Report: Rashard Officially Opts Out - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Windmill360 · 05-25-2007, 10:28 PM

Sonics' Lewis reportedly opts for free agency

Quote:

In late February, Rashard Lewis rejected a two-year, $25 million contract extension from the Seattle SuperSonics. Months later, Lewis has totally rejected the Sonics.

According to KRIV in Houston, Lewis has officially opted out of the final two years of his contract on Friday so he can become an unrestricted free agent.

Tony Dutt, Lewis' agent, has made Seattle aware of his client's decision.

"He has decided to opt out and he'll be an unrestricted free agent July 1st," Dutt said, according to KRIV. "We had to do it in writing which we have done already."

Lewis, who has spent his entire nine-year NBA career with the Sonics, opted out of the seven-year, $60M deal he signed before the 2003-2004 season. That means Lewis is walking away from $21M in guaranteed money over the next two years.

"I think it was pretty simple at this point. He's an elite player. He'll be the top free agent in the NBA this summer. I think it will be extremely crazy July 1st. I really feel like he fits everywhere. I would imagine that everybody is going to be coming after him," Dutt said.

The 6-foot-10 forward is coming off a career-best year. Lewis averaged 22.4 points and 6.6 rebounds a game last season.

"He's excited. At the same time he wants to win. He puts in the time himself and he wants his teammates to do the same. He's just looking for an opportunity, whether he stays in Seattle or if he was to move, to be in a situation where he has an opportunity to win every night," Dutt said.

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ar...ally_opts_out/

V2M · 05-25-2007, 10:54 PM

Interesting... he's giving up $21M over 2yrs?! He might get a longer deal... but I'm not sure who'd be willing to pay him over $10.5M/yr in this tough LT environment. I believe there's only 3 or 4 teams that even have room under the salary cap!!

alby · 05-25-2007, 11:44 PM

It's going to be a good summer

DelNegro · 05-26-2007, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V2M

Interesting... he's giving up $21M over 2yrs?! He might get a longer deal... but I'm not sure who'd be willing to pay him over $10.5M/yr in this tough LT environment. I believe there's only 3 or 4 teams that even have room under the salary cap!!

With Durant coming to town he's probably going to get shipped off somewhere via sign and trade. He wants cash and a long term deal, Seattle doesn't want him to walk for nothing, and somewhere there's a team over the salary cap okay with shelling out big bucks for a 28 year old all-star caliber forward. Seattle, like another team near and dear to your hearts, is in need of a legit post player and Lewis is going to be a pretty good bargaining chip to use to get one.

Flacolaco · 05-26-2007, 12:18 AM

I'm fairly sure this will have nothing to do with us in the long run

Dtownsfinest · 05-26-2007, 01:06 AM

Seems like he was born to be a Knick.

purplefrog · 05-26-2007, 07:34 AM

I think the Mavs brain trust needs to think long and hard about Rashard Lewis. There aren't many players of his caliber available. It's just unfortunate he plays the 3 or 4 because that is clearly where the strength of the Mavs team already lies. Maybe JHO could play significantly more minutes at the 2? I 'm not sure JHO's ballhandling skills are up to that on a full-time basis.

StackAttack · 05-26-2007, 09:23 AM

So Avery and Rashard have the same agent. Not sure if that works in our favor if we do go out and try to chase him or not, but it's something to think about.

DubOverdose · 05-26-2007, 11:53 AM

I heard this trade the other day and liked it a lot. Rashard Lewis for Zach Randolph. Portland needs a 3 and a guy that can backup at the 4. Seattle needs a post player since they'll have Durant, Allen, and Ridnour. They also have a surplus of usable centers, so hopefully they wont pick another unless Oden is available.

Ninkobei · 05-26-2007, 12:12 PM

get him to dallas, cubes..spend some of that hard earned cash.

LonghornDub · 05-26-2007, 12:50 PM

Rashard's a good player but I'm not exactly sure why we want him. All the talk on these boards for weeks has been about getting either A) a low post scorer or B) a true point guard. Rashard is neither, and he plays a position where we're already quite stacked.

AxdemxO · 05-26-2007, 12:59 PM

He is actually a good post player. He is like 6 10 can post and shoot...so if we can get him then why not.

ddh33 · 05-26-2007, 01:14 PM

I would have interest in him coming to Dallas.

nashtymavsfan13 · 05-26-2007, 03:59 PM

We definetly should break the bank to get him here.

rakesh.s · 05-27-2007, 01:59 AM

overrated, always hurt..just like jermaine o'neal..no thanks.

nashtymavsfan13 · 05-27-2007, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rakesh.s

overrated, always hurt..just like jermaine o'neal..no thanks.

Umm, Rashard is not always hurt, in his last 7 seasons (excluding this one) he has played in an average of 77 games a year. This year he missed 22 games with a freak injury to a tendon in his hand (or something like that). He hasn't had injury trouble throughout his career, so why would one freak injury change that? It didn't look like it effected him once he returned, so I think it's behind him. With JO though you have more of a point, but Avery would focus on managing JO's and Dirk's minutes well, if he came to Dallas.

As for Rashard being overrated, I don't see it. He doesn't get much recognition, has been a 20+ PPG scorer, and hasn't averaged below 18 in his last 5 seasons. He's a solid shooter, can slash when needed, and plays pretty good defense as well. At 6-10 he is able to post up most small forwards and uses his size as an advantage. He rebounds well, and our rebounding would be VERY good if we put him at the 3 and Josh at the 2.

He doesn't correct our main issues, but he's no injury prone nor overrated and he would be a big talent upgrade and would help the team a lot if he came to Dallas. I'm all for it.

StackAttack · 05-27-2007, 09:28 AM

I don't know about you guys, but thinking about it, I'd sort of be hurt to break apart the Big Three, which is sort of what it'll take to get Rashard here. He doesn't take care of our main issues, as nashty pointed out, so why get rid of JET or Josh to make this happen? If we're in need of bench scoring (which we desperately are), Rashard's not going to take care of that anymore than JET could take care of it if we moved him to the bench.

dude1394 · 05-27-2007, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by purplefrog

I think the Mavs brain trust needs to think long and hard about Rashard Lewis. There aren't many players of his caliber available. It's just unfortunate he plays the 3 or 4 because that is clearly where the strength of the Mavs team already lies. Maybe JHO could play significantly more minutes at the 2? I 'm not sure JHO's ballhandling skills are up to that on a full-time basis.

I think josh ultimately needs to wind up as a 2 imo. He'd be a great mis-match if Avery could figure out how to isolate him against 2-guards.

nashtymavsfan13 · 05-27-2007, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StackAttack

I don't know about you guys, but thinking about it, I'd sort of be hurt to break apart the Big Three, which is sort of what it'll take to get Rashard here. He doesn't take care of our main issues, as nashty pointed out, so why get rid of JET or Josh to make this happen? If we're in need of bench scoring (which we desperately are), Rashard's not going to take care of that anymore than JET could take care of it if we moved him to the bench.

Yeah, I don't know how much it would take to get him here, but I'd be interested in him. I don't really want to break up the core either, but I'd like to see what we could get Lewis for and then go from there.

spreedom · 05-27-2007, 02:58 PM

I don't think we have any pieces that we could afford to give Seattle that they would actually want besides maybe Devin. Terry's overpaid (and his salary wouldn't be close to Rashard's), Damp's overpaid, and we probably wouldn't give up Josh straight up (especially since Josh is arguably as good, if not better).

All of this is notwithstanding the fact that Rashard doesn't really put us over the top either, because he doesn't give us anything that we don't already have.

mkat · 05-28-2007, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spreedom

All of this is notwithstanding the fact that Rashard doesn't really put us over the top either, because he doesn't give us anything that we don't already have.

a little extra offense never hurt anyone...