By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Despite the rumors about Sacramento moving in order to sign Nick Calathes, it seems that there’s a lot of smoke and not at all fire in the whole situation.
According to Eurohoops sources from the States, there was some kind of interest from the Kings for the player, but no offer is made and it’s very hard for this to happen for two reasons. The first is that Calathes’ contract with Panathinaikos – which pays him $2,1 m. annually after taxes – does not include any buy out option for this season and the second is that the Kings were in theory are ready to give him the veteran’s minimum, so it’s more than unlikely for Calathes to leave Europe.
What’s even more interesting is that Panathinaikos seems to have predicted the new financial situation with the rise of the salary cap numbers. There’s an NBA buy out in Calathes contract for the summer of 2017, but the price tag is $4 million. This means that Calathes should get an offer close to $8 m. per year in order to leave next summer Greece and return to the States. However this is a possibility which will be examined next year and for now the chances of him leaving Panathinaikos are more than slim and pretty close to nonexistent.