By Leyteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
He wants to live the “American Dream”, but there is a chance that he will prolong the Russian! Nick Calathes has not received yet a contract offer from the Mavericks and in fact Dallas reached today an agreement with Israeli point guard Gal Mekel. This doesn’t mean that the “window” of signing in Dallas has “closed”, but Lokomotiv Cuban is pressing him to stay. Not with his current contract (which gives him a nice salary of 1,5 million dollars and has an “NBA out” for half a million), but with a new one that will keep him in Krasnodar till 2016, with a bigger salary. Calathes hasn’t made his final decision, as he wants to wait for the Mavericks.
On the same day, another European saw his career making a pleasant turn. Andrea Bargnani didn’t live up to the expectations as the No1 pick in 2006 draft with the Raptors, but now he’ll get a second chance in New York which is trading for him, sending Steve Novak and Marcus Camby in Toronto. Also, during draft day Greek-American Kostas Koufos was traded from Denver to Memphis.