An offer of a one-year deal won’t be enough to keep point guard J.J. Barea in Dallas, no matter how much he wants to remain with the Mavericks.
Barea said Thursday during an appearance on ESPN 103.3’s Ben and Skin Show that the Mavericks had refused to offer more than one-year deals.
“That is just crazy for me,” said Barea, who has discussed three- and four-year offers with other teams. “Just disappointed and just looking at other teams now seriously.”
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson seem determined to create enough salary-cap space to attempt to sign one of the free-agent superstars next summer. However, Barea said that plan had not been clearly articulated to him or his agent, Dan Fegan, who also represents Jason Terry and Shawn Marion as well as 2012 free agent-to-be Dwight Howard.
“We don’t understand what’s going on with the management here in Dallas,” Barea said. “I don’t know what their plans [are]. Their plan is not to bring me back, not to bring Tyson (Chandler) back, so we’ll see what happens.”
Barea, who worked his way from being undrafted camp fodder to a key role player for the Mavs, never envisioned leaving Dallas. He strongly hinted days after the Mavs won the championship last season that he’d take less money to stay with the only NBA franchise he’s played for.
However, Barea isn’t willing to take a one-year offer when other teams are interested in signing him to a long-term deal.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be like this after everything we did, after my five years here, after what we did last year,” Barea said. “Now you’ve just got to go with it and things happen.”