Sean Deveny of The Baseline at TheSportingNews.com (no relation to Bobcats Baseline) is reporting that Raymond Felton will sign the Bobcats’ 1-year Qualifying Offer of $5.5 million. Bonnell had suggested in a Monday blog post that there was about a 60% chance this would happen.
What this means is that Felton and the Cats were unable to come to an agreement on a long-term deal. Deveny speculates that the Bobcats’ offer was in the neighborhood of 5 years/$37.5 million, but that seems a bit high. Wouldn’t Felton have jumped all over 5 years/$37.5 million?
I’m guessing the Bobcats’ offer was less than that, which is a good thing. They were bidding against themselves for a point guard who would start for less than a third of the teams in the league. With several other bloated contracts weighing down the payroll, the salary cap shrinking and the team for sale, they had to be pretty stingy and apparently were.
This really works out well for everybody. We get Felton on a reasonable, one year deal. He’ll be playing his butt off for a long-term contract. And he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in summer 2010, which teams have been saving for for years. Maybe the economy will have turned around by then?
That the Bobcats didn’t panic and overpay Felton probably says something about what Larry Brown and company think about Augustin as well: just one more year before he gets the keys.
Of course, the worst thing that could happen here is that Felton could finally flourish, start shooting straight and finishing layups, lead us to the playoffs… then be gone next summer. But as a former Felton apologist who waited several years for him to “make the leap,” I reasonably sure that won’t be happening. Felton is who he is: a $5 million point guard.
-E
apparently, bobcats fans will always be in the midsts of a schism.
your either pro-felton, or anti-felton
brook lopez/dj
pro-new road jersey/anti-new road jersey
the only thing we agree on is the fact that both MJ and Bob suck.
I also want to add the following:
I've been critical of Raymond and his agent's demands during this contract negotiation. My belief is that Raymond hasn't shown the type of talent or consistency to warrant a huge deal.
THAT SAID, I want to commend Raymond (the person) for handling all of this with class. He didn't bad mouth the organization in the media and he didn't demand a trade and he didn't allow the contract situation get in the way of his commitment to the team (playing and working out with them all summer).
As it turns out, Ray is going to earn a pretty amazing salary this season and put himself in the position to make even more next summer.
Thanks to Raymond for illustrating a brand of professionalism that is all too rarely witnessed in modern sports. Now go out and earn a bunch of money.
I'm still a Felton apologist. I also think it's quite possible May will put up decent numbers in Sac-town making the Bobcats look foolish again.
You are exactly right. Works great for all sides.
FROM THE NBA SALARY CAP FAQ:
Generally, a player cannot be traded until three months after signing a contract or December 15th of that season, whichever is later. This does not apply to draft picks, who can be traded 30 days after signing their contract. In addition, if the player is playing under a one-year contract and will have Larry Bird or Early Bird rights at the end of the contract, he can't be traded without his consent. If consent is granted and the player is traded, then he loses his Larry Bird or Early Bird rights, and enters free agency as a Non-Bird free agent. For example, Seattle signed Vladimir Radmanovic to a one-year qualifying offer on September 21, 2005. Therefore, Radmanovic could not be traded at all until December 21, 2005. After December 21, 2005, he could only be traded if he consented to the trade (he did consent and was traded to the Clippers). He became a Non-Bird free agent with the Clippers in the summer of 2006 (and signed instead with the Lakers).
END FAQ
Ok, so basically this says Felton is playing with the Bobcats for at least 3 months from signing and will not be traded without his consent. He would also lose his "Larry Bird Rights" (which may or may not be defined as the Rights to grow a cheesy mustache, wear uncomfortably short-shorts and devolve into somebody's "maw-maw" in the next 20 years).
A trade could definitely still happen in this case. The Bird rights (the real ones) don't really effect Raymond because he's not going to get any type of raise that would utilize them. It's going to be interesting.
he clearly wasn't offered a 5 year 37.5 million dollar deal. That is simply comical. But this deal works out for everyone involved.
Hey E or ASChin, why hasn't Charlotte Observer said anything about this?
jeremy — I was wondering the same thing, starting to think Bonnell was on another furlough. But he did post something at 11:00 this AM. Maybe was just waiting for confirmation and some fresh quotes from the principals.
Amen to Adam's comment about Ray's class/professionalism.
To further E's points about the Bobcats ugly salary situation, signing Raymond to a 1-year deal is perhaps the smartest move the team could make considering their cap obligations this season and next.
The good news is that the team only has $26 million on the books for 2010-11 so when the next Russian Mogul decides to buy an NBA team, the Bobcats should look very attractive by then.