If you have had trouble keeping up with Clay Moser over the years, it is understandable. Twenty plus years of experience in the basketball industry can make for a difficult task. Moser’s wealth of knowledge has led him to his latest stop as head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Developmental League.

Moser’s career began back in 1984 where he was an assistant coach at the junior college level. He was then fortunate enough to have his first NCAA Division 1 coaching experience under the legendary Jim Valvano at NC State.  Since that time, he has been an assistant for two more teams, including the San Antonio Spurs summer league squad in 2005, has been a head coach twice, and served as an advanced scout for the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and most recently, the Orlando Magic. One of Moser’s jobs brought him overseas, where he acted as head coach and team consultant of the Jilin Northeastern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. Moser’s extensive coaching experience positions him incredibly well to be a coach in the NBA.

Aside from a coaching standpoint, Moser has also spent time in the front office. He was the Senior VP & VP of Basketball Operations for the CBA, CEO of the Idaho Stampede, an NBA Consultant, and Vice President of Business Development for the New Orleans Hornets. In his role as an NBA consultant, Moser ran a variety of projects in Basketball Operations, International Business Development and Team Business Operations. Not only is Moser more than qualified to coach a team, he has the credentials of an NBA GM, as well.

There is no doubting how impressive the track record is that Moser has compiled over the years. He has shown a tireless work ethic during his surge through the ranks and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. He is enjoying his current stay as a head coach in the Developmental League and his well-rounded NBA background leave him with no other place to go but up from there. With continued success in its farm system, don’t be surprised to see Moser take his numerous skills to the league as a top assistant or even head coach in the near future.

Dallas Mavericks

Jake Kerr: Mavs Moneyball

Houston Rockets

grungedave and UofTOrange: The Dream Shake

Memphis Grizzlies

Joshua Coleman: 3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets

Rohan: At the Hive

ticktock6 & mW: Hornets Hype

Ryan Schwan & Ron Hitley: Hornets247.com

San Antonio Spurs

Graydon Gordian: 48 Minutes of Hell

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

Many believe that the NFL will be the next major American professional sport to institute a rookie salary scale, at least for the first round of its draft. The NBA currently uses a scale for players drafted in the first round and the MLB does its best to force its member organizations to use a similar signing bonus number for a player drafted in the same slot in the previous year’s draft. Maybe slotting ends up becoming implemented in the NFL and turns out to work like a charm, but in the NBA, the system may have created some unintended consequences.

A team like the San Antonio Spurs has to worry that its last year’s first round draft pick may choose to stay overseas rather than come play for basketball’s most consistently solid team of this past decade. Tiago Splitter put up decent numbers this past year overseas in Spain and is probably due for a larger check from the Spanish club (Tau Ceramica) than he would receive as a rookie next year with the Spurs. It is not that the Spurs aren’t willing to pay Splitter enough money, but that the salary scale will only allow the team to hand over $771,000 at most in Splitter’s first year of play. Because of that ceiling (which lasts for two years and could be picked up for another two by San Antonio), the Spurs may never even have the chance to give that money to Tiago.

Splitter is not alone. Fran Vasquez and Rudy Fernandez are among the other players who have been drafted by NBA teams in the first round only to say “no thanks” and remain with their overseas clubs. If you were an NBA GM, would you draft a non-American player in the first round? If he is an early first round pick, maybe it is a different scenario, but taking a foreigner with a late first rounder is definitely a risk under the current slotting system.

Many have had nothing but praise for the NBA’s slotting system, but if it alienates foreigners, potentially forcing their fall to the second round, should it be kept? What can be done to fix the system? It will be interesting to follow this year’s draft and see how many foreigners are taken in the first round after the lottery picks have been made.