Agree with you Paul and Isaac. If you are not in that elite echelon of players that NBA teams build around, then you are more likely to stick in the NBA if you are an excellent role player who does one or two things well, rather than a guy who does everything, but at a level a couple of notches lower than the elites.
Eg, Julius Hodge, in the NBL he is an elite athlete who can dominate with his ability to get to the basket. However, in the NBA he is not good enough to be that dominant scoring slasher, but also is not a good enough defender or outside shooter to land a spot as a role player.
On the flip side, Scalabrine would be next to useless as an import in the NBL, but showed last year that he can be a very effective role player for Boston, just playing solid D and making the open three reliably.