Daily Cavs rumors update
Posted by disappointmentzone on 26 July 2006
Akron Beacon Journal beat writer Brian Windhorst wrote in his blog yesterday about the stalled negotiations between the Cavs and restricted free agent Drew Gooden. Neither party is returning Windhorst’s calls anymore, so he’s left to speculate about what’s going on and why. Here’s a breakdown:
1) Windhorst thinks the Cavs are offering Gooden a contract worth about $6 million per season over five or six years. The $6 million offer is slightly higher than the mid-level exception, which is $5.3 million. $5.3 million is also the amount of Gooden’s qualifying offer.
2) Gooden does not have much leverage to negotiate with the Cavs since there seem to be no other teams interested in signing him to the huge contract he’s seeking; a contract on par with the $60 million Denver gave Nene or the $57 million Inianapolis gave Al Harrington. Gooden’s only hope for the large contract was via a sign-and-trade. Unless a team ponies up a lot of money, which, again, looks unlikely, Gooden won’t be offered more than the mid-level exception, which the Cavs would match.
3) If Gooden were to take the one-year qualifying offer from the Cavs and become an unrestricted free agent next season, he may very well only be offered a contract worth the mid-level exception, which is less money than the Cavs are probably offering right now. An important factor in Gooden’s ability to increase his leverage for next season, should be become an unrestricted free agent, is how he performs on the court. Last season Gooden was asked to take a back seat to LBJ, Hughes, and Z with respect to scoring. Consequently, his numbers dropped. The same can be expected this season–similar numbers if not slighty decreased. Few GMs are going to offer premium money to a roll player, even if Gooden is capable of being more than that (he probably thinks he is; he may be right).
So that’s where things stand with Gooden. If you are not fluent in NBA contract language, here is a good page to use.
In other news, the Cavs have shown interest in signing free agent Devean George, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Mavericks, however, are also interested in George and have offered him a one-year, $2 million contract, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram. George has not agreed to the offer, says his agent, because he’s still exploring options with a number of teams, including Cleveland.
