Bumping this. Really interested in an answer. For instance, in the interview, Zizic said he thinks he's ready for the NBA. If the Celtics think he's not, what factors are in play?
Is it that the player can say he's ready, declare for the NBA, and can't sign with another team, which would then force the Celtics hand into signing for trading him within a year? The risk to the player is a year of lost income/p---ing off his future employee?
But, what about the guaranteed money for a first round player? Would the player get an insurance contract against injury, or would the team pay for it, if he's forced to stay overseas?
A few things:
1) If a player is under contract to a foreign club, he cannot sign with an NBA team (or any other foreign club) until he has been removed from that contract, per FIBA rules. European teams often sign prodigious teenagers to long (6-8 years) contracts, so players generally can't wait around forever until they're free agents.
2) Accordingly, players negotiate buyouts with teams. Sometimes this is negotiated when the contract is first signed, and other times it is negotiated later on. I believe Zizic negotiated his terms more recently.
3) These buyouts can be for any amount, but NBA teams are prevented from paying more than a certain amount for a buyout (which is defined by the CBA and goes up a small amount every year). Next season that number is $650k. Any buyout that exceeds $650k must come from the player (or his agent) himself. Often this means that a foreign player's contract will be less than his slot value, because a chunk has gone to his old team.
4) During the pre-draft process, teams an agents are prevented from contract negotiation. They are not, however, prohibited from discussing where a player would be willing to play in the following season, nor are they prevented from learning what buyout, if any, a player has. Accordingly, if the Celtics desire to keep Zizic overseas for a year, they should know in advance that he's okay with this. Sometimes things get lost in translation, of course. A couple of year's ago, Clint Capela and the Rokcets had a disagreement about where he should play. He ended up winning.
5) If things break down, because Zizic and the C's disagree about where he should play, Zizic' options are limited. He could a) continue to play out his contract overseas, b) demand a trade and have the viable threat that he'll never come over, or c) buy himself out of the contract, sign nowhere for a year, and then re-enter the draft.
6) There's a misconception about whether or not draft-and-stash players count against the team's salary cap. They do, until the beginning of the NBA season. So Zizic will count $1,153,000 against the C's cap this summer (his slot value). That number will disappear in November, but by that point it's too late for the cap space to be useful. Accordingly, you don't want too many 1st rounder drafted and stashed, since you take a cap hit without the benefit of his playing.
Anyway, the key point above is #4 - there shouldn't be any conflict between the two sides.