How long can the Portland Trail Blazers stash guys in Europe?

That was my question to Kevin Pritchard a couple weeks back after one of several pre-draft workouts, and I was namely talking about Petteri Koponen and Joel Freeland (above). Guess we can add Victor Claver to the discussion too

 Pritchard said it’s really not about a time table.

“I want them to come over and have a chance to get out on the floor, and at least have a chance to make an impact,” he explained.

“What I don’t want to do is bring them over and have them not play.”

Now the trio has more in common than being a bunch of first-round draft picks polishing their skills abroad: none of these cats will be on Portland’s summer league roster. At least that’s the word right now from Pritchard (story running in full at HOOPSWORLD - "No Summer League For Koponen And Freeland").

If anything, Koponen’s camp may reach an agreement of some sort before the start of the LVSL. That’s not the immediate case however.  Call it pending with a chance of I-doubt-it.

It seems – and I’ll have to research this some more – Portland has to lead the league in drafting guys and then keeping them overseas to play for the club of their choosing. Koponen, Freeland, Claver and even Rudy Fernandez fit the bill. And in a sense the Euroleague has become a sort of farm system for the NBA. That’s a minor league system with major complications.

It can’t please ownership and teams in Europe to be known as the “farm”.

They don’t want to develop players for the NBA. They want to build championship organizations of their own. Rather hard to do if your talent keeps getting plucked at season’s end. Perhaps Portland is saving some international face by keeping these kids out on loan.

But for how long?

pic via: gameongb.com

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