Krstic signs a 9 million a year deal with Moscow Team

[AleksandarN]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/index?&lpos=globalnav&lid=gn_NBA_NBA

New Jersey Nets free agent Nenad Krstic signed a two year deal worth $3 million euros per year with Triumph Moscow early Tuesday morning, Krstic's agent, Marc Cornstein, said.

Krstic


The salary is the equivalent of around $9 million per year in the United States once you factor in the exchange rate and the fact that European clubs pay all the players' taxes.
Cornstein worked until midnight Eastern time trying to find an NBA team willing to pay Krstic at least a mid-level contract to keep him in the NBA. But as the midnight deadline passed, Krstic became the sixth NBA player to recently bolt the league for Europe.
"At the end of the day, Triumph offered him the most love," Cornstein told ESPN.com. "This was too good of a deal to pass up for him."
Krstic joins Josh Childress, Bostjan Nachbar, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jorge Garbajosa, Carlos Delfino and Primoz Brezec as NBA players who opted to play for more money overseas this year. Three of the six are Cornstein clients.
Krstic was having a near All-Star season in 2007 when he injured his ACL. His comeback last season was slow and at the end of the day teams opted against offering him the contract Cornstein was seeking, a two year deal (with a player option for the third year) starting at around $5 million per season.
The interest from a relatively unknown team in Russia, Triumph, will certainly raise even more eyebrows. It's one thing when Euroleague powerhouses like Olympiacos sign Childress. But when non-Euroleague teams like Triumph start being able to outbid NBA teams ... has the pendulum swung entirely the other way?
"I think you almost have NBA teams being overly cautious at this point," one Eastern Conference GM told Insider. "With so many teams so close to the luxury tax, teams are unwilling to take risks. Krstic was a risk. A small one, but a risk. We are certainly seeing the effects of the collective bargaining agreement this year. But these things are cyclical. If lots of team had cap room, Childress, Krstic and others would be playing in the NBA."

 

[Bricklayer]

Again -- problem, although this is the more typical Euro player heading for home scenario.

But in this case there is an additional semi-shocking factor to me in that story:

Cornstein worked until midnight Eastern time trying to find an NBA team willing to pay Krstic at least a mid-level contract to keep him in the NBA.

Really?? Nobody in the league was willing to even go MLE for Nenad Krstic? I mean, to the degree he bolted because teams weren't even willing to use the exception on him...that's on the NBA teams. I know there was the knee last year, but was it determined to be chronic? Otherwise that's a good, if soft, young big that you're not even willing to offer the MLE for?

 

[Peja]

Really?? Nobody in the league was willing to even go MLE for Nenad Krstic? I mean, to the degree he bolted because teams weren't even willing to use the exception on him...that's on the NBA teams. I know there was the knee last year, but was it determined to be chronic? Otherwise that's a good, if soft, young big that you're not even willing to offer the MLE for?

I agree.I mean,I think he had very decent seasons before that injury and I am pretty sure he is even better player than Milicic for example,but bottom line - nobody wanted him.

 

[piksi]

Krstic said in an interwiev that NBA is being brutal to restricted free agents in driving their value down. Not exactly sure what he meant.

 

[Bricklayer]

Krstic said in an interwiev that NBA is being brutal to restricted free agents in driving their value down. Not exactly sure what he meant.

He meant exactly what his agent meant -- this is first and foremost a gambit by agents to break the restricted free agency system.

But I have certianly seem some truly asinine abuses of the restricted free agency moniker by moron GMs in Chicago and Milwaulkee -- and I think they reaped what they sowed there too. They treated their players like dirt, played blatant games with them and more or less taunted them with their restricted status, and the result was disastrous chemistry and catastrophic years for both clubs resulting in two fired coaches and a fired GM.

 

[NewMonkey]

Again -- problem, although this is the more typical Euro player heading for home scenario.

But in this case there is an additional semi-shocking factor to me in that story:

Cornstein worked until midnight Eastern time trying to find an NBA team willing to pay Krstic at least a mid-level contract to keep him in the NBA.

Really?? Nobody in the league was willing to even go MLE for Nenad Krstic? I mean, to the degree he bolted because teams weren't even willing to use the exception on him...that's on the NBA teams. I know there was the knee last year, but was it determined to be chronic? Otherwise that's a good, if soft, young big that you're not even willing to offer the MLE for?

And DeSagna Diop got the MLE from Dallas. You know, 3 point and 5 rebound-averaging DeSagana Diop.