The Borat/aint War just took a new turn. Before it starts, I will say this: KOC should NOT have been negotiating with Wes prior to the FA period. There was no reason to bid against ourselves. The goal, as with every player, is to get them to sign for the least amount of money. You can't know what the least amount of money is if you don't subject yourself to the risk of the market. When the market came back with a number that was much higher than KOC valued Wes at, there wasn't anything to do.
Can a RFA accept an offer from his current team before another team makes an offer?
Well, who do you believe then? Matthews said there was no offer. KOC never even tried to negotiate. He played hardball in an effort to get Matthews for the lowest possible price and he gets burned by Portland ... not once but twice (first with Millsap). Stubborn old coot, I'd say. Yeah, it sucks. I think it's bad all the way around. For Matthews and the Jazz. You need to think long term if you're a GM, in my opinion, if you want to build a championship team. Jazz have not been smart in the past -- the contracts of Tag and AK, for example -- and continue being dumb. Yeah, they made a good move with Deron, and so it SEEMED with Okur and Boozer, but then never thought what it would be like to play two big guys who can't play defense. That has been our achilles heal, and I blame on the FO's poor foresight.
This is Matthews side of the story. KOC talks to Matthews agent about contracts and who knows what kind of info Matthews agent has been feeding him during this whole process.
Keep telling that to yourself if it makes you feel better, but this has happened two years in a row. Besides, when the Jazz have not wanted the market to decide the value of a player, they have extended the player. Have you forgotten AK and Okur? Sorry but the Jazz screwed this up. KOC thought they had the upper hand, thinking no one would offer that much. Remember KOC actually admitting it. The Jazz front office dropped the ball because they could have called Wes on July 1 and made a fair offer. Did you forget KOC saying, Wes was are top priority? Personally, saying that a player is your top priority isn't a good way to start negotiatiing. It gives the upper hand to Wes and other clubs. Nevertheless, if he was our top priority then why not make him a reasonable offer? Saying he would shop the offer isn't an excuse because he is entitled to shop his services regardless. Giving an offer shows that he is your top priority. Unfortunately, we will never know if Wes would have taken a lower offer because there was NO offer. Instead KOC quickly covered his tracks with the signing of Raja, because he knows he screwed this up. Ok maybe he doesn't but it sure looks like he did.
Still, KOC should made a reasonable offer to show good faith. And not be a hard ***, like he is. Might be good business, but not good human relations. I thought that's what the Jazz represented. Good character.
Well, if a guy starts at something double what you'd expect to pay, an impasse would happen immediately. I don't think any counter offers would be going anywhere, since I doubt KOC would do anything above 4/16 without seeing what the market would say. And there's no way Matthews would accept 4/16 if he believed he could get the MLE.
Someone said he was probably a product of the system & I now kinda agree, see Howard Eisley & Shandon Anderson....
If Portland hadn't front-loaded the contract, I'm sure he would've been retained but Portland had to use this tactic to give themself the upper hand.
I wish Wesley Matthews the best as he had grown into one of my favs but I'm very pleased w/ the Bell signing as signing Brewer would've been predictable but pointless.