The "Threat" of Europe

With free agent season coming to an end, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News yesterday wrote an excellent piece called "Europe emerging as NBA free-agent option".

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=275696
Europe emerging as NBA free-agent option
September 21, 2007
by Sean Deveney

First guard Charlie Bell threatens to sign with a Greek team in order to escape the Bucks, who own his rights as a restricted free agent. Then Andrei Kirilenko is quoted in a foreign newspaper as saying he would consider giving up the remaining $63 million on his contract with the Jazz to remain in Europe and leave the NBA.

And now, the agent for small forward Sasha Pavlovic says his client also would consider heading to Europe if a deal can't be reached with his current team, the Cavaliers. "We certainly are exploring that option," agent Marc Cornstein says. "We have to, absolutely. I am not saying we're in negotiations with European teams right now by any means. But it's an option. I wouldn't be doing my job if it wasn't."

Bell signed an offer sheet this week with Miami, which was matched by Milwaukee. But just nine days before the opening of training camp, three prominent restricted free agents -- Pavlovic, Anderson Varejao and Mickael Pietrus -- remain unsigned. Their difficult situations have raised the issue of NBA players -- especially restricted free agents -- leaving the league for European teams.

Pavlovic and the Cavaliers remain, according to Cornstein, "very far apart," on a new contract. The Cavaliers are also struggling through negotiations with Varejao, a power forward. The two sets of negotiations remain at a stalemate. Because of the restricted tag, the Cavaliers own the NBA rights for both players. If no long-term deal is worked out, the players would be forced to sign one-year qualifying offers. After fulfilling the year, they would be unrestricted free agents next summer, free to re-sign with the Cavaliers, or any of the league's other 29 teams.

Varejao's agent, Dan Fegan, has already indicated that if his client is forced to accept the qualifying offer, he is unlikely to return to Cleveland. As for Pavlovic, Cornstein says, "That would be something Sasha would have to say directly. But I think it is a safe bet he would not want to come back."

Similarly, Pietrus is looking like he won't be around for the long haul with the Warriors -- but there will be no threats of a European escape for Pietrus. His agent, Bill McCandless, says that Pietrus did, in fact, get a one-year offer from a Euroleague team worth more than 2 million Euros, or nearly $3 million. "But the problem is, the restricted tag does not come off when he comes back to the NBA," McCandless says. "We seriously thought about it. He probably would have gone, but in a year, he would come back to the NBA and still be a restricted free agent for the Warriors. We would have been right back where we started."

Instead, McCandless says, Pietrus would choose to simply hold out. Both sides, it seems, have exhausted sign-and-trade possibilities, especially after the Warriors nixed a two-for-one deal (plus a draft pick) the Heat put on the table last week. "There are basically two categories," McCandless says. "Some teams have come to us and worked something out, then presented it to the Warriors. There were two cases like that, where we had an agreement on money, but the Warriors turned it down. Then there are teams that contact the Warriors directly and negotiate that way. But the Warriors don't tell us what is going on with those talks."

Pietrus' best remaining option is to find a multiyear offer sheet, knowing he can give teams some assurance that the Warriors won't match any contract that goes beyond this year. If you're the Warriors, the downside of bringing Pietrus back is the negativity the situation has created. "We had a meeting with the team a couple of weeks ago, and Mickael came out thinking they love him and they're going to make him an offer," McCandless says. "But now, he's not happy. He feels stuck and he feels coerced."

That's the same feeling that is going around in Cleveland. Varejao and Pavlovic were key players in the bunch that LeBron James carried into the NBA Finals. Pavlovic blossomed after he was awarded the starting small forward spot in the second half of the season, averaging 12.7 points in 28 games as a starter. He tired late in the season, though, and slipped to 9.2 points in the playoffs.

Varejao is the team's top reserve, an excellent defender who averaged 6.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in 23.9 minutes last year.

The problem for the Cavaliers is that, with a payroll of nearly $65 million, paying sizable contracts to Varejao and Pavlovic will send them way over the luxury tax threshold, set at $65.4 million. That means the Cavs will pay a dollar tax for every dollar they agree to pay the two.

But just as significant a problem, just like in Pietrus' case, is bad blood these negotiations have created. The Cavaliers have made no significant additions this summer. The East has improved. It will be much more difficult for this team to return to the Finals next season. Even the Eastern Conference finals will be tough to reach. If the franchise is seen as moving backward, that will upset fans -- as well as James, who can be a free agent in 2010. If a backward move is coupled with losing Varejao and Pavlovic, you'll probably see a very angry James.

Cornstein says he doesn't even have plans to meet with Cavs GM Danny Ferry. "Right now, there's no reason," Cornstein says. "We're so far apart, it wouldn't make sense. If something changes, though, it's only an hour flight to Cleveland from New York. I am not stubborn."

Coincidentally, if Pavlovic did leave Cleveland for Europe, it's something Ferry should know quite a bit about. He once ducked out on the NBA for Europe -- remember, he went to Italy rather than play for the Clippers when he came out of college.

Considering the favorability of the exchange rate -- the U.S. dollar is very low against the Euro at the moment -- and considering all the perks that European teams include in their contracts (a house, a car) it very well could be that a player like Pavlovic would do better in Europe than in the NBA.

"It could happen eventually," McCandless says of restricted free agents signing in Europe. "Maybe not this year. But eventually, someone is going to give up on restricted free agency and play over in Europe."