Take a peek into the fascinating phenomenon of unsigned drafted international players.
Last week’s trade deadline turned out to be more exciting than most NBA pundits predicted, with roughly 8 percent of the league dealt. With every deal, comes the details, and the details can be surprising and a bit fascinating. To make trades work, additional players are added to a deal, even if those players offer little in terms of producing tangible results on the basketball court. Typically, it involves players on expiring deals or those further down the depth chart. Sometimes these players stick; other times they are bought out.
Then, there are the cases of including a player’s rights, and this is where things can get a little obscure. In recent years, there has been an increase of international players declaring for the NBA draft. Many of them come with the hurdle of having a contract with their current club that must be bought out before they can sign with an NBA team. In other cases, teams draft with the intention of stashing these players overseas and bringing them over later (Nikola Mirotić is a recent example). While there is a priority to get the more high-profile players over to the NBA, players selected later in the draft are in no hurry to cross over to North America, and many never end up doing so at all.
During last week’s trade deadline, two players — Cenk Akyol and Chukwudiebere “Chu Chu” Maduabum — had their draft rights dealt to the Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers, respectively.
Akyol, a 6-4 wing from Turkey, was drafted by the Hawks in 2005 and held his rights for nearly 10 years until they were traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in February 2014. Last month, the Clippers traded Akyol’s rights to Philadelphia, who then quickly moved them on to Denver as part of the JaVale McGee deal. Despite being drafted 10 years ago, Akyol is only 27 years old. He recently featured for Turkey in the 2014 FIBA World Cup, where he knocked down a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds remaining to tie the game against Finland.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYJBHgF3qSU?rel=0]He joined Anadolu Efes this fall, meaning if Denver did want to bring him over, it would have negotiate a buyout.
Maduabum is a Nigerian basketball player originally acquired by the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam in early 2011. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2011 NBA Draft and unfortunately became a bit of a joke, with Fran Fraschila ripping the Lakers for taking him over “good college players,” along with the ESPN’s NBA crew reaction when he was selected (respect to Adam Silver for correctly pronouncing his name):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bSPBBLnj5Y?rel=0]The Lakers traded his rights immediately to Denver, who held them until last week. He would never make the NBA — the closest he came to making the league was in 2012, when he played for the Nuggets’ summer league team. As Roy Burton of Liberty Ballers points out, Chu Chu had a solid chance of making the roster:
The numbers (2.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.0 BPG) don’t tell the full story: Chu Chu was a PROBLEM in the 2012 Summer League. Sadly, the Nuggets’ depth at the forward position meant that there wasn’t a spot for Maduabum on the active roster, and the former second-round pick spent the next couple of seasons honing his craft for top-level teams in Qatar and Estonia.
Currently, Maduabum is still only 23 and is playing in the Estonian Basketball Premier League, averaging 6.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
Neither player will ever likely come to the NBA, which begs the questions of just how risky these teams’ strategy was and for what reasons teams select players that are unlikely to make it to the NBA. One reason could be the unknown factor. Often potential is projected based on what scouts and general managers believe a player can develop into, and if a player is young enough potential can trump the more polished players will lower ceilings. International players are typically the ultimate unknowns, which can make it more enticing for teams to select them over the better-known players in college basketball.
This seems to coincide with the “Draft and Stash” model — draft a young international player in the second round, have him remain with his current club and see if he develops into a player who’s worth bringing over. While this strategy may come with a seemingly low success rate, second-round picks don’t generally pan out, and when they do, it’s typically as a role player.
If they don’t pan out, their rights can be kept or moved around as teams please. According to RealGM, there are currently 104 players whose draft rights are held by various teams. These rights go back all the way to 1986, where the Atlanta Hawks still hold the rights over 50-year-old 7-foot Italian center Augusto Binelli. The player who has had his rights traded more than anyone is Georgios Printezis, whose rights have been dealt six times since he was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 2007.
Ultimately, this draft strategy is low-risk as long as these players are taken in the second round. First-round picks come with considerable more risk, because for every success story like Nikola Mirotic, there is a horror story like that of Fran Vasquez, who was selected by the Orlando Magic in 2005 and recently used his status with the Magic to negotiate a new deal overseas. This wouldn’t be a big deal if he had been taken No. 32, but Vasquez was selected 11th, with Paul George and David Lee still on the board.
In most cases, however, these players become forgotten names that only resurface if their rights are traded along with actual NBA players. It makes for a solid laugh when you realize these players were actually drafted by NBA teams and makes you wonder if Akyol or Maduabum even know which teams own their rights anymore.
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