Will Jazz match Blazers' offer sheet on Matthews?
- The Utah Jazz will begin contemplating whether to match the five-year, $33 million offer sheet that the Portland Trail Blazers gave to restricted free agent guard Wesley Matthews on Monday, according to a league source. Utah had not yet officially received the sheet Saturday afternoon; teams have seven official days from the receipt of a sheet to decide whether or not to match it, meaning the Jazz's clock will probably start on Monday.
Utah expected someone to go after Matthews, but was stunned when Matthews, who averaged 9.4 points as a rookie last season, got such a rich offer.
The basic issue for Utah, which has already lost Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver in free agency, is if it wants to use its mid-level exception, in essence, on Matthews, who became one of Coach Jerry Sloan's favorites last season as a hardnosed defender. The undrafted guard took over as the starter at shooting guard after Utah traded Ronnie Brewer to Memphis last February, and the Jazz was hoping to re-sign him at a price well below the $5.8 million mid-level exception price.
But Portland, which seemingly has a logjam at the wing positions with Brandon Roy, Nicolas Batum and Jerryd Bayless splitting minutes at the two and three, came after Matthews, just as the Blazers signed forward Paul Millsap to an offer sheet last July. Utah matched, knowing that it would be unlikely to keep Boozer past last season. Boozer signed a five-year, $80 million deal with the Bulls last week.
The Blazers frontloaded the contract as allowed under league rules, adding a $3.4 million signing bonus that has to be paid as well as the $5.8 million in salary, for a total hit of $9.2 million in the first year. It was not known if that amount had to be paid within a week of the Jazz matching the offer, a common practice that the signing team puts into a contract to make it difficult for the incumbent team to match.
A factor in Utah's favor is that by losing both Boozer and Korver, the Jazz should not be a luxury tax payer next season even if it matches the sheet on Matthews. The team's ownership, the family of the late Larry Miller, has okayed paying tax this coming season within reason just as it did last year.
But Utah had hoped to use the mid-level on a big man this summer, knowing that it would probably have to replace Boozer and with starting center Mehmet Okur unlikely to be ready for the start of next season following an achilles' injury. Matching the sheet on Matthews would remove that option.
Several outlets had reported that Portland was preparing an offer sheet for Matthews; Yahoo! Sports was first to provide details of the contract.
