We're rounding up today's news on teams tendering qualifying offers here, but there's also news of a notable player who won't get one. Jason Quick of The Oregonian reports the Blazers will not tender a qualifying offer to J.J. Hickson (Twitter link). The offer would likely have been for $4,385,416. Hickson is now an unrestricted free agent, and GM Neil Olshey says the Blazers are open to negotiating with him come July 1, Quick says.
The Oregonian's Mike Tokito points out via Twitter that the decision not to issue the qualifying offer and retain the right to match offers from other teams gives the Blazers more flexibility as they decide how to use their $30MM+ worth of cap space. If a team makes an offer any time during the free agent period, the Blazers would have to match within three days, as Tokito notes (Twitter link). If Hickson signed an offer sheet before the Blazers pegged down some of their more expensive free agent targets from other teams, the Blazers would have to let Hickson go or risk tying up cap space. But since the Blazers have full Bird rights on Hickson, thanks to today's settlement between the union and the league about Bird rights for players claimed off waivers, they could sign him later in the summer, even if they're over the cap at that point.
The Blazers claimed Hickson off waivers from the Kings in the middle of 2011/12, and he played much better for Portland than he did for Sacramento, averaging 15.1 points and 8.3 rebounds a game while posting a 20.2 PER in 19 games as a Blazer.
—–
Blazers are blowin it on this one.
there not blowin it , they will resign him quickly after july 1st