Kansas State Last week a late addition to their schedule when they announced the signing of the Belgian attacker Nastja Claessens.
It is a newsworthy pick -up for a few reasons.
First and foremost, Claessens is a really good player. The 6-foot-1, 20-year-old has played professionally in Spain and her native country, and she also played for the Belgian national team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and this summer in the Fiba Women’s Eurobasket. Belgium won the Eurobasket title with Claessens with an average of 5.2 points and 1.8 rebounds per match while he shot 42.9 percent from 3-point country.
Earlier in 2024, before the Olympic Games, Claessens also played in the FIBA U20’s Eurobasket with Belgium and an average of 17.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game over seven games. For the Wildcats of Jeff Miction, Claessens can be a crucial addition after the graduates of talented players such as Serena Sundell and Ayoka Lee.
There is also something else that is interesting about Claessens.
She was prepared by the Washington Mystics with the 30th general choice of the 2024 Wnba Provisional version.
Now Claessens has never signed or practiced with the mystics, so she retained her NCAA fitness. But there were questions about her professional future after she joined Kansas State. Fans – and even quiet, some coaches and people from Front Office – wondered aloud, could she be prepared again by another team? Or would the mystics retain its rights?
The collective negotiation agreement with which the Wnba and its players agreed in 2020 offers some insight.
It says: “If the player then plays intercollegiate basketball, the team that has drawn up her will retain the exclusive WNBA rights to negotiate and sign the player for the period that ends on one year of the date of the design after the date on which such a player ultimately exhausts or loses its intercollegials in the condition that such a team will be eligible for such a team of this that such a team of this is that such a tendering of this is that such a plenty of that such a tendering of this is that such a plenty of that such a plenty of that such a team, that this is a required tendering of this. loses.
In the simplest conditions, the policy says that if a player does not sign with the team that has drawn them up and then receive NCAA, the team would retain the WNBA rights of that player until a year after they exhausted their suitability of the college. A source within the WNBA office that is familiar with the inner works of the SMEs, confirmed the accuracy of this interpretation to SB Nation.
So, hypothetically, if Claessens plays Basketball for four years, she would be eligible for her in 2029. The mystics, as long as they still do her a required tender within seven days after the WNBA design of 2029, they would still have exclusive rights to negotiate a contract with her up to a full year up to a full year, up to and including 2030.
Of course, the current SMEs is going this year. It is possible that this element of the agreement can be reworked.
If you wonder how Claessens was drawn up before she could play Basketball, it is because the WNBA has different suitability rules for international players. Players from outside the US are eligible for the design that takes place during the year of their 20th birthday. Claessens became 20 last December.
What the mystics do with the rights of Claessens is worth monitoring.
She was prepared by the organization under her previous regime, when Mike Thibault was the general manager and his son Eric was the head coach. Both were fired at the end of the 2024 season and replaced by general manager Jamila Wideman and head coach Sydney Johnson. The mystics did not immediately respond to SB Nation’s request for comments.
It is worth noting that Mike Thibault was hired last January to coach the Belgian national team and this summer to lead the cats to the Eurobasket title. Eric Thibault is now an assistant coach at the Minnesota Lynx.
#WNBA #concept #Pick #playing #season #Big #work