Wednesday Bolts – 7.1.09
Chris Sheridan looks at cap killers: “Nick Collison ($6.25 million against Oklahoma City’s cap) Collison also is on the 
books for $6.75 million in 2010-11, meaning he’ll earn nearly as much money in the next two seasons as Kevin Durant will have earned over the first three seasons of the rookie contract he currently is playing under. The good news for the Thunder: Earl Watson’s $6.6 million salary comes off the books next summer, and Collision will come off the cap a year later when Clay Bennett and his partners have to start digging deep to pay veteran money to Durant, Jeff Green and then Russell Westbrook and James Harden. (Another positive note for OKC fans: The Thunder own Phoenix’s unprotected 2010 draft pick, which means they could have two lottery picks next June.)”
Darnell Mayberry watched some tape on James Harden and wrote down some notes: “He has a maturity to his game that’s rarely seen in 19-year-old ballplayers. His court vision is excellent, his decision-making is terrific and his all-around impact is invaluable. It could be that I caught Harden on a great night, a 74-67 home win over the Bruins in which he nearly recorded a triple-double with a team-high 15 points and a career-high 11 assists to go with seven rebounds. But considering the point total was five below Harden’s Pac-10-leading scoring average and he finished with eight turnovers, I’d say his performance was closer to average than great.”
Tim Kawakami ranks the Western Conference: “The Thunder, with smart GM Sam Presti, has about $17M in available cap space, if they want to go chasing one or two free agents, which they probably will. Potential problems: Defense is not their speciality, and may not be for a while, given their roster. But give Presti (a Spur product) a little time.”
The Clippers extend Steve Novak a qualifying offer: “The Clippers extended Steve Novak a qualifying offer Tuesday, which makes him a restricted free agent. The Clippers will have the opportunity to match any contract offer made to Novak by another team. Novak’s number is $1,030,189. Given the reasonable price tag and the fact that there are only a handful of players in the league with true shooting percentages greater than 60%, it’s very likely Novak will get a bite from a team in need of some perimeter shooting.”
Andrew Katz of Dime tells the Thunder to say no to Ben Gordon: “That’d be a mistake. OKC has built one through three through the draft. They have solid role players behind those guys in Thabo Sefalosha, Kyle Weaver, Earl Watson, and Damien Wilkins. There’s no need to create a traffic jam for Harden to get on the court.”
Kevin Durant appears to be enjoying his first camp: ”Durant spent much of the camp Tuesday toting around a microphone and talking over the loudspeaker. At one point, he stopped in a hallway between the high school’s two gyms and was surrounded by kids asking him questions as he passed the microphone back and forth. “I wanted to be very involved,” Durant said of his first-ever camp. When Durant got done on Monday, he squeezed in a different kind of workout session — playing some hoops with No. 3 overall draft pick James Harden and some other Thunder players. Durant came away impressed with Harden’s strength and athletic ability, and said the rookie’s passing skills might even qualify him to play point guard part time in addition to his normal spot at shooting guard. “He’s unbelievable,” Durant said.”
Jenni Carlson had a nice little sit-down with KD at the camp:
I hate regurgitating rumors because most times, they ain’t true. That whole David Lee thing? Yeah, the Knicks are about to offer him a multi-year deal: “A team source claims the Knicks will offer Lee a four-year deal worth $32 million, which is below his asking price of $10 million per season. The Knicks have the right to match any offer given to Lee, as well as Robinson, but the club wants to remain fiscally responsible as it pertains to the summer of 2010.”
HoopsWorld looks at the teams with cap space and what they’ll do: “The Thunder will likely use some of their cap space, but probably not all of it. They are rumored to be interested in restricted free agents Marcin Gortat and Paul Millsap, but they have to consider how such a signing impacts their roster down the road when they have to give extensions to the likes of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook.”
Ian Thompson: “Oklahoma City could have at least $13 million in space, but the Thunder are unlikely to make a major signing for a couple of reasons: This is a relatively weak free-agent market, and they are committed to a disciplined salary structure (similar to Detroit and San Antonio of recent years), which they’re unlikely to upset by overspending — the inherent danger of outbidding rivals for a free agent on the open market. But the Thunder remain capable of making an inspired move to fill a long-term need — remember their midseason trade-in-vain for Tyson Chandler — and maybe Ben Gordon could emerge as a scorer to pair with Kevin Durant.”
aw crap its not working?
It takes a couple of minutes to work.
@Mark!
I think at times in the past, people have thought of jobs such teacher, journalist, police officer in an idealistic vein. When in all reality, those jobs are just jobs to most people who hold them. And in the case of journalism, their field is really competitive. Therefore, its more about selling an opinion than it is about truthtelling or a service to society.
ESPECIALLY with sports. Sports is entertainment by nature, not necessarily a news-worthy event. Truth be told, it belongs more on the side of the Paris Hilton rumors than the Civil War in Bosnia report.
CBSSports is reporting that the Blazers offered a $50 million dollar contract to Turkoglu and Yahoo Sports claims that the Grizzlies are going to make between a $40 and $50 million dollar offer for David Lee.
Still no outside confirmation on the Millsap rumor.
g
Well i got it to work but ty just changed into Tbrid26p
Crazy idea, but do we try to make a run at Greg Oden when he is a free agent? He averaged 9 and 7 in 21 minutes of play. That is impressive for a rookie. Put him in a starting lineup and you have a double double machine. I know he is injury prone but what do you think?
I trust Presti not the bungle the cap up, but man, I don’t know about Millsap. He just seems so average to me. I do think he complements Green well, though. As kind of a baseball-like platoon.
Is it just me or does anyone else feel like Turkoglu is a weird fit in Portland? I feel like they are such a young molding team, and he is just another guy that can jack up a bunch of shots. They have great young SF’s in Batum and Outlaw, and now he is going to steal all of their minutes. Between PF – Aldridge, SF – Turk and SG – Roy, all taking up 30+ minutes a game as they deserve, this team just limited the progression of many of their young guys.
However, I will say that with all those young studs they made their bench better by adding to the starting line and putting them on the bench, but, how much time will they get there?
Utah just signed Eric Maynor today to his rookie $1.3 million dollar salary.
Why is this significant? Because typically GM’s don’t sign rookie contracts until after they are certain that they are not going to make moves in free agency, aka, want to wait to “officially” count that rookie salary against the cap (even though the league technically counts it regardless, but it’s still one of those savvy GM technicalities to ensure maximum cap flexibility).
Is this a not so subtle signal that the Jazz expect Millsap gone now? Or are the Jazz in full, “Forget it, we’ll have to pay the cap either way so let’s just get this out of the way” mode.
@Kyle
I think Turk playing over Outlaw is an upgrade. Outlaw coming off the bench is more like what a championship team would look like. Outlaw starting is a picture of a really good contender.
Besides, the scoring threat that Turk poses could be just the thing the Blazers need to push them to the next level. It could open up all kinds of options that weren’t there before.
But point taken on stunting the development of Batum and Outlaw.
@J.G.
millsap is definitely gone. okur and boozer staying confirmed it. Utah went into the offseason knowing they could keep 2 of the 3 guys and Okur and Boozer made their decision for them.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
I guess my point was I’m not buying the product that the local media is selling because it’s inaccurate and ill-informed. I’m not surprised that better quality isn’t demanded by the general public, just disappointed that the local media isn’t more informed and more interested in the team outside as a talking point to fill time before they punch the clock.
Agree Jax, you could see my change of heart as you read my post. I guess I’m in thunder mode with “let the young talent develope before we ditch them for someone else!!”
Well the Blazers are like 3 years ahead of us in the same exact plan. At that point, your young guys are good if not great (Roy and Aldridge) and its time to seperate starters from very quality bench guys and fill in the gaps with great talent like Turk. I think this could be the final step to them being a serious contender.
Shows our potential when we see Durant plus another one or two (Russ/Green/Harden/Next years’ two picks?) and we can start putting some of those guys as 6th/7th men, making our bench amazing and then getting a great free agent to fill in the gaps and moving us from playoff contender to championship contender!
Welp, here it is…
http://newsok.com/thunder-enter-preliminary-talks-with-utahs-paul-millsap/article/3382161?custom_click=headlines_widget
@Dylan
The comforting thing to know is that we have most of the bargaining power in the Millsap situation. Everyone knows that the Jazz are already over the cap, and we’re the only other team that can feasibly sign him. We’ll make an offer we’re comfortable with (as others have mentioned, I think 5 years/$35 million is reasonable), and we’ll let Millsap decide between 2 options:
1) Return to Utah for less money, with only a promise that they’ll re-sign you after Boozer leaves next summer (and hope you don’t get injured or fall out of grace); or
2) Ensure your long-term security, play with lots of young talent and get more playing time in OKC. For a guy who was a second-round pick a couple years ago, getting any kind of offer above the MLE has gotta be music to his ears.
@J.G.
Great point about the Maynor signing.
@J.G.
Think this is at least like the Spanish firm concerning Rubio. I think Sam is investigating the options he has. I think we could offer but at a price we feel like is still a bargain for us, like the article said, obviously front loaded to give us room for later years with Durant and JG.
I think if we do this we will see a trade at least during the season involving Collison (who I don’t want to see go) but with potentially 14-16 million in hustle PF’s, we could package him with expiring contracts like Watson and crew to potentially nab a high priced center from a team in need of financial help.
@KingGondo
It’d have to be at $6 million to be above the MLE for him (I think it’s at $5.7-9).
My issue is though, that the Jazz wouldn’t see $6 million as all that ridiculous of an offer to match.
If Presti really wanted Millsap, I think it would have to be north of $7.5 to 8 million to guarantee him.
Only problem is that anything above $7 makes signing Gortat at $6 much, much more difficult of a scenario (see: Doubtful).
But the writing’s on the wall, for sure.
@KingGondo
Good notes King. Something I think about that 2nd thing, is he is from Louisiana Tech, a place not too far from here. He knows what its like to play for a small market being from there and Utah, so that won’t hurt us, and being a young guy you know he would love to relate and play and befriend KD, Russ, Uncle Jeff, and Harden and be a part of this potential.
This is where Sam beats other GM’s though. He likes what we have in place, and will make an offer and what he sees fit, and if the other team matches it, well it hurts their financial area. Sam isn’t going to make a play to secure a guy, he is going to make the best play for us, and if we get him at that price well we win bigtime, and if the other team matches well we didn’t want to pay more than that and we are comfortable with what we have already.
Look at CJ Miles last year. Utah already had like 3 SG’s on the roster, we offered what we thought he was worth, didn’t want to overpay, and when Utah paid it well we said have fun paying your 4th string SG that much money, we will go get Thabo this year.
It isn’t about securing a guy at that price, its making an offer at that price, if it sticks we are happy, if the other team matches they filled up their cap, we will make necessary moves later.
RealGM has a story right now titled “Jazz Will Look To Trade Boozer,” with a link to an article in the Deseret News. If you click the link and read the entire article, there is no concrete information offered, just that those “in the know” say that a potential trade would happen sooner rather than later. And that, boys and girls, is how baseless rumors get started.
Absolute garbage.
@Kyle
Is Presti trying to ruin Utah’s cap situation?
@Kyle
Oh, I’m with you. That’s why I said “if” he wants to secure him, here’s what it will take.
But I’d definitely like this to all be a “Spanish Law Firm” smoke screen to the Thunder offering Gortat a $26 million dollar contract over 4 years.
I think I may start using the phrase “Spanish Law Firm” for all my smoke screen references from here on out: “Oh, Presti’s don’t using a Spanish Law Firm on this deal.”
Oh yeah, that’s a keeper.
i went to lunch kev, i’m trying with the avatar but not sure if its working. anyway, everybody is dead on about sports journalism. is it really that important? no. does it consist mostly of baseless rubbish and false rumors? yes. disappointing, but such is life.
i’m ok with trying to get millsap, but not at the expense of gortat. i think he should be priority number one. after that, i have no problem offering millsap whatever presti thinks he’s worth and no more. collison has some trade value, between him and he group of expiring contracts we could get something there.
oh nice, it worked. just so everybody knows, that’s russ dunking back at ucla against oregon. i was at that game, sickest dunk i’ve ever seen live. pauley went absolutely nuts.
edit – “Oh, Presti’s using a Spanish Law Firm on this deal.”
Take out that “don’t,” otherwise I just sound stupid.
@J.G.
i approve. both of the use of that phrase, and of the Spanish law firm for signing Gortat
@J.G.
Haha, “Spanish Law Firm.” Love it. As in, “Presti’s about to go all Spanish Law Firm on Utah.”
OKC’s version of the Red Herring, perfect.
good job on all the guys that got new avatars – it’s kinda like a house getting more furniture . . .
anyone else? en.gravatar.com is the place to go . .
Jax, you look to be the last of the regulars . . .
get with the program
@Kev
That requires effort and creativity. Knowing that, I’m right on schedule.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
trust me , it takes no time at all . . . we could use another shot of Curry around here . . .
@Kev
haha, as much as i love curry, i figured making it curry (or rubio) after the draft would be living in the past. keeping it is different though, you had it before, that’s ok
I haven’t read the article yet but I don’t think Jazz to look to trade Boozer is necessarily garbage. Boozer made a business decision to stay another year but would still rather be elsewhere later. The Jazz as more likely in my mine to sign Milsap and trade Boozer than to let Milsap walk.
Turkoglu as ballhandler would allow Bayless or Rudy Fernandez to play off the ball against the PG an dthat would fit them better than playing with the ball in my mind. And with Roy-Turkoglu-Batum you could play Batum on the PG. Not sure how much I’d pay but I think it will work out pretty well if it happens at least next year.
I don’t know if I’ll add an avatar or not for several reasons (including they are so small I can’t make much out many of them with my eyes) but if I do I’ll probably use this pic
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/files/images/crow.jpg
ha!
That’d be perfect Crow.