Comments about ‘Utah Jazz notebook: Decision on Wesley Matthews 'business'’

Oooh! Sounds like KOC is not happy with Matthews or his agent and even more disgruntled with Portland.

Well good for him! I'd believe KOC before I believed Matthew's Agent.

And as for Portland, I hope they aren't stupid enough to offer Fesenko a ridiculous contract as well. If a hard cap comes up in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, Portland's going to wish it hadn't made the ridiculous offer to Matthews.

I am inclined to believe KOC on this. It makes no sense to NOT make a preliminary offer above the Q offer. Who knows what Mathews agent told him.

The only thing I fault KOC on in the Mathews drama is that there seemed to be no communication between KOC and Sloan during the season. Sloan knew he was going to play Mathews and that he would play well. Sloan also had to approve the Brewer trade.

Why was not Mathews signed to a long term contract (4 years) with team options for 2 years like Whiteside and Blair.

Every GM makes a few mistakes but this seems to be a pattern of not locking up developing players the Jazz know they want to keep.

It has to stop now. The financial side is just as important as the on court side to the eventual success of the team.

Learn something from GS and SA and move forward. Stop getting raided by POR and put the team options in early once you know you want to keep the player. You can always renegotiate the contract later.

Mathews owes the Jazz nothing and the Jazz owe Mathews nothing. Professional sports is a business and each party made their decision based on such...

Did you really say learn something from Golden State?

I like Kevin's sense of humor:

"He's next on the agenda," O'Connor said of the restricted free agent. "(We'll) go from there, see what happens, see if Portland has any more money left."

That is laugh-out-loud funny, given how obvious it is that Portland is playing games with Utah, overbidding on players who are seemingly more important to the Jazz than they would be to Portland.

What's sad is that Matthews let his agent run things. It's pretty clear that WM would rather be in Utah (and would be much better off in Utah). It's a shame that he didn't recognize that his agent probably couldn't care less who his clients play for - as long as they get as much $$$ as possible.

It sounds like WM should have told his agent to sign with Utah, but he clearly went after the money thinking Utah would match (after all, they did last year with Millsap under similar circumstances). Life is full of lessons, Wes - learn from Raja, and we hope to see you again in a few years.

Howard Eisley had a pretty bad split with the Jazz and they still welcomed him back. Trust me, both Eisley and his wife burned a LOT of bridges when he left.

Re Utah Valley Guy:

I couldn’t agree more, but I wont be laughing anymore if Portland finds a way to sign Fes for 9 million next year too. I can’t wait to sweep Portland again next year!

Golden State just signed Whiteside to a 4 year contract (3.8 Mill for 4 years). The last 2 years are team options at about 1 mill each. Whiteside was a 2nd rounder. The contract structure is similar to the one SA gave Blair last year.

Yes, the Jazz FO could learn something from GS.

Sad isn't it.

Last week, Wes said that if the Jazz would have given him a fair offer, he would have taken it before the offer came from Portland. KOC was defending that comment.

Now, instead of being the likely starter on the Jazz, he is now 2nd fiddle to Brandon Roy.

Any player would rather start instead of ride the pine for more money (unless their name rhymes with loser).

That's exactly why Raja didn't sign with the Lakers.

Right now, Wes has a fairly high "perceived value" because of how well he played at the end of the season. It will be interesting to evaluate his value at the end of next season.

"He's next on the agenda," O'Connor said of the restricted free agent. "(We'll) go from there, see what happens, see if Portland has any more money left."

I can't help myself but laugh. But then, Paul Allen has too much money to waste.

I would think it was hilarious if Portland signed Fes for $9 million. OK, keep overpaying our players just to get them to leave our team. We'll spend our money on players that are worth what we pay them and you keep pay borderline all-star money for a player who is lucky to make it off the pine. That would be $9 million dollars off the NBA market for a player who really isn't worth more than $1 mil, and the play value we could get from our money would just go up.

Last year Portland offered Milsap more than he was worth to make Utah have to pay more money. This year they made the same gamble with Mathews and we let them have him. I doubt it's a gamble they'll take again, and if they do it just means they'll have to overpay a player who probably won't play nearly as well in their system as they did in ours.

re: huggyface

haha ... right ... that lakers were offering less money than the Jazz gave Raja and who would be stupid enough to pass up what Portland was offering Matthews ? Most players have a very limited time in the NBA to make great money. Kudos to WM and his agent for getting $34 million guaranteed over 5 yrs. I wish he was still with the Jazz but am happy for him regardless. KOC made a huge mistake by not signing him last yr to at least a 2 yr deal at the $450k he made last year, then the Jazz would at least have Early Bird rights when he became a RFA.

@ Utah Valley Guy

What do you mean, "learn from Raja"? Raja took the money too! Lakers, Heat and and others were probably not offering him a 3yr 10mil contract.

Matthews would have been crazy not to take a big pay day.

Bugoff,
Please help me understand how Golden State was able to sign Whiteside to a deal. . . when he was drafted by SACRAMENTO!

Golden State didn't even have a second round pick.

Save us all the headaches and groans and stop posting.

i hope portland sign fesenko to a deal. while at it, they could also trade for price and miles... lol. but seriously, a lot of people are taking the chicago bulls seriously this coming season because of the addition of 3 ex-jazz players. it's a compliment to sloan and the jazz organization that the jazz players are regarded highly by other teams. go chicago jazz!

If Portland wants to pay almost 10 million dollars to a back up shooting guard next season, let them. They have been playing games with the Jazz the last 2 years, and this time it bit them. I think they thought the Jazz would match thus crippling them financially for the next year or so. Matthews is a nice player but not worth that kind of money, not yet anyway. Much happier having Raja back.

People keep going on and on about this... Paul Allen hates the Jazz so he keeps throwing figures out there that are unreasonable for the Jazz. I think the Jazz would have been more than fair with Matthews and I don't doubt that we tried to keep him but I'm not buying anything Matthews is saying. He also said he was heartbroken and shocked. Well... if he wanted to stay so bad he would have never even considered offers. He tempted fate and got what he wanted... the money.. but now this young rookie who spent last year making such a name for himself will ride the bench and slip into the background. I'm glad we are getting players that actually want to play here .. Tall ones too... Bye Wes.. we will keep an eye out for you when they show bench reactions before commercials.

I think the one to blamed is the agent...maybe the contract the FO offered never went to Matthews or...probably Matthews thinks he is worth the mid level exception since he is the starting 2...

Wes and his agent have their money plus he's leaving with a lot of respect from Jazz fans. Just have to wonder though, didn't his agent know Bell was out there?

This is a very sad story, more for Wesley Matthews than the Jazz. The Jazz will do fine next year. Raja Bell is a tough, committed player who will bring strength and experience to the starting lineup. Long-term, the Jazz will still need a replacement, but next year he'll be solid.

Judging from the public comments, WM got mugged by his own agent. WM's greatest mistake was believing what his agent told him. Yes, he got WM a lot of money, but money isn't everything.

The agent knew from the beginning he could play Portland off the Jazz, and used WM as bait. He no doubt falsely assured WM the Jazz would match. It's also clear that the agent never even told WM about the Jazz's offer. The agent is a scoundrel.

Despite the money, WM may have ruined his career:

*He's gone from starter on a playoff contender to 10min/night benchrider on a worse team.

*He will get a third of the playing experience he would have.

*He's gone from a fanbase that loved him to one that couldn't care less (read the banal Oregonian story).

Very sad.