Serbian guard Vasilije Micić put the finishing touches on a memorable season on Sunday, leading Anadolu Efes to a EuroLeague title with a win over Barcelona in the championship game. Micić, who scored 25 points on Sunday, was named the EuroLeague’s Final Four Most Valuable Player after winning the MVP Award for the regular season.
Micić, 27, seems poised to make the leap to the NBA, and an April report indicated that he would likely do so for the 2021-22 season. However, agent Misko Raznatovic, who cautioned in April that it was hardly a done deal that Micić would come stateside, reiterated that point this week in the wake of his client’s EuroLeague success.
As Saša Ozmo of Sport Klub relays (via Twitter), Raznatovic suggested that he doesn’t want Micić to make the move to the NBA only to find himself stuck on the bench.
“Micić won’t go until everything is right – maybe this year, maybe not,” Raznatovic said, per Ozmo (Twitter link). “Everything is still open. If the NBA is not good enough and fair enough towards him, they Oklahoma City will have to wait for Vasa for another year.”
Drafted 52nd overall in the 2014 draft, Micić wouldn’t be an NBA free agent. Oklahoma City currently holds his draft rights, so he’d have to sign with the Thunder unless they trade his rights to another team.
As a rebuilding franchise, the Thunder appear well-positioned to give Micić regular minutes and should have the cap flexibility to sign him to a contract that works for both sides. Micić wouldn’t be subject to the NBA’s rookie scale, so the team would have to sign him using cap room or an exception like the mid-level.
Holding Micić’s NBA rights will give the Thunder some leverage in negotiations, but the Serbian has some fallback options too — coming off an MVP season, he’d draw interest from multiple top teams in Europe and could continue playing a starring role in the world’s second-best basketball league. We’ll likely have to wait until later this summer to see whether he and Oklahoma City can work something out.
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