Etan Thomas Matched

[thegrahamcrackr]

Well at least the Wizards remembered to make an announcement:

Wednesday, July 28, 2004


ESPN.com news services
The Wizards will match the Bucks' six-year, $36 million offer to Etan Thomas, Washington general manager Ernie Grunfeld said Wednesday.

The news comes as a pretty big disappointment to the Bucks who were hoping to beef up their front line. Because the Wizards waited two weeks before matching, they may now be frozen out of the free agent market. There aren't many other high caliber big men left on the board.


"We said all along that we wanted to keep Etan," Grunfeld told ESPN Insider's Chad Ford. "He's a big part of what we did and what we want to do."

The Wizards' decision to match shows that the team is serious about making the playoffs this year. They added forward Antawn Jamison early this summer in an effort to balance out their already-dynamic backcourt with some frontcourt scoring. Keeping Thomas further strengthes a front line that also features former No. 1 pick Kwame Brown and center Brendan Haywood.

Thomas was the 12th overall pick in 2000 by the Dallas Mavericks, but he didn't play that season because of a broken toe and was dealt to Washington at the trading deadline.

He was limited to a total of 85 games over the next two years with the Wizards, but last season he stayed healthy and played in 79 games. He started 15, averaging career highs of 8.9 points and 6.7 rebounds.

 

[slinslin]

Shouldn't the Suns know already? I thought the deadline already passed.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Shouldn't the Suns know already? I thought the deadline already passed.

From what I read, the Suns signed Q right before the Nash press conference. Not at the first possible moment.

Makes sense too, the Suns needed to restructure the Nash deal in order to get enough time for Q. So they have about 12-14 hours more (from 9:45pm) I guess.