NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Carlos Boozer Unhappy
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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No decision has been made on Carlos Boozer’s future.
Bulls vice president John Paxson said so in January, and general manager Gar Paxson reiterated that position Wednesday.
“People can say or think what they want, but that decision absolutely hasn’t been made,’’ Forman said in a phone interview from a scouting trip.
“We make decisions when we have to make decisions.’’
Well, Boozer doesn’t seem to be buying it.
According to several sources, Boozer’s recent moodiness, at least with the media, is a result of feeling underappreciated by the organization. He feels like he’s “being pushed out’’ after this season.
Even though the Bulls are avoiding saying it publicly, the writing is on the wall for Boozer. There’s a strong chance that he’s amnestied this summer as the Bulls look to take the team in a different direction at the power forward position. There’s rumors that they want to make a play for Carmelo Anthony, but there’s also promising overseas prospect Nikola Mirotic who has Bulls’ fan salivating.
Boozer has been a workhorse for the Bulls and is once again having a productive season, averaging 14.2 points and 8.4 rebounds a game. However, he’s slated to make $16.8 million next season and that’s a high price to pay when you already have Taj Gibson and potentially Mirotic as well. It’s also a figure that would keep them from being able to make a play for Anthony, if that’s truly what they hope to do.
All Boozer can do is use this as motivation. It’s nothing personal; the organization cut ties in an even less ceremonious way with Luol Deng this season, trading him away to the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly out of nowhere in a cost-cutting deal. These are the kind of moves that have to be made, but as long as Boozer continues to put up numbers, he’ll find a team that genuinely wants him around this offseason.
Q: Are you expecting Tim Duncan to be back next year?
RC Buford: I haven’t talked to Tim about it, so I wouldn’t know. And I don’t think anybody has probably talked to Tim about it.
Duncan has a player option for $10.3 million next season and at 37 years of age is at the stage of his career where he’s constantly going to be asked about retirement. However, he’s still one of the league’s best big men, putting up 15.2 points, 10 rebounds and 1.9 blocks a game this season.
With the extensions Tiago Splitter and Manu Ginobili signed last offseason and the near certainty that Parker’s partially guaranteed deal will be paid in full, there’s little incentive for the Spurs to try to convince Duncan to opt out and take a lower deal. He’s still worth every bit of $10.3 million. He’s also said that he wants to play until the wheels come off, which they appear far from doing so right now. Expect him back next season with the same current deal.
Q: Do you think we have a chance at re-signing Rudy [Gay]?
Pete D’Alessandro: Rudy has a decision to make on an option for next year, and we traded for Rudy because we want him as part of our team. He’s embraced the city and the city has embraced him. We hope for a long and prosperous relationship.
Via NBA.com
Gay’s player option for next year is worth $19.3 million. Even as well as he’s played for the Kings and as much as they want to keep him around, odds are he’s not going to get that kind of starting salary in the first year of a new deal.
That’s what makes his situation so intriguing. By becoming a free agent he has the ability to get up to a five year deal either this offseason, but is the long-term security worth passing up on the highest-paying year of his deal? It may not be, especially if the Kings are willing to give him an extension before the start of next season anyway, which judging by D’Alessandro’s comments they clearly seem open to.
Gay seems to have found his comfort zone in Sacramento, which could be more important than anything for him at this point. He’s been traded twice now in the last two years because he didn’t live up to expectations or his salary, but the Kings are strapped for talent and ecstatic just to have him a part of their core. If he can help them return to prominence he’ll finally be appreciated for what he can do, not what he can’t like at his previous two stops.
