently soon.

Yes, players like Bostjan Nachbar, Carlos Delfino, and Anthony Parker are expected to get european offers due to their heritage or previous euro experience. However, Josh Childress getting a 3 year 20 million dollar offer from Olympiakos has to be seen as a new attempt to show they are as attractive a target as any NBA destination.

I think the main effect for the forseeable future is altering the way the mid level exception is handled. Sure NBA gm's continually screw up their MLE signees, but with teams like Olympiakos and Dynamo Moscow able to easily throw an offer out that's 10-20% more than the MLE, they are likely to take the players that might have originally gone for the MLE.

It's going to be very interested to see how this develops over the next few seasons and see if this trend continues. We'll see if they continue to target restricted free agents, since NBA teams can't just match the contract and keep their player in this situation. This might also have more teams offering extensions before it comes to restricted Free Agency.