It’s unlikely Matt Barnes will actually kill you … probably. But the idea sure made for some funny T-Shirts.
Little else needs to be said about Barnes’ impact on the basketball court than the fact that those T-shirts, complete with a menacing picture of his face, exist. Barnes was the Magic’s tough guy last season. An antagonist to some of the league’s best players. It was how he contributed even while struggling offensively.
Barnes, who opted out of the second year of his contract with the Magic this summer, will play for the Los Angeles Lakers next season. Salary cap issues won’t get in the way of this deal.
Barnes will reportedly get .7 million next season with a player option for 2011-2012 worth .9 million. He made .6 million with the Magic last season. It’s barely a raise — especially when you consider that California has state taxes and Florida doesn’t. But the deal allows Barnes to play for the two-time defending champions and return to his home state and a town with which he’s pretty familiar, having played college ball at UCLA.
He turned down an offer that guaranteed million over two years with the Cavaliers.
Many Magic fans will miss Barnes — he still says he’s disappointed he didn’t stay with the Magic. He started 58 games, taking over for Mickael Pietrus as the starting small forward.
It was his job to defend the likes of Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant. He wasn’t smooth in doing it, a stopper by definition isn’t. And when his fire went too far, when it got him ejected, his teammates would be asked if they thought he should tone it down. Their responses never changed: No way.
“You guys want us to be physical? Don’t complain if we are physical,” Dwight Howard said after Barnes was ejected from an April game against the Memphis Grizzlies. “That’s what we want. That’s what we need.”
As Barnes’ moves on, here the top five battles we saw him fight this past season. However you feel about his antics, it’s indisputable they were entertaining and, more importantly, candid.
5. Matt Barnes vs. a Spurs Fan
What Happened: While Barnes defended the Magic against the opponents’ best player, he also defended his teammate Dwight Howard against critics, fans, refs and hackers. When Hack-A-Howard got too forceful, it was Barnes who would pop up and stick his face centimeters from said hacker to tell him to back off. Barnes was fined during the playoffs for criticizing how tightly refs officiated Howard.
Fans weren’t exempt either, as one aggressive heckler behind the Magic’s bench (who got ejected from the game) learned in San Antonio.
Said Barnes of the incident: “He was cussing at Dwight, so I said something. You know me. He said, ‘I’ll be waiting for you after the game.’ He said, ‘I’ll remember your face.’”
Uhhh…really, Spurs fan? (see t-shirt)
4. Matt Barnes vs. the Memphis Grizzlies
What Happened: Barnes said he was going to argue a call. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said Barnes was “going to get his technical.” Whatever his goal, he bumped into Memphis’ Hasheem Thabeet on the way and it turned into a melee that looked a lot more serious than it actually was. Barnes and Thabeet engaged in a shoving match that even involved the Grizzlies’ O.J. Mayo and Magic pacifist Vince Carter.
The video:
3. @matt_barnes22 vs. Twitter
What Happened: Whether or not Barnes’ affinity for Twitter actually hurt his relationship with the Magic, he certainly did some colorful Tweeting this season. After a series of curse-filled Tweets this winter, Barnes was asked to tone it down. “I thought you could say whatever you wanted,” Barnes said after the edict.
When the Magic blew an 18-point lead to the New Orleans Hornets, Barnes Tweeted “We [expletive] on the money 2nite magic fans. Sorry bout that we back on the grind sunday.”
He expressed some thoughts about Lamar Odom on Twitter (more on that later) and during his free agency Barnes Tweeted about the fact that the Magic hadn’t offered him a contract. Asked if it bothered him, Magic GM Otis Smith replied, sarcastically, that he wondered why Barnes hadn’t gotten an offer.
2. Matt Barnes vs. Kevin Garnett
What Happened: No, we’re not talking about the play where Barnes shoved Garnett into Stan Van Gundy. This one’s about mind games.
Barnes gave the most amusing, illuminating and interesting quotes of any Magic player last season and one of the best examples of that came during the Eastern Conference Finals. A reporter from Boston asked him about an incident with Kevin Garnett. It looked, from a distance, like Barnes was trying to calm down Garnett, and Garnett didn’t take kindly to it. Barnes was asked if he thought that was strange.
“I wasn’t trying to calm him down, I was messing with him,” Barnes replied.
Players play mind games often, but they don’t often admit to them. The play in question:
1. Matt Barnes vs. Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers
What Happened: Barnes’ plan, as he guarded the man who will be his teammate next season, was to make sure Bryant knew without a doubt that Barnes was not afraid of him. From the beginning of the Lakers March 7 game in Orlando, Barnes was physical and abrasive. He pushed Bryant and he faked inbounding the ball at Bryant’s face (which you can watch in the video below). Bryant still scored 34 points but made just 12 of 30 shots and missed a buzzer-beater with Barnes in front of him. Orlando won, 96-94.
Of course, the verbal sparring continued after the game. Lakers forward Lamar Odom called Barnes an “action figure” and said he needed some tights. Bryant seemed to get a kick out of the whole thing. He chuckled and said there was a big difference between Matt Barnes bumping him and Kenyon Martin bumping him.
Then, after a subsequent Lakers game, Odom brought up Barnes again. “That [expletive] that Matt Barnes pulled, that ain’t never going to happen again,” he said.
Odom’s comment prompted the infamous diaper tweet in which Barnes said maybe he needed to put his son’s — ahem — dirty diaper in Odom’s mouth to shut him up.
“Orlando fans are amazing, just absolutely amazing,” [Matt] Barnes said. “They’ll always have a special place in my heart. They really accepted me and my family with open arms right from the jump, especially being someone that came in not to replace Hedo [Turkoglu], someone who was so loved and respected by the fans, but be one of the guys that would take his spot. I really felt no bitterness and no hate or anything from the fans; I was expecting maybe a little bit.”
The Orlando Magic officially lost Matt Barnes to free-agency last night, as the journeyman signed with the L.A. Lakers just after 11 PM on the East Coast. Magic fans have had a few days to prepare for losing Barnes, whom they grew to love during his lone season in pinstripes, but he’s gone for good now.
So if you’re looking for a way to cope, I humbly suggest writing a haiku tribute to Barnes in the comments section of this post; if this idea sounds familiar, it should, because Sactown Royalty did it earlier this week to say farewell to Jon Brockman. Rec your favorite contributions. I’ll make a separate post highlighting the very best haiku selections later this weekend. And though I can’t make any guarantees, I will do my best to make sure Barnes’ representatives see that post.
Barnes showed Magic fans some love earlier this week. If you’d like to return the favor, creatively, here’s the space to do it.
Matt Barnes will circle the dates when the Lakers face the Magic (Photo by Stephen M. Dowell, Orlando Sentinel)
Turns out that Matt Barnes’ decision wasn’t only about the money, after all.
The Cleveland Cavaliers offered him million guaranteed over two years. The Los Angeles Lakers offered .6 million guaranteed over two years.
Barnes chose the Lakers.
Party because of his California roots. Partly because he always dreamed of playing for the Lakers. Partly because he’ll have a better chance to win a title.
But playing for the Lakers also will give him a chance to one-up the Magic.
Barnes says he loves the fans in Central Florida and he insists harbors no ill will toward the franchise, even though it didn’t offer him a contract after he opted out of his two-year deal back in June.
Still, he wants to show the Magic what he feels they’re missing out on. What better way to do that by helping the Lakers three-peat?
“Cleveland did a great job of presenting what they had to offer,” Barnes told the Orlando Sentinel late Thursday night. “Talking to Coach [Byron] Scott, Mr. [Chris] Grant, the G.M., I had a good conversation with both guys. They’re both great guys. But, ultimately, deep down, once things kind of messed up with Orlando, I knew that I wanted to be in a position to, as some would call it, ‘get ‘em back.’
“I knew that Miami and L.A. would be up there as far as contenders. No disrespect to Cleveland, because they have a very talented team and a great new coach and they will definitely be in the mix. But going to the Lakers, the two-time defending champs going for a threepeat, I knew that down the road we are going to get a chance to see Orlando, and that’s what excites me.”
Barnes made clear he’ll maintain his friendships with his former Magic teammates. In fact, he said Vince Carter will fly cross-country to attend Barnes’ Athletes vs Cancer golf tournament this Saturday in Sacramento. And Barnes said about 80 percent of the current Magic roster will attend Barnes’ wedding on Aug. 23.
Still, it’s clear Barnes will be extra hyped for the two times the Lakers face the Magic during the regular season. And, perhaps, just perhaps, the two teams will meet in the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.
• • •
On Monday, Barnes said on Twitter and told the Sentinel that he was going to join the Toronto Raptors. Yet that deal was contingent on the Raptors being able to complete a sign-and-trade deal with the Magic, and the Magic never had the money under the NBA’s salary cap rules to offer million over two years.
I asked Barnes on Thursday night how and why that miscalculation was made.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “That’s something that I get in bits and pieces, but I don’t talk in detail about it, because I’m not exactly sure what happened. You may know better than me. But once the deal fell off the table, I was definitely disappointed. Toronto offered me great money, and even though they are a team that’s rebuilding, I was excited to be a Raptor. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. I say everything happens for a reason, and that re-opened the door to start thinking about the Lakers, the Heat and the Cavs.”
• • •
Asked what, exactly, his role will be with the Lakers, Barnes said he’s not sure.
“We’ll have to see,” he said. “I’m going to a team that won the championship. So, I’m going out there to just try to be a small piece to help them win three in a row.”
Follow Josh Robbins on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins and e-mail him at jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
Adrian Wojnarowski reports Orlando Magic free-agent forward Matt Barnes is close to reaching an agreement with the L.A. Lakers on a one-year deal for .7 million, unless the Cleveland Cavaliers swoop in with more money, ending a bizarre free-agency streak which began Monday when Barnes thought he was headed to the Toronto Raptors for a two-year deal worth million, only to learn the Raptors didn’t have the resources to make that deal happen.
Orlando Pinstriped Post reported on July 8th that the Lakers’ interest in Barnes is “very real.”
Barnes didn’t exercise his .6 million player option with the Magic for this season, hoping to secure a long-term, high-dollar deal on the open market after playing a key role on the Magic’s Eastern Conference Finalist team. When the Raptors’ rich offer fell through, Barnes turned his attention to contending teams offering low-dollar deals, as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers, offering a portion of the mid-level exception.
Barnes’ decision to decline his option netted him 0,000, which is far less than he expected. But playing for the two-time defending champs, in his home state–Barnes hails from Sacramento–is sure to alleviate some of that disappointment.
The Magic decided against offering Barnes a deal, preferring instead to sign Quentin Richardson, whom Magic GM Otis Smith deemed “a better skill player,” in free agency. Assuming Barnes’ deal with the Lakers goes through, he’ll be the first of Orlando’s four unrestricted free agents to leave. Adonal Foyle, Anthony Johnson, and Jason Williams are still on the market.
Matt Barnes is considering a mix of teams now that his tentative agreement with the Toronto Raptors has fallen apart.
Where do you think Barnes will play next season?
Follow Josh Robbins on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins and e-mail him at jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
Matt Barnes, shown here during a preseason game last October, remains a free agent — at least for now (Photo by Gary W. Green, Orlando Sentinel)
For the moment at least, Matt Barnes remains a free agent.
As we’ve noted before, the Orlando Magic and the Toronto Raptors cannot execute a sign-and-trade deal that would pay Barnes a first-year salary anywhere close to .5 million.
On their own, the Raptors don’t have the cap room and no longer have their midlevel exception.
The Magic don’t have the cap room either, and their non-Bird exception for Barnes would pay Barnes just .92 million for a first-year salary.
Salary-cap guru Larry Coon has answered some questions today about the Barnes-Raptors situation on his Twitter page, which you can access here. Larry makes several interesting points, including:
• The midlevel exception can never be used in a sign-and-trade, so it would not have mattered if the Magic had not signed Chris Duhon and Quentin Richardson using the MLE
• It would be tricky to get a third team involved in a deal; Larry notes that a team cannot sign another team’s free agent and then trade him.
I asked Larry if it would be possible for Barnes’ agent and the Raptors to restructure Barnes’ proposed contract to include a first-year salary of .92 million and a second-year salary of .08 million. That way, the Magic could sign-and-trade Barnes to the Raptors and Barnes would still earn million over two years.
Larry responded via e-mail that such a deal would not work. He said non-Bird free agents can only receive a maximum raise of 8 percent from one year to the next.
Lots of people have asked why anyone involved in the Barnes-Raptors negotiations thought Orlando would have had the ability to sign Barnes for .5 million and then trade him. I don’t have an answer for you. It might have been a miscommunication somewhere along the line, but that’s me speculating.
Anyway, what happens with Barnes now?
The Raptors and Magic can continue to talk about a sign-and-trade deal, but they just can’t get around the fact that Orlando can only offer Barnes .92 million.
Officials from the Raptors and Magic are not commenting.
I would guess that Barnes now is entertaining offers from other teams. Last night, when he thought he would be playing in Toronto, he told me in a phone interview that he was considering the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat before the Raptors became involved last Thursday or Friday.
Other possibilities include the Cleveland Cavaliers, as The Plain Dealer’s Brian Windhorst noted today.
Stay tuned.
Follow Josh Robbins on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins and e-mail him at jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
J.J. Redick Wants to Start, Brandon Bass Just Wants to Play – Eric Freeman – The Baseline
In light of J.J. Redick’s recent comments about wanting to start, and Brandon Bass’ not-so-subtle reminder that he wants a rotation spot, Eric Freeman wonders if the Orlando Magic’s locker room will be less friendly this season.
This lack of salary hierarchy is effectively a recipe for in-fighting and discontent, the kind of things that can submarine a season if they’re not handled correctly.
The Magic don’t have enough minutes for all these players, particularly in the frontcourt. It seems as if they have to trade [Marcin] Gortat and Bass for pennies on the dollar just to avoid locker room trouble.
Brandon Bass Says Play Me or Trade Me | Magic Basketball
Eddy explains what Bass needs to improve in order to crack the rotation, and why he’s already lost minutes to Rashard Lewis and Ryan Anderson. He makes a salient point when he observes, “Everyone for the Magic, except for Bass, is a good fit,” and that the onus is on Bass “to change that, one way or the other.”
Here’s why Matt Barnes’ plans to go to Toronto might have hit a fatal snag – Orlando Magic BasketBlog
Last night, it appeared as though Orlando Magic free-agent forward Matt Barnes was headed to the Toronto Raptors. Now, the deal appears to be off. Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel explains why that deal is impossible under the salary cap.
Twitter / Brian Windhorst
Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says this flub lets the Cleveland Cavaliers back into the Barnes sweepstakes, though they aren’t offering as much money as the Raptors were.
We’ve known for a few days now that free-agent forward Matt Barnes wouldn’t return to the Orlando Magic; the only blank left was which team he’d join. We now have an answer, as Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc Stein report that Barnes has signed a two-year deal, with the second year a player option, worth or million with the Toronto Raptors. On his Twitter account, Barnes confirmed he signed with Toronto, but did not disclose contract terms. He also thanked Magic fans and expressed his wish that “things could have went down alil [sic] differently.”
Barnes averaged 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in his only season with the Magic, including 10.1 points and 6.0 boards in 58 starts. Magic GM Otis Smith elected to pursue Quentin Richardson, whom he termed “a better skill player” than Barnes, in free-agency this summer rather than re-sign Barnes.
For the second straight summer, Barnes signed a two-year deal with the second year at his option to replace Hedo Turkoglu at small forward, which is kind of odd, when you think about it.
It’s unlikely Matt Barnes will actually kill you … probably. But the idea sure made for some funny T-Shirts.
