Serbian standout Milos Teodosic remains one of the more solid playmaking guards in international play. In the 2016 Olympics, he’s averaging 11.4 points and 5.0 assists as Serbia will take on Croatia in the Olympic quarterfinals tomorrow. But what about an NBA stop for Teodosic? According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, one NBA team tried to lure him over to the U.S. a few years ago:
The Memphis Grizzlies tried to sign star European point guard Milos Teodosic in the summer of 2013, but the architect of Serbia’s near-upset of Team USA at the Rio Games rebuffed that chance to come to the NBA, according to league sources.
Sources confirmed to ESPN that the Grizzlies offered Teodosic a two-year deal in the $5 million range in an attempt to lure him to the NBA.
But Teodosic elected to sign a contract instead with CSKA Moscow that has one more season remaining. His current deal has no NBA outs, so the summer of 2017 is the earliest that Teodosic would be a free agent.
Yet there figures to be strong NBA interest in the 29-year-old when he does become available again after Teodosic has shown yet again in these Olympics that he is as good as any player not currently playing in the NBA.
“As good a player, as good a guard, as there is in Europe,” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
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Asked last week by ESPN if he still has NBA aspirations, Teodosic was non-committal, saying “that’s not up to me” and, when pressed, adding that it was his goal “a long time ago.”
But there is a belief in league circles that Teodosic will indeed explore his NBA options next summer.
