win, once again, I understand and appreciate your strategy, but the point remains: Tomic locked in the rookie scale is a much less valuable asset than the exact same Tomic drafted in the 2nd round. I've already explained there's no way Batum can get such a big contract in Europe - Batum is still a project and big European clubs don't pay big money to prospects because they rarely play them.
Claver quited because he'd possibly go undrafted (I said that he was just testing waters in his thread) and he's still under contract with Pamesa. Casspi resigned with Telaviv. OTH, Tomic doesn't have a contract right now, so it makes sense for him to stay in the draft this year.
I'll leave it at this: assuming that Pritchard likes Tomic, your plan is fine depending on what his agent is saying to teams. If he's threatening to pull a Splitter, there's no point in drafting him. Portland won't gave much for the rights of a guy who'll eventually join in 4 years. In that case, why shouldn't we draft Pekovic instead? He's better than all these guys together.
i guess i just don't agree with your feelings on each of the players....i mean, why could Casspi command more money than Batum? and there was no way Claver was going undrafted IMO.
plus, wasn't Casspi not under contract when he was thinking about declaring for the draft?
there are two players that this really fits for..... Tomic and Ibaka....both apparently wanted by Seattle and Portland - each having early second round picks and i'm sure that they hope they last till then.
if they pass on these guys in the first round, and there is nobody there that the Cs are crazy about, i don't see the extreme risk or taking one of them.....gambling that these guys actually might want to play in the NBA seems like a decent gamble to me....
plus, i have seen a lot of reports of late that POR might take Tomic at #27, so that doesn't really fit with this idea that they don't want to play for these low level contracts in the NBA if that happens...
i agree that you have to go case by case, but it seems to me that you are leaning more toward the "they're not going to play here if they get picked late in the first round" angle than i am...