SAN ANTONIO -- Free agent guard Derek Anderson has made a verbal commitment to sign with Portland, and his agent has asked the San Antonio Spurs to try to work out a sign-and-trade deal with the Trail Blazers.
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"He's verbally committed there," agent Tony Dutt said Friday. "It's disappointing that it didn't work out with the Spurs, but at the same time Derek feels happy with the Portland situation."
Dutt said Anderson probably will sign for
the Blazers' mid-level salary-cap exception of $4.5 million. That
amount is granted to teams that are over the $42.5 million cap.
Anderson's six-year deal, with an opt-out clause after five
years, would be worth $34 million.
He could earn more if the Blazers and Spurs can work out a
sign-and-trade deal. Negotiations probably won't begin until early
next week, Dutt said.
"We sure would like to help them (the Spurs) out if we can, and
at the same time it would be helping Derek out with a
sign-and-trade," Dutt told Portland's KFXX-AM on Friday.
Anderson had been negotiating with the Spurs over the past two
weeks but was unhappy that San Antonio would not guarantee a sixth
year or give him the maximum allowable raises from year to year.
"I'm not going back to San Antonio," Anderson said in a report
on the San Antonio Express-News Web site Friday. "I waited three
weeks for them to negotiate with me, and then all of a sudden they
give me a deadline."
The Blazers, who tried to sign Anderson as a free agent last
year when he left the Clippers, apparently stepped in at the right
moment.
A Blazers' spokeswoman said Friday she could not confirm the
deal.
Aside from the Trail Blazers, other teams expressing interest in
Anderson were the Cavaliers, Mavericks and Heat, Dutt said.
Anderson, a four-year veteran who also spent time with the
Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers, was the Spurs'
second-leading scorer last season with an average of 15.5 points
per game.
He was injured during a second-round playoff series against
Dallas and did not return until Game 3 of the Western Conference
finals against the Lakers.
His departure leaves the Spurs with a big hole to fill at
shooting guard.
Team officials from the Spurs were not
immediately available for comment.
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