The Portland Trail Blazers have a ton of rebuilding to do, and they cannot let themselves be forced into re-signing Nicolas Batum and eat up their cap space.
The Blazers hold the Bird rights to the three-year pro Batum. This means he is a restricted free agent, and the Blazers can match any offer he receives in the open market. However, if Batum accepts an offer, they have to match within three days of the offer, or they'll lose him.
Chris Haynes, of CSNNW.com, had previously reported that he heard from a few league sources that Batum would get between $10-11 million on the open market.
In a different article, Haynes reported that the Blazers were hoping to have $15-20 million in cap space to sign free agents.
Now, if the Blazers spend that cap money before re-signing Batum, they could go over the cap to re-sign him. If they sign him before using that cap space, his salary will take away an equal amount of space.
So, the ideal situation for the Blazers would be to use their cap space and then lockup Batum, but he is reportedly not interested in helping the Blazers find their ideal situation.
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Richard Langford
NBA Rumors: Trail Blazers Must Put Nicolas Batum on Back Burner
May 15th, 2012 by Richard Langford Leave a reply »
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