Kelenna Azubuike Opts Out

by Atma Brother ONE on Jun 12, 2008 10:43 PM PDT in News

According to the SF Chronicle Kelenna Azubuike has opted out of his contract which would have netted him the league minimum of $797,581 for the 2008-2009 NBA season. Kaz is now a restricted free agent.

Jump like Kelenna slamming it on Kaman for a few quick thoughts.

At first glance this doesn't seem like a major deal. It's unlikely that one of the few teams with cap space is going to blow it on overpaying Azubuike or that some other team is going to use a big chunk of their midlevel exception on him. Even if they do, the Warriors won't be forced to match as Azubuike's a fairly replacable bench player. I predict that the Warriors work out a reasonable deal with Kelenna by the end of the summer. Something along the lines of a 2-3 year contract at about $1-2.5 million a season seems reasonable, but that's just a quick guesstimate.

Do you think the Warriors will retain Azubuike? What's a reasonable deal?

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Damn

But anyways, 1-1.5 million is reasonable for his services.

It's Been A Great Year! Thanks Warriors!

by ballin on Jun 12, 2008 10:52 PM PDT reply actions

i'd love to keep him

and think the warriors will make the right call, give him the pay raise he earned and have him continue to be one of our best bench options. somewhere in the 1 mil range or a little over is a perfectly good deal for both sides.

by cap'n hack on Jun 12, 2008 11:27 PM PDT reply actions

No surprise here

He definitely played his way into a raise. The question now will be how much room will we have under the Lux tax after re-signing Monta and Beans along with a couple mill for our draft pick? Once we know that, it will be a question of how many roster spots we have left to fill and how much Buike is asking. I for one would really like to see him back next year. I also expect that he will be asking more than 1 mil per year. My guess is he’s hoping for something more like 2-3 mil per.

"...OlympicMike is clearly the Barack Obama of GSoM"-Sleepy

by olympicmike on Jun 12, 2008 11:30 PM PDT reply actions

Buke

I think he’s going to get more than $2mil/yr for sure. On paper, he looks absolutely solid.

15.5 points per 36 minutes
6 rebounds per 36 minutes
44% FG shooting
38% 3pt shooting

He’s young, strong, and athletic to boot. Other teams don’t know about him losing his man constantly on defense or his tendency to disappear on offense. Unfortunately, somebody’s going to overpay to have him while I think he’s ideal as our backup SG. As exciting as Belinelli is, he’s never going to shoot the percentages or have the consistency and motor that Buke does or pull down the boards that he does. It’s just a shame Nellie always played Kelenna at the 3 and put him at a great disadvantage all the time.

by YaHeard on Jun 13, 2008 1:37 AM PDT reply actions

he’s going to get more than $2mil/yr for sure

We need to temper our offers to montay and dris to save some bucks for Bukakke, I’d give him a good contract then not sign Belinelli if necessary, I think Kelena has more “Warrior” in him.

by Skeptic con Urquell on Jun 13, 2008 10:05 AM PDT up reply actions

i love azubuike

i think that mully should make buike a millionaire instead of that janky league minimum. hopefully no other team jumps on him with 3 or 4 mill per, which i highly doubt, so i think the warriors give him 5 mill 3 years. of course it all depends if we still have enough money after we extend monta and biedrins and of course baron opting out or not.

by GSwarrior on Jun 13, 2008 1:46 AM PDT reply actions