VLADY RADMANOVIC NEGOTATIONS UPDATE

UPDATE ON VLADY RADMANOVIC NEGOTATIONS

I just got off the phone with Vlady Radmanovic’s agent Dave Bauman about Vlady’s contract situation. It is clear that signing Radmanovic will not be easy for the Sonics. Bauman feels that Radmanovic should be a starter and that he is worth starter money in the NBA. Moreover, he sees Radmanovic as a star that is about to explode and wants him paid like the star he is going to be. All agents have this request.
The Sonics have made an offer to Radmanovic and it is a 6-year offer in the range of 39 million dollars for the contract. According to Bauman, this deal does not equal what Radmanovic is worth. Bauman sites the deals just signed by Bobby Simmons, averaging about 9 million a year, and Kwane Brown, around 8 million a year, as deals that represent the market for Radmanovic. Most importantly, Bauman says that Radmanovic would not sign the 6 year deal and would instead sign a 1 year deal at 3.2 million and become an unrestricted free agent next season.
He also says that he has two sign and trade deals that would pay Radmanovic that kind of money. Bauman insists that the negotiations are not adversarial at this point. He will be flying to Belgrade tomorrow to meet with Radmanovic to give him the details face to face.
. The Sonics can match any deal that Radmanovic receives. If Radmanovic doesn’t get an offer that his camp believes equals his value they will take the one year tender and become an unrestricted free agent.

BOB WEISS TO BE SONICS HEAD COACH

Bob Weiss will be the next head coach of the Seattle Supersonics. This has been widely speculated for the last week and will come to fruition today at a 1:30 press conference.
As 950, KJR and Locked on Sports reported on Thursday night Howard Schultz and Weiss had dinner. That dinner was the final hurdle for Weiss to become the new head coach. A night earlier Schultz dined with Wally Walker, Rick Sund and other major players in the organization and was convinced that Weiss was the correct choice for the job. Schultz always wants to grasp as much marketing as he possibly can and had to be convinced this was first the correct basketball move and secondly could be sold. After meeting with the major players and Weiss he was entirely convinced.
Weiss became the lead candidate when he received a ground swell of support from the Sonics players and namely Ray Allen. As we reported on Thursday the players universally talked about trust and understood that Weiss had been the innovator of the Sonics offense.
After the press conference I will file another report and tune in tonight at 7:00 pm for more information and opinions.