Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Danilo Gallinari can all stretch out and smile. They have extensions, and won’t be going into next summer having to deal with offer sheets and money and teams vying for their services and their own teams pulling them back in. After back-n-forth rumors that nearly escalated to JoePa levels these last few days about Love, it’s official. He has agreed to a four-year, $62 million extension to stay in Minnesota. It wasn’t the max extension Rose and Westbrook both received. Reports are saying the Wolves wanted to save the “designated player” status for Ricky Rubio (in the new CBA, teams are allowed one designated player contract, which can run for five seasons). But Love will be in Minnesota, for at least until 2015, when he can opt out for an even bigger deal.
Seeing Rose, Westbrook and Love re-up with their current clubs wasn’t surprising, and neither was Danilo Gallinari agreeing to a four-year, $42 million extension with the Nuggets. Denver made it known Gallo was a part of their future. They desperately wanted to keep him around, but had already given Nene $70 million and Arron Afflalo $40 million. With Ty Lawson due for a payday soon, they’re going all in. Interestingly, as Tom Ziller of SBNation.com pointed out, Gallo – averaging 17.4 points and 5.2 rebounds right now – basically makes half of what Carmelo Anthony makes.
So where does that leave us? With teams increasingly willing to wait until restricted free agency to keep their young players around, we’ll be seeing a lot of offer sheets this summer.
Here are some of the other notable players up for extensions and whether or not they will get one by midnight tonight.
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ERIC GORDON
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweeted yesterday that the NBA has given clearance to the Hornets’ brass of Hugh Weber & Dell Demps to offer Gordon a four-year contract extension. I had assumed they’d wait until the summer with all of the turmoil in the organization and with Gordon missing all but two games this season with right knee swelling. Giving huge contract extensions to young guys with knee problems, playing on terrible teams, isn’t always the best bet. But Gordon proved himself last year, averaging 22.3 points a night in Blake Griffin‘s shadow. To see how valuable he is, just check out New Orleans without him. They are worse than Washington.
ROY HIBBERT
He’s turned himself into a legitimate double-double center this year – 14 and 10 every night – and is the anchor on one of the more interesting teams in the league. The Pacers aren’t beating Chicago or Miami, but they can definitely topple anyone else in the East. Hibbert is a 25-year-old, 7-2 legit center playing in a town again ready for a winner, and he knows the numbers other centers got over this past summer (Gasol and DeAndre Jordan both got huge deals). For now, the big man doesn’t even want an extension, his agent David Falk saying recently they want to get to restricted free agency and feel out all the offers. Honestly, I’m not sure Indiana would’ve even extended a deal either. They’ve been building slowly and efficiently. I doubt they’d do anything besides taking their time with this.
RYAN ANDERSON
We’ve already discussed Anderson’s prospects in Orlando, being that he’s one of the few pieces enticing enough to be of some benefit. For now, I can’t see him getting a deal done. Reports out of Orlando say it won’t happen either. His future is tied at the ankle with Dwight Howard‘s. He’s probably either the man to be traded to bring in some more help for Superman, or the man who gets paid after the big fella leaves. For now, he’s just enjoying the moment, averaging 16.8 points and just under seven rebounds a night.
NICOLAS BATUM
There were reports Portland was engaged in talks with Batum about a new deal, but honestly, I don’t see how they do it. Batum is a 6-8, 23-year-old that can make shots, play defense, fit into any role and does it all without complaint. Would the Blazers really give him big money to backup another guy (Gerald Wallace) that’ll be due for a new deal soon? As many Blazer fans are writing: “Next year, either Gerald Wallace is gone or Nicolas Batum is gone.”
O.J. MAYO
Oh, how I would love for him to stick around in Memphis. The reality is there’s very little chance he’s still Grittin’ N’ Grindin’ next season. No one in the league, perhaps, has been shopped as hard as Mayo has over the past 12 months. Juice’s basically been traded twice and had to come back both times to Memphis. Not even David Stern could program something like this. With all of the money they’ve spent on Zach Randolph ($66 million extension), Marc Gasol ($58 million), Mike Conley ($45 million) and Rudy Gay ($80 million), I don’t see them dipping into the books for a bench player, which is why you’ll continue to hear his name in trade talks for the next six weeks.
MICHAEL BEASLEY
If Minnesota was playing hardball with their best player, what do you think they’ll do to Beasley? He has less chances of getting an extension tonight than Eli has of surviving the entire Boardwalk Empire series.
BROOK LOPEZ
I’ve never liked Lopez’s game. He can’t rebound. He’s limited defensively in an increasingly faster game, and his numbers were somewhat tainted playing on an awful team. But someone will pay him big money because he’s a seven foot pole in the middle, and is already proven at only 23 years old. It just won’t be the Nets… at least not right now. I could selfishly want to believe the Nets weren’t going to offer Lopez an extension because they believe the same things I do, but more than likely this decision is coming because Lopez is out with a broken foot. There’s also some guy named Deron Williams who’s pretty antsy to see either progress or the door. If the Nets can keep a major payday away from Lopez, they will for as long as possible.
Would you sign any of these players to extensions?
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