Kings/Sonics notes: Petrie: Peja has not reiterated his trade request

[bozzwell]

If I'm the GM of the Kings the last thing in the world I want to do is enter next season with Peja not under contract beyond the end of the year. To put the franchise in the position of having dwindling alternativesto being held hostage at the end of the season. If I'm planning on keeping him, I want to extend him THIS summer -- keeps me in control. If I'm not, then trade him and let the other team worry about it. But bringing Peja back for an 8th year of tryouts, at the end of which some fool is probably going to offer him a max deal anyway and pin me does not make sense. Peja will be 28, an 8 yr pro in the same system and with the same coach. Tryouts are over. Now we need to be absolutely 100% sure that we either keep him or end up with equal or better value.

What about sign-and-trade scenario? Is it reasonable to assume that there is enough goodwill between GP and Pedja that either a) he is extended or b) he co-operated in sign-and-trade. Paxson used that with Crawford last TDOS. Basically, by assuring Crawford that the big payday is coming no-matter-what (either from Bulls or through sign-and-trade) he assured Crawford's cooperation. While on surface both sides hedged, in reality Crawford was injury away from ending with nothing and Bulls had all the flexibility. Seems to me that still, no matter what, unless you can either sign Pedja now for a reasonable amount or trade him now for a sure-thing the path of keeping all options open is the best risk mitigation policy.

New CBA is a looming large, I am sure that GP has his ear to the ground on that front and is adjusting his strategy accordingly.

EDIT: It just occured to me that we don't want to extend Pedja under current CBA. Our risk would increase invertly ptoportional to the factor of improvements in new CBA. Having Pedja with anothe same all, same all year or even worse on another down year would render him almost untradeable under new CBA.