Today is also the last day for player’s to exercise their extensions or to opt out of their contracts.
Word out of Utah is that Paul Millsap will be offered a 6 year 65 million dollar contract from Oklahoma City tonight. Because Millsap is a Restricted Free Agent, the Jazz will have seven days to either match the offer, work out a sign and trade (which is unlikely) or let him go.
What’s making this a tough decision for Utah, is that Carlos Boozer has the option to re-up with the Jazz for one more year at 12.7 million dollars, or to opt out of his contract and become an Unrestricted Free Agent who is free to sign anywhere.
Word is he is more likely to re-up for 12.7 million because only three teams have the money to pay him in 13-15 million range. Those teams are Oklahoma City, Memphis and Detroit.
Memphis sucks, and OKC doesn’t want to break the bank for Booz, because they have Durant coming up for an extension soon, Detroit is the only real threat to steal him away. But Detroit looks to have another player on its mind (See Below) and may not want to commit to such a large deal with Boozer.
If Boozer re-ups, then the Jazz will be stuck with him for one more year, and he could leave freely next season. It would also mean that they would be over the salary cap, which would make them pay the Luxury Tax, something that the owner will not want to do.
Memo Okur can also opt out of his contract, giving the Jazz another decision to have to make on a big man.
Because this Jazz team has not been able to win against the elite teams in the playoffs (See against the Spurs in ’07, Lakers in ’08 and ’09) I don’t think they should pay the tax to keep this team together.
Utah is one of the smaller markets in the league, and if you have to pay the luxury tax, you’re not only paying extra money, you are also losing out on the money that you would get from the other teams that are paying the tax.
The player that Detroit seems to want to get is Ben Gordon from Chicago. This would help Detroit in two ways. Not only are you getting one of the best end of the game players, you are also hurting a division rival in Chicago by taking its most clutch player away from their team.
Detroit could conceivably sign both Boozer and Gordon, and I wouldn’t put it past GM Joe Dumars to make a move like that. Especially after the debacle that was last season, when they traded Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson and got swept in the first round by King James and Cleveland.
I’ve been hearing that Hedo Turkoglu is either going to Portland or Sacramento. I can guarantee he won’t be back with the Magic next season. After the draft day trade that sent Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston and Tony Battie to New Jersey for Vince Carter and some white guy that will never play, it made it clear Orlando will not be re-signing the Turkish Assassin who almost broke my TV with his face in the playoffs.
Check out the man hands on horse face, and Hedo is always good for a laugh.
I mean seriously, Turkoglu’s face ranks right up there on the break the tv meter with the lady with the horse’s face on sex in the city, relief pitcher Julian Tavarez, who obviously shaved his face with a fork, and Chris “I look like an alien” Kaman.
The back-bone of the All ugly team.
Keep an eye out for Mike Bibby, because Atlanta traded for Jamal Crawford last week, Bibby may be on the move to a new team.
Big Baby Davis is a restricted free agent; another team may make an offer to him, just to mess up Boston’s cap situation and force them to make a decision.
Raymond Felton is another restricted free agent. If I was a team with cap room, and needed a point guard I’d definitely be offering Felton a deal. He’s a good player, who seems to be coming into his own.
Jason Kidd is an unrestricted free agent, and he is free to sign anywhere. Look for offers from Dallas, The Laker’s, and maybe even New York to come his way.
Allen Iverson is unrestricted. After such a tough year last year, expect a small market for the Answer. Charlotte may be a landing spot, especially with his old coach Larry Brown there.
Rasheed Wallace is unrestricted and could re-sign with Detroit, or leave for another contending team. I’d like him on the Jazz if a combo of Boozer, Millsap or Okur leave. He'd be a nice pair with big Dwight down in Orlando as well.
Ron Artest is unrestricted, but I expect the Rockets to re-sign him to a nice deal. With all the injuries to the main stars in Houston, the Rockets can’t let Ron-Ron get away.
Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom are both unrestricted, but expect L.A. to re-sign both players, or Kobe will have to choke someone if they don’t. And we don’t want Kobe choking people again, not with puppet Kobe tearing it up.
Charlie Villanueava will not sign with the Bucks, and is specualted that he will join up with Lebron and Shaq in Cleveland. If he does, look for the Cavs to not re-sign Anderson Varejao.
Other players to watch are the Knick’s David Lee and Nate Robinson and the Magic’s Marcin Gortat, who are restricted.
Grant Hill, Andre Miller, Channing Frye, and Shawn Marion are all unrestricted and can still contribute in this league.
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