The secondary market for international free agents has proved to be quite fruitful for NBA teams lately, thanks to the success of players such as Joe Ingles, Jose Calderon, Salah Mejri, Aron Baynes, Mirza Teletovic, Cristiano Felicio, Timofey Mozgov, and Boban Marjanovic -- undrafted players who were signed later in their careers and became NBA contributors.
While there are only a handful of 19- to 21-year-old internationals who are ready to step in and produce immediately each season, forward-thinking front offices have found themselves dipping back into the pool of players in their mid-to-late 20s to try to extract role players on cheap contracts who can contribute and offer immediate value.
Most NBA teams keep deep files on pro prospects who are targets for summer league, training camp, two-way contracts and free agency swings, and with more roster spots available, and the ever-widening gap between NBA and European budgets, we can only expect this trend to increase.
Daniel Theis and Milos Teodosic are two of the latest examples of players the NBA went back to years after they passed them up in the draft, and we'll attempt to outline a few candidates, as well as some players whose rights are currently owned by an NBA team and could be brought over as early as this summer.
