SEATTLE – The Seattle SuperSonics spent Wednesday bidding a formal good-bye to their oldest player and giving a formal welcome to the youngest player in franchise history.
In between, they spent a few minutes speaking with free agents and rival ballclubs in an effort to bolster their squad for the 2004-05 NBA season.
As expected, guard Brent Barry is opting for a four-year free-agent deal with the San Antonio Spurs. The 32-year-old Barry, who is leaving after five Seattle seasons, will sign – he had yet to ink his deal as of Wednesday night – for what the Spurs will have under the NBA salary cap after signing free-agent guard Bruce Bowen.
Because the cap rose just $30,000 to $43.87 million for next season – a smaller increase than many folks around the league had anticipated – Barry’s new contract will likely be less than he expected. He figures to earn roughly $19.5 million over four seasons and not some $23 million as initially reported by the media.
It is also less than what Barry was in position to earn had he stayed in Seattle. The Sonics are believed to have offered Barry three guaranteed seasons worth about $17 million, plus a partial guarantee of a fourth season that would have pushed the guaranteed total up to $18.5.
Had Barry earned the balance of that fourth season, the total value of the deal offered by Seattle would have been approximately $23 million.
Still, Barry (who was not available for comment Wednesday night) was evidently willing to accept less money for the chance to join Tim Duncan and the other Spurs in a legitimate bid for the 2004-05 NBA title.
Though the departure of Barry is disappointing, “the biggest strength of our ballclub last season was the backcourt,” said Sonics general manager Rick Sund. “When we were healthy last year, we had a (logjam) for playing time with our young players.”
With Barry leaving, Sund went on, “we have a couple of players that are looking at this as an opportunity.” He was referring to guards Flip Murray, Antonio Daniels and Luke Ridnour, who will form the primary supporting cast for All-Star guard Ray Allen.
And there could be additional help. The Sonics have spoken with various free agents, the foremost being Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher, who visited Seattle earlier this week. Talks are continuing as Fisher, who has spent the first eight seasons of his NBA career with the Lakers, weighs his options for next season.
“Anytime you bring somebody in (for a visit), it’s definitely serious,” Sund said. “Derek brings some of the intangibles that we really like that we think we might lose with Brent leaving. Mostly, that’s experience.
“But there are a number of teams interested in him. Obviously we’re talking about adding Derek to our club, but we’re also one of several teams talking to him.”
With so many suitors, Sund added, Fisher “is the one holding all the cards.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the Sonics signed 2004 first-round draft pick Robert Swift, the 7-foot center from Bakersfield, Calif., to a three-year contract worth approximately $5.3 million.
Though Swift, who was drafted out of Bakersfield High School, will not turn 19 until Dec. 3, “he’s a very talented kid with great hands and real good balance with his feet and footwork,” Sund said. “Now it’s just a question of the process of his growing and maturing.
Swift and other members of Seattle’s summer league team are expected to leave today for Salt Lake City and the start of the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league. The Sonics – with a team that includes 2003 first-round draft picks Nick Collison and Ridnour – open their schedule with a Friday afternoon game against Chicago.
By signing Swift, Seattle has 12 players under contract for next season – guards Allen, Murray, Daniels and Ridnour; centers Jerome James, Calvin Booth, Vitaly Potapenko and Swift; and forwards Rashard Lewis, Vlade Radmanovic, Reggie Evans and Collison.
Free-agent forward Ansu Sesay, who spent the last two seasons and part of a third with Seattle, is playing with the Charlotte Bobcats’ summer league team. Sesay could still return to the Sonics, but any contract talks – assuming Seattle is still interested – probably will not occur until later in the summer.
Meanwhile, other teams are inquiring with the Sonics, with young forwards Lewis and Radmanovic prompting many of the calls. Those discussions will likely continue throughout the summer.
Though Sund is not adverse to a trade, “we’re not going to do anything stupid. We’ve made a lot of changes the last three or four years and now we have a lot of young kids that we can go with.
“But we’re always looking to get better, and if there’s something that comes along and if we can do something we will.”
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