Everyone who had Drew Gooden in the office pool as the first free agent to sign a deal, come on up and collect your money. Anyone? Hello?
The Milwaukee Bucks have agreed on a five-year, $32 million deal with Drew Gooden, according to Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo. That is the full mid-level exception deal. No deal can formally be signed until July 8, but everything is in place. If there is one deal you can expect to get traded, it’s this one -- Gooden has already been with eight teams in eight NBA seasons.
Gooden, who finished last season with the Clippers, is looking for stability after hopping around like the NBA was a game of Frogger for the past few seasons. He will be paired along the front line with Andrew Bogut and will be catching passes from Brandon Jennings. And be grabbing the rebounds on Jennings missed midrange jumpers.
Gooden gives you solid, slightly above average play at the four spot. Last season he averaged nearly 11 points and 8 rebounds a game in 25 minutes, with a PER of 16.9. He shoots 48 percent and can get to the line. Like we said, all solidly above average.
Last year, the best offer Gooden could get was one year at $4 million. The question becomes: Is Gooden that much better than what the Bucks already have? They started Ersan Ilyasova in front of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute last season. Right now Gooden that much of an upgrade that he’s worth all the extra money? It was expected Mbah a Moute would get more burn this season, and Gooden is a veteran who shoots at a higher percentage and rebounds better than him. Today. But this is about to be Mbah a Moute’s third season and he should improve and give quality minutes at the four, and for a lot less money (he’s still on a rookie deal). Plus Luc is a better defender. The four was not really a weak spot for the Bucks last year.
But they are locked in with Gooden now. At least until they trade him.
