Player agent Sam Wlozczowski reveals what goes on behind the scenes of draft and contract negotiations in the NBA, WNBA, NBL, WNBL and European leagues
Jock Landale’s ‘unique’ NBA contract, why a WNBA team drafted Nyadiew Puoch without speaking to her and the monster NBL rookie deals. What really happens in contract negotiations?
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The NBA draft is this week, NBL free agency has been roaring, the WNBL has just opened up its player movement period and NBA teams are about to clamour over each other for the best uncontracted players on the planet.
It’s a busy time for everyone in pro basketball, not least the agents who help pull these deals together.
SIG Sports’ Sam Wloszczowski gives a sneak peak into what goes on behind the scenes as players seek to secure their futures.
JOCK’S UNIQUE BET ON HIMSELF
Boomer Jock Landale is in Melbourne preparing to back up his Tokyo Olympic bronze medal campaign in Paris.
Landale stepped up in March when young Rockets star Alperen Sengun was ruled out for the rest of the season, leading a streak of nine straight wins and averaging 9.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1 block, while shooting 60 per cent from the field.
“Jock’s done the work to showcase how he can fit in a good Houston Rockets team,” Wloszczowski said.
“He was off the charts at both ends of the floor. He had a massive impact and I feel confident they saw (that) and, quite honestly, if they didn’t, I know other teams that he beat along the way would have.”
How Landale bet on himself last year and arrived at the unique deal — where, at the end of each season, he’ll wait until free agency to find out if the next is guaranteed — is intriguing.
Fresh off a breakout NBA playoff performance with Phoenix where he impressed against the Denver Nuggets, the 211cm Victorian’s value skyrocketed.
Landale is what you’d call an analytics pig. The type of player NBA front office nerds obsessed with advanced statistics froth over.
They’re metrics that make the casual fan’s eyes glaze over but provide tangible, categorical evidence of one thing — he contributes to winning.
The Suns lost the series to the Nuggets 4-2, but won Landale’s minutes by 26 — and were +38 in the final four games as his role increased.
The priority was to stay in Phoenix, but the Suns were unable to come to the party and so, armed with an arsenal of advanced stats like RAPTOR and net ratings, Wloszczowski took his man to market.
“We immediately communicated with every team at the outset of free agency to let them know first of all, that Jock is an unrestricted free agent going in and that he is open to a move,” he said.
“Someone with a resume like Jock’s doesn’t need me to tell an NBA team what he is capable of.
“They all watched him in the playoffs against Denver. They were acutely aware of what he can be in the league and so the focus for us was on finding the right fit and rewarding him financially for the work he’d done the year prior.”
It made for a hectic few days that included serious conversations with almost a dozen NBA teams and at least one near-deal.
Houston emerged as the best destination.
“They made an offer that was a creative contract format and, based on the market, it made sense for him to do that and essentially take an annual bet on himself,” Wloszczowski said.
“It was an anxious couple days (but) that’s the greatest part of the job, being able to reward a young player and his family for years of work.”
ZOOMING INTO THE WNBA: NYADIEW PUOCH
Sleek, long, lean, athletic — and still just 20 — it’s no surprise more than a dozen WNBA teams clamoured to find out more about Victorian-born South Sudanese prodigy Nyadiew Puoch before this year’s draft.
Some flew out to Melbourne to watch the 191cm forward as she helped Southside to the WNBL championship, others fought for precious time over Zoom.
It was made clear to WNBA clubs Puoch was a long-term project — she wanted another year to develop her game and body, so she was a ‘draft and stash’ with a view to playing in the big league in 2025.
Atlanta Dream were desperate to speak with the elite young defender but a slammed schedule before the draft made it impossible.
“Nards lands in New York at about 11.30pm and we’re handed a schedule for the next day,” Wloszczowski recalls.
“I’m trying to get the Atlanta Zoom happening in case she’s there at pick No.12 and the schedule starts at the crack of dawn and has a little slot from 5.15pm-5.20pm that reads ‘rest’ — that’s the only break she had in the day.
“I sent that to the Atlanta chair and said, ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen in that five-minute window’.”
It didn’t matter. Puoch had a good reference in former Opals coach — and returning Canberra Capitals mentor — Paul Gorris, who is on the Dream’s staff as an assistant.
“Paul obviously knew all about her and they called her name out at pick No.12 and I sent a cheeky text to the GM about five minutes later while Nards was doing her media saying ‘we’re ready for that interview now’,” Wloszczowski said.
Next minute, she’s on a plane for Atlanta, a whirlwind tour of what will one day become ‘home’ and then back to Australia to prepare for another new experience — WNBL free agency.
“Nards has gone to free agency for the first time in her career, she had a good experience winning a title at Southside, but she’s exploring what’s out there and which team is the right fit for her,” Wloszczowski said.
“It’s going to have to be somewhere where she plays substantial minutes, where development is a huge focus because this is the most important year, developmentally, of her career.”
It’s safe to say almost every WNBL club would have an interest Puoch’s unique skillset and it’s understood, with Gorris taking the reigns at Canberra, the Capitals will be high on the list of contenders for her services.
There’s an “air of frustration” for any agent when negotiating contracts in the WNBL.
From a talent perspective, the league is and has always been, world class but “these women are worth way more than what we’re negotiating”.
“We’re restrained by salary caps (set at $530,000 this season) and what a club can pay.”
GET COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE
Money is a big factor in players leaving for Europe — but it’s not the only one.
Victorian-born Townsville Fire champion Steph Reid is a prime example, the 27-year-old set to suit up for Sopron Basket in Hungary.
“As a professional basketballer, you’re in a pretty unique position of being able to explore the world and be well compensated so in the case of someone like Steph, who’s done everything she could possibly accomplish in the WNBL, it was time for a new challenge,” Wloszczowski said.
“Will she be getting paid more? Absolutely, but she also gets a chance for new work and life experiences and develop her game in a new setting.”
Europe is not for everyone, though.
“There are hundreds of leagues in Europe — not all of them are worth exploring and very few are actually better than the WNBL,” Wloszczowski said.
“I do always tell players when heading to Europe only do so when you’re comfortable being uncomfortable.
“We’ve definitely had situations where the arrangement started out as a fit for the player and evolved into one that was not.
“We’ve had to negotiate exits from clubs and new beginnings at another.
“There’s no playbook for how to do that.
“We’ve seen clubs lose sponsors during the season and therefore lose their ability to pay promised wages — we have legal personnel on staff that will pursue those situations through the FIBA arbitrations tribunal.
“In a lot of cases, the issues stem from teams changing coaches mid-season because you make a commitment to play for a specific coach who has a specific role in mind and, all of a sudden, you have a new coach who has never heard of you or never coached you.”
THE BATTLE FOR A POTENTIAL NBA BULLET?
Brisbane Bullets forward Josh Bannan has worked out for more than 10 NBA teams over the past month and hopes to hear his name called during this week’s NBA Draft.
Bannan had a brilliant but injury-interrupted rookie season with the Bullets but looms as a potential draft-and-stash player, similar to Cleveland’s 2022 decision to draft Luke Travers and allow him to develop in the NBL with Perth, then Melbourne United.
“Josh’s NBA situation involved detailed level of the pitch, because a lot of the teams came over to Australia during the pre-season Blitz and didn’t get to see him in action because he was injured,” Wloszczowski said.
“So some of them have learned about him on the go but the feedback from his workouts has been positive and we’ll see where he lands on draft day.
“You don’t need 30 teams to fall in love with you — you just need one.”
Bannan has the security of a three-year NBL deal with the NBA outs, signed prior to last season. It is one of the largest contracts ever signed by a rookie in the league, brought about by interest from nearly every club that boiled down to a choice between the Bullets and Melbourne United — with Justin Schueller, the United-assistant-turned-Brisbane-coach, the central figure.
“Justin had basically been laying the groundwork for United and then, at the last minute, had to pivot to ‘don’t worry about everything I’ve said up until now, come to Brissy’,” Wloszczowski said.
“You understand the framework of what a team like Brisbane are building. You know Justin and what he’s about and you understand how the coach values the player and that’s what we’re betting on, essentially.
“And so Josh went through a really interesting process. Nearly every team reached out for a Zoom meeting and we were as thorough as anyone could have been.
“He felt Brisbane and Melbourne were both great options and he chose Brisbane.”
Agents have to be careful when recruiting players — especially when they are in college in the US. Bannan was at Montana when he and Wloszczowski first met.
“Agents are not allowed to pay for anything when recruiting players so I flew out to a game of his and we sat down, had a cup of tea — each paid for our own cups of tea,” he said.
HOW AGENCIES MAKE BANK
Agents primarily charge a fee on contracts, which varies from league to league and country to country.
In the NBL, agents fees are carved out in what’s called the player payments form where the commission and conditions are clearly articulated.
In the NBA a standard agents fee is 4 per cent, which comes down to 2 per cent on a minimum contract.
In the WNBA, the standard fee is 5 per cent.
In Europe, it’s 10 per cent — but that’s a number in name only.
“Europe is kind of the wild west in terms of contracts. There isn’t really a uniform process, agents can write the contracts, the team can write the contracts, there’s no standard contract for most leagues,” Wloszczowski said.
“Sometimes, the agents fee is included in the contract. Sometimes it’s a separate agreement.
“Agencies have a standard percentage that every team knows.
“If I call any team about a player they know exactly what our agents fee is.”
HONESTY THE BEST POLICY
Melbourne-born Anthony Dell’Orso was the premier Australian scorer in the NCAA last season.
The 198cm wing’s 19.4 points per game put him on NBA radars as a name to watch and he flirted with testing his draft potential this year, going through the early process with teams before opting to stay in college, transferring from to Arizona.
“Anthony conducted NBA workouts and teams said ‘he’s definitely a player that we’re interested in for the future, but we think he has some work he needs to do on his body and we’re really excited to see him do that over at Arizona this year’,” Wloszczowski said.
The 20-year-old took the news well and will go to work in a bid to come back to the draft next year, bigger and better.
“That feedback shapes a player’s direction and it’s invaluable experience,” he said.
“It helps him know how to attack the next year, helps the school know how to help him do that and helps him appropriately frame his expectations going forward.”
Wloszczowski says honesty between agents, players and teams is vital.
“Relationships have been built up over time, so, just as I deliver to my players good news or bad news 100 per cent truthfully, knowing that they can handle it, teams know that I can handle hearing good or bad news after a workout or over a contract, whatever the case may be.”
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