With the Denver Nuggets roster full at 15 players, the 46th pick in the NBA draft, Erick Green, has signed a deal with an Italian team, according to Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p>Denver's Erick Green, the 46th pick in the NBA Draft, has reached agreement on a one-year deal with Siena of Italian League, sources tell Y!</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href=”https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/362241018046840833″>July 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Siena has a strong recent history of success with guards, including Bobby Brown and Bo McCalebb. Siena has won seven consecutive Italian League championships.
The Nuggets will be able to retain Green's rights for one year after his deal with the Italian club Siena due to rules in the Collective Bargaining Agreement aka CBA and here is how, according to Larry Coon's FAQ:
If the player is already under contract to, or signs a contract with a non-NBA team, the team retains the player’s draft rights for one year after the player’s obligation to the non-NBA team ends. Essentially, the clock stops as long as the player plays pro ball outside the NBA. Players are not included in team salary during the regular season while the player is under contract with a non-NBA team.
It's likely that Nuggets GM Tim Connelly and assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas are familiar with this team and/or their staff, but I'm not sure the Nuggets would be able to comment on that aspect of Green's deal. No word yet on if Green has an "NBA out" if a roster spot were to open up, but the team will retain his rights.
Green averaged 9.3 points and 1.8 assists in his six games in Las Vegas with the summer league team in 21.7 minutes per game. He connected on 8-18 (44-percent) of this three-pointers and showed to be an effective scorer off the bench. Green did struggle defensively in Vegas and, at times, on running the point guard spot from a distributor's standpoint.
The Nuggets have three point guards on the roster in Ty Lawson, Nate Robinson, and Andre Miller and two more guards in Randy Foye and Evan Fournier that can play a little point when needed. Green’s road to the NBA got a little more difficult, but Robinson is essentially on a one-year deal with a player option and Miller’s contract can be bought out after the season. So, Green will have a shot to make the roster next year.
A season in Italy getting minutes with Siena will be good for Green, who will be 23 years-old on May 9th, 2014.
Montepaschi Siena:
The team Green will play for is Montepaschi Siena. Their schedule for the 2013-14 EuroLeague runs from October 16th through December with a total of 10 games – that information can be seen here. Marco Crespi, very well respected, is the new coach for Siena and he has spent time with the team as an assistant coach and has also served as the Director for International Scouting for the Boston Celtics, he was hired by the C's in 2004.
Crespi's basketball resume spans more than two decades and includes a number of head coaching and assistant positions for international teams. In 1990, under [former] Phoenix Suns Head Coach Mike D'Antoni, he spent four seasons with Philips Milan as an assistant coach. During that time, the team won an Italian Cup, an Italian title and the Korac Cup in 1993. A well-respected member of the international coaching community, Crespi was named Coach of the Year in 2001 for the Italian second division after leading Biella to a title. He also won a gold medal as an assistant coach for Italian NT during the 1999 European championships in Nantes.
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