My opinion regarding Arsalan Kazemi based on facts. (Please do NOT merge)

[persianbruin]

Dear Mods please do NOT merge this with the other thread as I want anyone who is interested to see what the situation is. A simple reply in the other thread might get lost. Thank you.
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Due to my relationship with AK I get questions from friends, family and people here both on the forum and through pm and I am getting tired of repeating myself so I have decided to this once and get it over with! I will also email it to whoever I know in real life who is interested in the matter.
I in NO WAY will quote AK or spill any kind of info that he has told me in confidence as our relationship goes far past basketball. My entire family and Even his mother know that he is like a little brother to me so His best interests come first and foremost. So here I go:
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Fact: For those of you who are not familiar with north American pro sports, the way it works is that there are drafts where teams pick players from college and overseas. In the NBA, there are 2 rounds. If a player is picked by a team like Arsalan was, that team will OWN his rights, meaning as long as they do NOT release him NO other team no matter how much they want him can sign him! Just to be very clear here, there are 30 teams in the NBA and only ONE team can sign him and that team is the 76ers. They OWN him (for now). None of the other 29 teams can sign him no matter how badly they want him. This is downside of getting drafted in the second round.
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Fact:Fact: A player who is not drafted is called a Free Agent which means they are free to sign with anyone they want as long as the team wants the too. The downside is that if you are not drafted at all, chances are nobody wants you but EVERY year there have been players who made it as free agents.
So to compare haddadi and Kazemi, Hamed was NOT drafted meaning any of the 30 teams could sign him. If he was not in the NBA last year it means NONE of the 30 teams were interested. On the other hand Arsalan, as stated before could ONLY and ONLY be signed by philly, so either they do want him or not. All the other 29 teams have to wait until he is released before they can even look at him. So for those of you who constantly say he is done and he has to make it this year, I have the next fact.
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Fact: Arsalan,
1) had a great showing in the NCAA tournament and passed tim Duncan in the alltime list of single NCAA tournament rebounding as he is 6th and Duncan is 7th.
2)3) was NOT released by the Sixers meaning no other team could pick him
4) was told he should go overseas for a year and come back for this year
5) had the option of going to Europe but Europe pays far less than Iran super league! Yes you heard it right! Unless you are a superstar in Europe, Iran pays better.
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Fact:Fact:BOTH players are projected to be superstars and more importantly number 1 picks! BOTH were supposed to be out of 76ers reach but somehow the sixers got lucky and both got injured and slid down to 6th and 3rd pick of the draft respectively when the Sixers got both.
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The sixers last year wanted to start from scratch, they So why not NBA this year either for Arsalan?
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As unlucky as Arsalan was last year for being picked by a team that had tanking plans, something happened this year that made the sixers thinking tanking AGAIN!! Here is the story:
The sixers had the third pick of the draft. The top three players embiid and two other guys were all projected to be studs so by picking either one of the two leftovers, the sixers would have been golden to go for it this year meaning in my opinion signing AK as well since they obviously value him since they have not released him. I mean they were not blind. They did see what AK did during summer league last year.
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So what went wrong?
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Embiid the projected number one pick of the draft got injured just like Noel got injured last year. The other 2 studs were picked with the first and the second pick so the sixers options at 3rd were:
1) Pick a star quality player who is ready to play NOW or
2) Pick Embiid a superstar quality player and wait for him to be ready thus tanking ANOTHER season.
They chose the 2nd option.
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What does this mean for Arsalan?
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This means if the sixers decide to not sign him for another season he might be waiting another year. Now as I said I am puzzled about this. I do not know if the sixers can keep his rights without offering him a league minimum ($400K and change) salary. I have asked couple of people and so far nobody knows the answer. I guess we have to wait and see.
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As far as his value to the league, in the NBA you are either a superstar/star or you are a role player. If you are a role player you have to be smart, physical and do something even if it is limited to one category REALLY well and not a lot of things somewhatTo sum this up: In my opinionIn my opinion There was no point for Arsalan to play in the summer league this year. He already proved last year that he is ready for the level of competition. There is nothing else to prove. They know what he brings to the table and they know more than one team is interested. I think they have to make a decision. AK has already given them enough of a preview.
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I welcome any questions that might bring up points I forgot to address or any opinions and scenarios that I failed to think of. After all, just like you guys I am an Iranian and want him to represent us in the league.

[Nokhodi]

Very well explained but sad to read.
I feel bad for the guy. He is getting screwed over by the Phillies. The NBA needs to fight against this tanking bullshit.

My questions is how is he developing in Iran? Will another year there effectively kill his chances of getting into the NBA? Will he ever get a chance with Philadelphia. No one else in the NBA wants him?

[persianbruin]

Very well explained but sad to read.
I feel bad for the guy. He is getting screwed over by the Phillies. The NBA needs to fight against this tanking bullshit.

My questions is how is he developing in Iran? Will another year there effectively kill his chances of getting into the NBA? Will he ever get a chance with Philadelphia. No one else in the NBA wants him?

Well Nokhodi jaan first of all I do not know where he would want to play IF he doesn't get a contract. When he went to Iran, all I said to him was: You do not need to prove anything to anyone. Just don't get injured!

As for his game, his game is polished. What you see is what you get and the good news is that there are teams who do want him, we just have to see what happens with his situation with the sixers. As I said no other team is allowed to contact him since he is NOT a free agent.

So basically his case is NOT that nobody wants him. It is just that nobody is allowed to sign him! It is the sixers or nobody now and hopefully soon we will find out what is going to happen.

1) They can sign him
2) they can sign and trade him
3) They can trade his rights
4) They can release him
and maybe just maybe
5) They can somhow keep his rights one more year without signing him. IMO this would be the only case where he would NOT play in the NBA next year.

[Darvish11]

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.

From Larry Coon CBA website
For Kazemi to get out of the contract he would need to not play for year, then other teams can sign him (If he was under 22 he would re enter the draft). So basically he is stuck with the Sixers. Very unfair rule from a player standpoint.
Persianbruin I hope your very optimistic view that he is "too valuable" to be wasted on bad teams with his low contract is right. They really think after showcasing Kazemi for a couple years that he will get bombarded with max offers like Parsons? I really doubt the sixers are going to have to worry about his salary getting out of hand. And when they finally are competitive, how much playing time do you think he will get as a mid-late 20s rookie? In todays moreyball NBA (and Hinkie is a morey disciple) they are obsessed with 2 things: 3s and upside. Arsalan has neither. Again I hope you are right about the Sixers long term plans with him, maybe it stems from personal discussion regarding conversations between him/his agent and Hinkie, but from an outside perspective if he isnt in the Philly this season his NBA future is bleak. How many 2nd round draft and stash players make it back to the NBA after more than 1 year overseas?
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2013/8/1...ope-stash-2013

Patrick Beverley, Nick Calathes, Robert Varnado, and thats it.

Now on a slightly different note:
Lets say other teams are willing to sign Kazemi right now, but the Sixers dont want to trade his rights and force him to play elsewhere. Lets say by the time they stop doing this, Kazemi is 30 and nobody will sign him. What is the difference in salary between the NBA minimum and what petrochimi is giving him? The sixers are holding him hostage and it is resulting in lost wages. Could there be legal recourse?

[Hosseini]

Thanks so much for the updates Persianbruin jan. What a joke, the poor guy must be so depressed after such high hopes during the draft. Inexcusable for the Sixers not to draft, sign, or give him any solid feedback or information on his situation.

Have they forgotten they TRADED to the Wizards in order to draft him in the first place?!

With a center like Nerlens Noel in form after playing in the summer leage, I really wonder why they would tank.

[iranghahreman]

the NBA has some stupid rules that will never change because it protects the league and the owners from financial loss. This and the whole concept of "tanking" is one of them. the whole idea of being rewarded for doing poorly is stupid and frankly unamerican

[EKBATAN]

NBA has really stupid rules. why should it be allowed for teams to TANK in a league? it ruins the competitiveness.

imagine this scenario....2 top teams are fighting for #1 spot...or even he last playoff spot at the end of they year.....one ends up facing decent to good teams for their last 5 games....and the other team is facing 5 teams that are TANKing........its unfair to the team that is fighting for that spot to have to face real competition vs. the other team that will prob beat those teams and make it. REALLYL FUKKIN STUPID !





IMO....this world cup, Arsalan needs to GO ALL OUT! its his best chance of showing himself again and maybe raise interest from another NBA team that would talk to sixers about releasing him. Otherwise people have short term memory and every year theres buncha new kids who come to the draft and younger....they have no reason to look at arsalan UNLESS somethin catches their eye like the world cup. But this also means Arsalan needs to be more offensive. Get more involved, take some shots...or at least show aggressiveness that you WANT the ball and willing to attack the basket, draw the defense and dish the ball out. This would be huge for him in the NBA.

I'm afraid if sixers pull this bullshit again, Arsalan wont really have a chance, not becuase he's not good but simply because there are too many players for teams to look at and he is sort of history if he misses another year. unfortunately lot of players have this happen to them, they can play in NBA but they were unlucky. But overall sixers are STUPID for not trying to get some type of money out of him. they should realize his time is running out so if you're tanking, then just release the guy and find him a team. whats the point of keeping him and then not make any money?

[Shekamoo]

This is all wishful thinking.

He is too small to play power forward in the NBA and does not shoot well enough to play small forward. He's not an NBA player. There are a lot of great college players that don't make it in the league. If he was good enough, the team would have given him a contract.

Arsalan has not improved in the last few years. He should have been shooting 1000 jump shots a day. If you can't consistently hit a wide open 15 footer in the NBA at 6'7, you will not make it. Period.

[persianbruin]

This is all wishful thinking.
He is too small to play power forward in the NBA and does not shoot well enough to play small forward. He's not an NBA player. There are a lot of great college players that don't make it in the league. If he was good enough, the team would have given him a contract.
Arsalan has not improved in the last few years. He should have been shooting 1000 jump shots a day. If you can't consistently hit a wide open 15 footer in the NBA at 6'7, you will not make it. Period.

Did you read ANY of the things I wrote?
As for everybody else, thank you for your responses and I will reply back soon.

[persian-eagle-13]

we are clearly doing a disservice to our athletes in basketball, volleyball and football as we are giving them money that most clearly do not deserve to earn in a very semi professional sport system we have in iran and wasting their talents. which takes me to my next point, Arsalan is bigger and better than iranian super league, of the people he should not be the one thinking about money rather than working with better coaches in europe, competing in a better leagues and against some of the best nba rejects in europe.

being a wuss and not trying europe according to him for injury is absurd!! injury can happen any where any time. after few years of establishing himself in europe he can open the doors for others to follow and never mind all the nba scouts that follow the european league.

i would absolutely question his judgment or lack of, if he ends up playing in Asia or iran!!

however much he thinks that might be better, however much he might think it will help him, but the status shows otherwise that he will be wrong more often then right give the history of other players!

[EKBATAN]

Persianbruin,

now that the asia cup is over. whats arsalan's next plan until the world cup? is he going to philly by any chance to practice or is he staying in iran ?

[Soosk]

The nba system is definitely a system where players in positions like Arsalan can and do get screwed. Its very unfair and I hope it works out for Arsalan and I would really enjoy seeing him in the NBA and proudly say he is Iranian.

[Zamboor]

I hope he makes it to europe! I bet he would have a nice career there! Turkey would be the best place for him. A good league and close to Iran

[Masoud_A]

IMO European option will always be there for him but he shouldn't lose sight of the NBA, Spain's games will be viewed by many Americans and heavily scouted. If Arsalan manages to be that Philly second round pick who abused Spain he would have a high chance of getting a contract. We are in a very hard group though, I'm afraid the bosxcore is not gonna impress.

[PouriaAkaBarut]

Never understood the real purpose of tanking a whole season. I mean put yourself in the players shoe during that season " Ya boys lets go on the court and try to lose this game"
There should be some sorta of a second division in NBA so that teams that finish in the bottom of the division get relegated. Just like in football !

Really hope to see Arsalan in the NBA one day. I had such high hopes for the guy after those brilliant performance with Oregan.