Friday, July 25, 2008

West going East? HAR!

Can't blame Josh Childress for moving to Greece... I mean, like that wouldn't be sweet. But now Delonte West might play in freaking Russia? From Yahoo!:

This time, the overseas revolution of outbidding NBA teams for restricted free agents advances with Dynamo Moscow discussing a two-year, $10 million offer with Delonte West, a source close to West said on Thursday.

Clearly, Dynamo is a franchise with the resources to be taken seriously. Just a week ago, it lured New Jersey Nets forward Bostjan Nachbar with a three-year, $14.3 million contract.

Nachbar’s contract turned into a prelude to Atlanta Hawks free agent Josh Childress signing a groundbreaking three-year, $20 million deal with Olympiakos of Greece. So far this summer, four international players with NBA résumés – Jorge Garbajosa, Juan Carlos Navarro, Carlos Delfino and Pops Mensah-Bonsu – have taken substantial offers in Europe.

As with most restricted free agents, West has few options right now. He could sign a $2.76 million qualifying offer for the 2008-09 season and become an unrestricted free agent next year. General manager Danny Ferry has considered sign-and-trade possibilities for West but ultimately has wanted to keep West.

Obviously, I'd prefer to have the Delonte stay with the Cavaliers. But at the same time, I really don't want the Cavs to overpay for West. I'm OK with him leaving, but I'd like it to be within a sign-and-trade type scenario. Losing him for nothing would be a blow.

This means that Ferry has to up the ante a little bit. West wants to get paid more than Gibson, since, you know, he actually starts. If the Cavs offer a 3-year, $15 million type deal I'd be fine with that, but I wouldn't want to go over $7 million per season. He simply hasn't proven enough at the NBA level. I like West, but at at the right price.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Agreed, West should be brought back but only for the right price.

It seems this whole Russia offer is an act of desperation. He should be able to get at least something in the area of 10 mil for 2 years. I just don't see him heading to Moscow unless he can't get anything near that, and that seems unlikely.

Ferry should offer him something like 3 years for 12 million, or similar for 2 years. If he wants to go to Russia after that, let him walk.