Jesus Shuttleworth back in Seattle

[Ron Mexic]

He agreed to a five year deal.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2100705

Updated: July 5, 2005, 11:00 AM ET
Deal is for five years, agent saysBy Chad Ford
ESPN Insider


Ray Allen was wooed by LeBron James, Mike Dunleavy and that Atlanta Hawks for the last five days. In the end, he decided that there was no place like home.

Ray Allen
Shooting Guard
Seattle SuperSonics
Profile


2004-2005 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
78 23.9 4.4 3.7 .428 .883



Allen's agent, Lon Babby, said Tuesday morning that Allen has agreed to terms with the Sonics on a five-year deal.

Babby refused to divulge the contract amount. The Sonics' last known offer was for 5 years, $75 million, and their latest offer is expected to exceed that.

Allen can't sign a contract until the league lifts its player movement moratorium. That ban is expected to be lifted on July 22, though there's been talk around the league that it could be pushed back as much as week.

The move should have major ramifications for both the Sonics and the rest of the free agent market.

Now that the Sonics have re-signed Allen, look for them to get aggressive in bringing back the rest of the pieces, including head coach Nate McMillan, that helped the Sonics secure a third seed in the West.

The Sonics are also trying to re-sign free agents Vladimir Radmanovic, Antonio Daniels, Reggie Evans, Jerome James and Ronald Murray.

Allen's agreement with the Sonics will also have affect on a number of other free agent two guards looking for new deals. The Clippers and Hawks had made Allen a top priority, and the Cavs had Allen as their back-up plan should Michael Redd decide to return to Milwaukee.

With Allen now out of the picture, expect both Los Angeles and the Atlanta to turn to the next top available free agent guards -- Joe Johnson and Larry Hughes. Johnson is a restricted free agent who has garnered a large amount of interest around the league. However, teams have been slow to offer him a contract because of the Suns ability (and stated intention) to match any deal.

Hughes is an unrestricted free agent who, statistically, was at the top of his class. However, it's been widely assumed that he'll re-sign with the Wizards. The Wizards can offer Hughes an extra year and more money than either the Hawks or Clippers.

After those two, the market drops off pretty dramatically. Bobby Simmons, Marko Jaric, Cuttino Mobley, Latrell Sprewell and Gerald Wallace are the next best guards on the board.

 

[Ron Mexic]

I should get rep points for posting that.

 

[West Remy]

It was always about the money. I knew Allen was going to be a Sonic again. The old saying goes, "Hindsight is 20/20" and I'm glad Cleveland didn't make Allen priority number one considering Cleveland never would have had a chance. Ray Allen can now officially be scratched off the very wishful and improbable lists of signing with Cleveland.

 

[KI4MVP]

where does tat nickname come from?

And this is exactly why I said at some point Redd would get a deadline. The fight for Redd is now more critical. All along, it was mostly assumed that Redd would go to one team, Allen to another.

 

[Glen Infante]

where does tat nickname come from?

Ray Allen stared in a movie a while ago with Denzel Washington. "He Got Game" Jesus Shuttlesworth was Ray Allen's name in the movie.

It figures that he would stay. I really didn't see him budging to another team.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Am I the only one surprised!! There is a lot of uncertainty in Seattle. Allen is on the downslope of his career - I'm sure he wants a championship over money - a year ago he wanted out. They put together one surprise season - just about the whole team needs a new contract - possibly a new coach. Maybe he is assured everyone will remain intact, which is the only reason I can surmise as to why he'd commit so early.

Just out of curiousity, what was the max we could've offered him? 4 yrs, 60 mil?

 

[KI4MVP]

we could have matched or topped the Sonics last known offer - 5 years, 75 million.

 

[LyXo]

I think we could have offered him 5 year, 80 some million. A little more than Seattle's past offer, but still considerably less than the max that they could.

Ray seemed complacent in Seattle. It seems like a fluke season, but to him it means something big if they can assemble the pieces from last season. And he's the biggest part to it. If he left, the team would probably crumble to the lottery really quickly. Rashard Lewis wouldn't be happy. Nate McMillan probably wouldn't have been back. All those FA's would bolt unless guaranteed a starting position. But now that Ray's back, many will be enticed to stay, namely McMillan.

And if you think about it, I don't think that Ray would have wanted to be 2nd fiddle. I don't think he'd have problems playing with LeBron, but he's putting himself up there with Kobe in terms of ego. He would want to be the main star, and Cleveland can't offer that to him. He figured out that Seattle could and that he was the main component of the core, so he had to make the decision quick. Makes Nate McMillan's decision a lot easier too.

 

[Deadlock]

Well there goes one of our top SG's that we wanted to get.

 

[King]

So...right now I think its looking like were gonna miss out on the big 4. O well...I still think we can put together an elite team without one of those guys. We can put together a pretty deep team without many holes.

 

[NarlCavs]

I think this is bad news for the Cavs. It eliminates their #2 FA option and also eliminates the Bucks #2 option if they lost Redd.
Hopefully Redd doesn't drag out his decision although I think he will. If they lose out on him they will have to take a shot and make big offers to Johnson and Hughes even if the odds aren't great they can get them.

The chances are pretty good that the Cavs are going to miss out on all 4 top FA SG's. I thought the odds were decent Allen could leave Seattle. I'm surprised he made his decision so quickly.

This summer could turn out to be disappointing although the Cavs can still improve their team with other FA signings even if they miss out on Redd, Johnson and Hughes.
Marc Stein wrote about the Cavs saving some cap space for next summer if they can't sign a big time FA this summer. Does anyone know the possible top FA's next year? The Cavs could run into the same problems then though and do really need to make an effort to win more right now.

 

[TruBuckeye22]

i am surprised that Allen decided to stay in the West where he will have a huge task to over come the Spurs. but if he likes being in Seattle and the money was right maybe he made the right decision for him.

 

[Mac]

Man, this worries me. If we cant get Redd away from Milwaukee, we are in tough shape as far as getting a good guard next to Lebron.

 

[Coyote]

Re: Marc Stein's comments about next year. There doesn't seem to be much available. Fred Hoiberg. Um, Jiri Welsch. That's why it makes sense for them to at least get Simmons this year.

But don't write off Redd yet. I still think the less-tangible appeals of winning and being a sort of hometown hero will appeal to him. Allen getting signed is a bad thing for the Bucks; they've already made the best offer they can to Redd and can only hope. It's not like they were holding back in their offer to him, waiting to see what Allen did.