Kansas State made a late addition to their roster final week once they introduced the signing of Belgian ahead Nastja Claessens.
It’s a newsworthy pickup for just a few causes.
At the beginning, Claessens is a extremely good participant. The 6-foot-1, 20-year-old has performed professionally in Spain and her native nation, and he or she additionally featured for the Belgian nationwide group on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and this summer time within the FIBA Girls’s EuroBasket. Belgium gained the EuroBasket title with Claessens averaging 5.2 factors and 1.8 rebounds per recreation whereas taking pictures 42.9 p.c from 3-point land.
Earlier in 2024, earlier than the Olympics, Claessens additionally performed within the FIBA U20 Girls’s EuroBasket with Belgium and averaged 17.7 factors, 8.1 rebounds and three.6 assists per recreation throughout seven contests. For Jeff Mittie’s Wildcats, Claessens might be an important addition following the graduations of proficient gamers like Serena Sundell and Ayoka Lee.
There’s one thing else that’s attention-grabbing about Claessens too.
She was drafted by the Washington Mystics with the thirtieth general decide of the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Now, Claessens by no means signed with or practiced with the Mystics, so she retained her NCAA eligibility. However questions arose about her skilled future after she joined with Kansas State. Followers — and even quietly, some coaches and entrance workplace people — questioned aloud, might she be drafted once more by one other group? Or would the Mystics retain her rights?
The collective bargaining settlement that the WNBA and its gamers agreed to in 2020 presents some perception.
It states: “If the participant does thereafter play intercollegiate basketball, then the group that drafted her shall retain the unique WNBA rights to barter with and signal the participant for the interval ending one 12 months from the date of the draft following the date on which such participant lastly exhausts or loses her intercollegiate eligibility, supplied that such group makes a Required Tender to the participant inside seven (7) days of such draft.”
Within the easiest phrases, the coverage says that ought to a participant not signal with the group that drafted them after which acquire NCAA eligibility, the group would retain that participant’s WNBA rights as much as a 12 months after they’ve exhausted their faculty eligibility. A supply inside the WNBA’s workplace who’s acquainted with the inner-workings of the CBA confirmed the accuracy of this interpretation to SB Nation.
So, hypothetically talking, if Claessens performs 4 years of school basketball, she would exhaust her eligibility in 2029. The Mystics, so long as they make a required tender to her inside seven days of the 2029 WNBA Draft, would then nonetheless have unique rights to barter a contract along with her for as much as a full 12 months, by means of 2030.
In fact, the present CBA expires this 12 months. It’s attainable that this aspect of the settlement might be reworked.
For those who’re questioning how Claessens was drafted earlier than she might play faculty basketball, it’s as a result of the WNBA has totally different eligibility guidelines for worldwide gamers. Gamers from outdoors of the U.S. are eligible for the draft that happens throughout the 12 months of their twentieth birthday. Claessens turned 20 final December.
What the Mystics do with Claessens’ rights is price monitoring. Beneath the present CBA, her rights could be traded.
She was drafted by the group underneath its earlier regime, when Mike Thibault was the final supervisor and his son Eric was the top coach. Each have been fired on the finish of the 2024 season and changed by normal supervisor Jamila Wideman and head coach Sydney Johnson. The Mystics didn’t instantly reply to SB Nation’s request for remark.
It’s price noting that Mike Thibault was employed to educate the Belgian nationwide group this previous January and guided the Cats to the EuroBasket title this summer time. Eric Thibault is now an assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx.