Blazers to make qualifying offer to Oden

Story @ Yahoo! NBA

Portland Trail Blazers officials have told Greg Oden’s representatives they will tender the center an $8.8 million qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Blazers have until midnight ET Thursday to give the qualifying offer.

The No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, Oden has played just 82 games over four seasons because of injuries. The Blazers made the qualifying offer to protect themselves from possibly losing him for nothing, sources said. Once Oden becomes a restricted free agent, the Blazers will have the right to match any offer sheet he receives.

Oden missed last season after having microfracture surgery on his left knee in November. He hasn’t played since December of 2009 when he needed surgery to repair a fractured left patella. He was averaging 11.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks at the time of the injury.

It's a lot of money to invest in someone who's played the equivalent of one regular season over the last four, but it's only the one year qualifying offer to make him restricted free agent and I highly doubt they're going to have to worry about matching any outrageous offers. It's a fair enough gamble to see if he can still play and be a solid player in the middle, it's not like they're signing him to a huge extension after all. If they can get at least 65-70 games out of him where he's playing 24-30 minutes and perhaps posting a modest double-double every night, then I'd say he's still got a future in the league.

Good move. Unlucky guy.

Stupid. The Blazers are now going to pay close to $9M/year for Oden plus another $13M+ for Brandon Roy. That's 22 MILLION DOLLARS spent on guys who will likely play 30 games, then miss the next two seasons after like five surgeries. [/rant]

If Portland could shed those two contracts, they would be contenders, but what do they do instead? They basically hand Greg Oden $8M. Seriously, no other team is ever going to hand Oden that kind of $$$$$$$.

The qualifying offer is only for one year. If a team offers Oden a multi-year contract, the Blazers have the option to match it or not and let Oden go. The Blazers are still over the cap anyway if you exclude Roy and Oden's contract.

Of course there's also the lockout this year and new CBA next year.

Pointless. I want Oden retained, but he's not going to be able to play next season, so anything other than a multi-year extension is wasting money.

Think of it as a gesture of goodwill by the Blazers (even though they already did a lot for Oden). Just imagine if he bolted Portland and went to Phoenix.

I actually wouldn't mind that. Oden can't do anything anywhere else, so he may as well go to Phoenix, enjoy their training staff, and hopefully get Nash a ring.

Based on their track records, I think Phoenix and Detroit are the only training staffs that one could feel good about Oden staying healthy under. Neither has enough money to give him a contract that Portland won't match though.

Stupid. The Blazers are now going to pay close to $9M/year for Oden plus another $13M+ for Brandon Roy. That's 22 MILLION DOLLARS spent on guys who will likely play 30 games, then miss the next two seasons after like five surgeries. [/rant]

If Portland could shed those two contracts, they would be contenders, but what do they do instead? They basically hand Greg Oden $8M. Seriously, no other team is ever going to hand Oden that kind of $$$$$$$.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q37

Pointless. I want Oden retained, but he's not going to be able to play next season, so anything other than a multi-year extension is wasting money.

If I've understood this correctly:

A qualifying offer cannot be accepted after March 1. Teams may place a shorter time limit on their qualifying offer, specifying any date between October 1 and March 1 by which it must be accepted. If the deadline passes and the qualifying offer is neither withdrawn nor accepted, then the player continues to be a restricted free agent. The team and player are also still free to negotiate a new contract after the qualifying offer ends -- the deadline only affects the player's ability to accept the qualifying offer.

Then Oden could feasibly sit out the year without a contract while remaining a restricted free agent. So when he's ready to play again, the Blazers will still have the ability to match any offer sheets he signs.

Of course, restricted free agent or not, I doubt he's going to get too many big offers if he doesn't play next season. So I'd agree with shadowgrin, I think it's in part a goodwill gesture.