5:40pm: Matthews’ deal is now for the max, at four years and about $70MM, TNT’s David Aldridge tweets, since DeAndre Jordan pulled his about-face and signed with the Clippers.
JULY 9TH, 5:33pm: The signing is official, the Mavericks announced in a press release. “We just like him as a culture guy — his toughness and work ethic. He’s become a terrific player,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s a different kind of guy than we’ve had here, but he can play both wing positions. He can post up, he’s a great three-point shooter, and he’s developed a post game to where he can both score and make plays out of the post. We think he’s going to bring a lot to our team.”
JULY 3RD, 7:23am: The deal will probably average about $13MM a year, but that’s flexible, pending Jordan’s decision, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. Presumably, a commitment from Aldridge would affect the final Matthews numbers as well, but that’s just my speculation.
JULY 2ND, 11:59pm: The Mavericks have an agreement in principle from free agent Wesley Matthews that he’ll play in Dallas next season, TNT’s David Aldridge reports (Twitter link). It will be a four-year arrangement, though the final amount has not been finalized, Aldridge adds. The Mavericks are waiting on word from free agents LaMarcus Aldridge and DeAndre Jordan before settling on a final amount with Matthews, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Matthews reportedly turned down a four year, $64MM offer from the Kings, who also coveted the swingman, as Aldridge notes (on Twitter). Dallas was reported to be extremely reluctant to meet Matthews’ asking price considering the frightening history of players who came back from torn Achilles tendons, noted Stein. The Mavs wanted to sign Matthews to a deal with salaries in the $10-12MM range annually, the ESPN scribe added. The Raptors were also reported to have interest in Matthews.
The shooting guard tore his left Achilles tendon on March 5th, 60 games into the season. Portland went 41-19 with the guard in the lineup and just 10-12 without him. Matthews’ 2014/15 numbers were 15.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 33.7 minutes per contest, with a slash line of .448/.389/.752. His career numbers through 441 games are 14.3 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 2.1 APG, with a shooting line of .443/.393/.825. Not too shabby numbers for a player who went undrafted out of Marqutte back in 2009.
This may convince Jordan to sign…….
I was just thinking that myself.
This just might persuade Aldridge to sign with the Macs also.
Very good pickup for them, though still waiting on details. I liked the Justin Anderson draft pick for them. Now they need a rim protector to replace Chandler, a backup big, and they could probably use a better piece at the PG spot than Felton or Barea, to allow Devin Harris to continue to come off the bench. They could probably also use another wing player that can give them some minutes off the bench. If they do bring in the right guys, they could make up for that horrible Rondo deal last year, and get back to being the efficient offense they were before that deal
Yeah, I think Matthews is a strong complement to Chandler Parsons. Now they need a center. I think they’d be better off signing Jordan than Aldridge at this point, though you can always make a trade if you need to. (Hello, Roy Hibbert!)
I don’t think you need to go all in for Jordan though. There are still a couple of rim protecting bigs left if they can’t get him. I do agree that is a more pressing need than Aldridge for them
Yet another 2015 candidate for worst contract in NBA history. Not since Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, David Lee, and Carlos Boozer cashed in back in 2010 has the NBA gone this crazy