Question about players signing overseas during the lockout

Some players that have gone overseas managed to include an opt-out in their contract to come back to the NBA once the lockout's over (Jerome Jordan). Others don't seem have that built in (Wilson Chandler). Just saw that Joe Alexander, a player I was really interested in signing this year on the cheap (we actually had him in during that 2-day FA/big man camp pre-lockout where he impressed), signed a 1-yr deal with BC Krasyne Kaylya Samara in Russia and doesn't seem to have that opt-out clause built in.

My question is: does it really matter? For the amount of money that team probably gave Alexander, if and when the lockout's over, what prevents him from just leaving whatever salary this Russian team gave him on the table and coming back to the States to play in the NBA if there were an interested team? Why couldn't he just walk away from that Russian contract? Now Chandler might be a different story -- he most likely got more money to go play in China than Alexander got to go play in Russia. But technically, he could walk away from his deal if he wanted to also, no? Just like anyone, contract or no contract, can up and leave their job if they suddenly got a more appealing opportunity elsewhere, right? What's the chance that some of these players that signed deals w/o that clause up and walk away from them to return to the NBA once play resumes? I'm just a little concerned about this diminishing pool of available players once the lockout's over --- we're gonna need a couple of good players on the cheap to round out this roster. I'd still want the Knicks to reach out to some of these guys who went to go play overseas regardless if they have built in opt-outs in their contracts..Is that possible?

Maybe he feels he has more security by signing with a team that's going to pay him his money, as opposed to potentially missing out on some game checks here, if he even earns a fully guaranteed contract and a roster spot with a team. I'm sure he's making more money over there, and the talent pool isn't anywhere near as deep as the NBA...so there's no threat of getting sent down to a lesser league where you're paid peanuts.

It seems like more of a security thing to me than anything else. Why opt out of what I assume to be guaranteed money to try to fight and claw your way onto a roster over here, and potentially get sent down to the d-league?

FAs who are good enough to fit onto a roster shouldn't have this problem tho, which makes Wilson's decision so puzzling...

But I think we'll see less players going over in the coming days because CBA talks seem to be heating up. There was a meeting yesterday, and another one scheduled for Tuesday where both labor committees from the league and union will be there.

That's a meeting last week, a meeting wednesday, a meeting thursday, and now a meeting with full labor parties in attendance on tuesday. Patience people, it's gonna get done.

Good points. I'm just super concerned as I watch young players with upside and talent that would've made nice additions on the cheap in terms of filling out the rest of this roster all sign these deals to go play overseas, many even agreeing to contracts without opt-outs to return to the NBA once the lockout's resolved.

I mean who's left out there? I start talking about guys, then go to look them up and see that they've all went to go play overseas.. It's a little discouraging. We really got burned with this damn lockout man. Take a Joe Alexander for example --- I don't care what he didn't do for Milwaukee --- this guy has considerable talent and had a GREAT year in the DL last season, going for something like 20/9/1.5 blocks...We had him in for our little 2-day FA mini-camp right before the lockout -- next step would've been a summer league invite followed by a training camp invite with a good chance to make the club. You figure that would've/should've been the logical progression..Damn lockout killed those plans though. Unless there's a way to still talk to a guy like Alexander through his agent and get him to abandon his Euro contract to come back over and play for us. That could be plausible and we might have to resort to stuff like that but it might involve overpaying.

Another example of how this whole thing didn't really work in our favor is Shawne Williams. Williams and similar mid-to-lower-level FAs really made out with this lockout if you ask me. Once it's resolved, the Knicks kinda lost a lot of leverage with Williams' agent if you think about it. Now instead of telling this guy, look, Shawne comes back for X amount, otherwise we'll gladly go with a Jamelle Horne, a DeShawn Sims or a Joe Alexander...Only problem is those guys aren't around anymore.. They all flew the coop -- off to Europe somewhere..Suppose this new CBA isn't really team-friendly? Now we're talking about overpaying to bring back Williams, something I was looking to avoid. Might have to give a guy like Shawne Williams whatever he wants to come back now. Could mean a great deal if and when we decide to sign a guy like CP3 to a max deal if we decide to go that route..And forget the money angle -- we could've used the opportunity to evaluate players, even our own draft picks, Shump and Jorts. What happens if a guy like Jorts really isn't NBA material? Normally we could've used training camp to see if at least one more big-man/center invite, competing with Jorts and Jordan, would've been a possibility/better option (6'11" Dwayne Jones perhaps?). We never had that opportunity and if we suddenly do it'll be extremely short-lived before the season starts with a diminished pool of available players to choose from. ****ing blows man..I can't think of another team that got burned more by this friggin' lockout than we did.