Darko is free!
Well, kind of. The Minnesota Timberwolves are about to amnesty Darko Milicic, reports Ric Bucher of ESPN.
Minnesota wants to make a big offer to Batum, the French swingman that a lot of GMs around the league covet because he is athletic, can hit the three, plays smart and is a plus wing defender.
Portland has said repeatedly it will match any offer to Batum (who is a restricted free agent). They mean it. But Batum’s agent badly wants him out of Portland and Minnesota will play along.
Minnesota also is reportedly trying to put together trade offers to tempt Portland, but the Blazers have no interest.
Darko struggled last season, in part due to injuries. While he has never lived up to his No. 2 overall pick status but he has been an NBA backup level big man.
If Darko is amnestied, teams under the salary cap would have 48 hours to bid on a portion of his contract, and the team with the highest bid would get his services (for example, if the Bobcats had the highest bid at $4 million then Darko would be a Bobcat and Charlotte would pay $4 million of his salary and the Timberwolves the rest of it).
If no team bids on him — not likely but not impossible — he would become a free agent and could sign wherever he wanted. Including Europe.