Matt Barnes Going to Toronto No Longer Certain
Although veteran swingman Matt Barnes announced on Monday that he would be playing for the Toronto Raptors next season, the move seems to have hit quite a standstill.
Barnes’s current team, the Orlando Magic, has extremely limited sign-and–trade options available, and their inability to sign-and-trade Barnes could destroy the entire deal.
Barnes was apparently under the impression that he would be receiving a two-year contract that was to be worth around $10 million. Unfortunately, Barnes announced the deal a bit too early via Twitter, and although he’d like to play for the Raptors next season he is currently in free agent limbo.
The Raptors and Magic are to resume talks on Tuesday to figure out the sign-and-trade possibilities involving Barnes, but unless someone can come up with some brilliant inventive move, it seems the sign-and-trade angle is snookered. If no conclusion can be reached, Barnes will have to discuss new terms with the Raptors about his signing or entertain offers from some of the many other teams that have been chasing his services.
The problem stems from Toronto’s inability to sign Barnes outright. The Raptors recently spent the bulk of their $5.8 million mid-level exception in signing Linas Kleiza. Now the Raptors simply don’t have the funds required to sign Barnes to a deal that would start at around $4 million.
While the Raptors could acquire Barnes through a sign-and-trade with the Magic, the Magic are in a bit of a bind as well. The salary-cap rules prevent the Magic from offering a sign-and-trade deal with Barnes for anything higher than $2 million, as they do not have his full Bird rights after employing Barnes for just a single year. Additionally, Barnes wanted a two-year deal and a sign-and-trade must span at least three, though only the first year must be guaranteed.
Barnes was initially speculated to be heading to a championship contender like the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, or Miami Heat, but then Toronto made an aggressive late-entry into the bidding.
If Barnes is not able to earn the money he was promised in Toronto, it is foolish for him to take a cut to play for the Raptors. The Raptors decision itself was clearly a matter of money as the Raptors are clearly in shape for contention right now. If he is taking a pay cut, he may at least do it for the possibility of a championship and the general thrill of winning.
Barnes was initially recruited to Orlando with similar title aspirations. The 30-year-old was recruited by Dwight Howard and ended up playing 58 games for the Magic. During that span, Barnes averaged 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds. Though he signed a two-year deal, he decided to exercise his free agent option to improve on his 2009-10 salary of $1.6 million.
The Magic opted to not contend for Barnes’ services and instead focused its budget on matching Chicago's offer sheet to finesse shooter J.J. Redick and signing Quentin Richardson.
If Barnes does go to the Raptors, they will be the eighth team he has played for since entering the NBA in 2003 as a player for the Los Angeles Clippers. His longest stint has been two seasons with the Golden State Warriors in from 2006-08.
If Toronto is unable to sign Barnes, it will be the second high-profile trade attempt that has fallen through for the Raptors this summer. Toronto had initially hatched a deal with the Charlotte Bobcats and Phoenix Suns which would have brought Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw. Unfortunately, the Bobcats pulled out and Chandler ended up going to the Dallas Mavericks.
Raptors' GM, Bryan Colangelo wasn't at fault in the Chandler situation, but it appears he did not perform even cursory due diligence in the case of Barnes because if he had, he would have known that neither the Raptors nor Orlando was capable of signing Barnes for anything over $2 million, and he would not have offered him a deal at $5 million per year. No other team in the league can sign-and-trade Barnes either, so in a nutshell, the Raptors could never sign Barnes to that contract.
In the words of the Washington Wizards broadcaster, Steve Buckhantz, "No, not possible!"
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