According to Jimmy Smith’s Twitter:
“Hornets have tendered offer to Marco Belinelli, not Jason Smith, sources say. Hope to retain both players.”
This will make Marco a restricted free agent while Smith will be unrestricted. The offer is for just over $3m.
There as been some discussion here on whether the offer would be extended. Mr. McNamara, in his wisdom, seems to have detailed this eventuality weeks ago in our reader write-in series.
17 responses to “Belinelli Extended Qualifying Offer”
I’m okay with this. There is still that part of me that thinks Marco can really be an asset to this team. His game as a pure shooter is too good of a fit with Paul’s ability to drive the lane and kick out to open shooters.
Just as long as the guy shoots. And shoots the three. I cringe every time a player takes a shot a step or two inside the line. It’s the worst shot in basketball. It’s even more cringe worthy when you pass up the three to take that two. And Marco had a bad tendency of doing that.
If he comes back, it needs to be drilled into his head that he is a shooter.
Anyone else notice that the Hornets mural with CP3, West, Ariza, and Okafor on the New Orleans Arena has been taken down? Coincidence? Doubtful.
I could be wrong, but I think this is due to the upcoming lockout. Once the lockout begins, the league no longer has the rights to use images of players for promotion.
This is correct.
As noted in the news a couple days ago, nba.com will not have player tomorrow if they do a lockout.
I went to French quarter yesterday and it was still there :/
Be interesting to see what they want to (and actually) sign Belli for, after the new CBA. Same with Smith, who I expect to get a multi-year offer from the Hornets (which I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sign). I wouldn’t be surprised to see Belli average $3M or below and Smith average around $2M in Hornet contracts, assuming a hard cap around $70M or a transition of a few years to a hard cap at that level or lower.
Not a big fan of the decision to offer it. I like the guy, but 3.4 million is a lot less money to enter free agency with come that time, and I can’t imagine he will quickly be offered more than this on the open market.
Think of it this way. We got 750k for our 2nd round draft pick. Apply that to Beli’s salary, and he comes in next year at a cost to us of around 2.25mm. Would you have signed Beli for 2.25?
Personally I’d rather think of the $750k as being in use to compete better with Denver for their restricted free agent Afflalo and see what’s left over for Beli. I certainly don’t know the team or basketball as much as Demps (or many people here) but it did seem that Beli would often give up. Hopefully he’s working hard in the extended offseason and maybe we’ll see an offensive improvement (looking at you too Ariza).
What do you think of Chris Douglas-Roberts? For me, it would be an excellent name for the Hornets. It is much better than Belinelli. In fact, I would not have proposed extension to the Italian. I think he’s very limited. We missed a chance to save money.
I think both decisions are sensible. To the extent that Smith is a second big man off the bench (even though he was sadly our primary big off the bench for most of the season), he probably outperformed that role last year. And Bellinelli underperformed the role of starting shooting guard. But Bellinelli is still a more valuable asset than Smith, and the qualifying offer is for basically the same amount for each player.
I’d be very happy resigning Smith for less money, something in the $2 million range. He’s a good backup big in this league. We might be paying a bit of a premium on the qualifying offer to Bellinelli to make sure we can still resign him, but I think it’s worth it, because if the Hornets are going to continue to improve, it has to be in part because Bellinelli is able to develop into a better player. He gives decent production for his salary and has potential to improve his game to become a very valuable asset.
Unfortunately, I don’t really see any scenario under any possible CBA where the Hornets will have the financial ability to become an elite contender, given the contracts they currently have on the books.
If we upgraded the SF spot with more of a scoring threat, would Belinelli and Shannon brown be able to hold us down at the SG spot? Or would we still be struggling at the position? I think we’d be fine.
As already stated, the price point seems too high in reference to what he brings, and how large of a void there has been at that position for years. I am concerned that there is the chance the team could strike out in free agency at the shooting guard spot, and this is a fall back plan in case a starter is needed to be implemented. I am not a fan of this, but I would feel more comfortable with Marco in the starting lineup as opposed to J. Jack or Willie Green.
I am very happy for the kid. He has shown a tremendous amount of gratitude to the Hornets organization for the chance they have given him to play. This offer should be a boost to his confidence and encourage him to continue to work his tail off. I beleive he will become much more comfortable in his role this next season (if there is a season!). His 3 pt percentage, ability to get to the line and I beleive scoring average will all improve over his first NOLA campaign.
I respect all opinions.
But.. the financial problems continue to conditonated this Hornets campaign and the future is uncertain…
My opinion about Belinelli is very good 3 pt shooter and try to improve other aspect of the game. Ok, don’t play ever well but i appreciate him. Sometimes is possible inverted Ariza and Beli move to SF…
You don’t think is possible resign R. Butler if Beli don’t play well?
After… i think if the Hornets have the possibility to resign T. Chandler is better using for him the other money.
God bless the Hornets!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLnsWXRpXzw&feature=related
I like the move as well. Marco is easily more of an asset to us than a liability. He finally got his chance last year and to stay in the same system for another year will only help in his development and confidence going forward. I think last year we saw flashes of what Marco can do for us. Hopefully next year we see more of a consistent version of those flashes. All in all, at $3 mill, I think it’s a good value. Considering the alternatives (Jack at SG, Green at SG, overpaying for someone else via free agency), I think we did our DD and made the right decision. Marco fits a need with his ability to shoot and he has upside which can still be tapped into.
Most fans of NOH feel we need to blow this up, but if we had West last year I think we could have been a MEM type team that shocked some people by making a deep run. Lets bring the same core of guys back and shore up the obvious positions that need help, not by trading away the starters (unless theres a significant upgrade taking place) but by adding depth with solid backups and role players who fit our way of play. We need a backup big for Okafor, a more polished backup SF, and maybe a pass first backup PG then move Jack to play more SG minutes. No need to panic IMO. Go Bees!
Tremendous positive news about Marco. Get the man the rock, more, CP3. And Monty, keep him on the floor. I detailed in posts last year how he fared when out there 30 or 35 plus compared to 20 or less and the difference is significant. Commit to him and get him involved in the offense more. The crafty Italian has got more game than we’ve seen so far but he needs to be supported.
The Hornets way over achieved last year, and Marco was a big part of that. His role as shooting guard was greatly diminished by the offensive game plan: entry pass to West, wait, watch.
Overall, though, the future looks mighty bleak with West surely gone, Malone (who mentored Monty in many ways) gone, Gray (who proved to be valuable) gone, and CP3 scanning the horizon as the franchise slowly edges closer and closer toward complete unsustainability.