Lucas Nogueira Could Play In Atlanta This Year
Jun 27, 2013; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Lucas Nogueira walks on stage as he is selected as the number sixteen overall pick to the Boston Celtics during the 2013 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It seems like the chances of first round selection Lucas Nogeueira playing in Atlanta this coming year are a lot higher than most people would have thought. According to Peach Tree Hoops and Sportando, the Hawks are close to buying out his contract from Estudiantes after the Atlanta front office drove the price down lower than $1 million.
For some reason Estudiantes “can’t risk Lucas staying another year” and that is helping bring the price down on the Brazilian center.
"We’re trying to understand why Estudiantes can’t risk Lucas staying another year, as they extended him just before the draft through 2015.It could be Lucas was extended to protect a buy-out from an NBA team — but why couldn’t they risk him coming back if the Hawks would have to buy him out eventually (before 2015) to bring him over?The other side is that Danny Ferry may have played the hand perfectly — bringing a buyout down from 2M to under a million simply by making it public that Nogueira may not come over this year after all.If Lucas comes over and is signed, he would become the 11th guaranteed contract after Pero Anticmade it official this afternoon. With DeMarre Carroll looming and three non-guaranteed contracts on the books, the roster is filling up fast."
The only reasoning I can think of for trying to get Nogueira over this quickly is that the price has come down lower than expected and the team has more depth in the front court than they thought they would have. In this situation, they can put Nogueira into a very limited role on the team in order to gain NBA experience, but not harm the team much in the process.
Brad is away for now so when he gets back, we’ll have to grill him for the reasoning of this unforeseen piece of news. For anyone who was dying to get a good look of the ‘fro though, you’re one step closer.