SEATTLE -- The Seattle SuperSonics, looking for a starting
center after the departure of Patrick Ewing, signed Dallas
Mavericks backup center Calvin Booth to an offer sheet Tuesday.
The Mavericks have 15 days to match the Sonics' offer, but they
are over the salary cap and would have to make a trade in order to
clear enough room to keep Booth, a restricted free agent.
Booth signed a six-year offer worth a little more than $34
million, according to a source who refused to be identified. The team did not disclose terms.
The Sonics have more room under their salary cap now because they let Ruben Patterson leave as a free agent and sign
with the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday.
The 6-foot-11, 241-pound Booth becomes the first veteran player
signed by the Sonics since their 2000-2001 season ended April 18.
The Sonics have lost Emanual Davis, Jelani McCoy, Ruben
Wolkowyski, David Wingate, Ewing and Patterson off their roster.
Ewing was Seattle's starting center for one season and will play
for Orlando next season.
"Calvin was definitely at the top of our list this summer,"
Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. "I feel he is one of the
up-and-coming centers in the league with tremendous potential.
Calvin has a great feel for the game, especially on the defensive
end of the floor."
The Sonics brought in Booth and 6-10, 270-pound Marc Jackson,
Golden State's backup center, for workouts.
Booth, 25, averaged 5.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.02 blocked shots
and 17.0 minutes in 55 regular-season games and 3.8 points, 2.8
rebounds and 13.7 minutes in 10 playoff games last season, his
third in the NBA.
"Calvin has a tremendous upside and is an excellent young
talent," Seattle general manager Rick Sund said. "He really fits
into what we're trying to do here in Seattle."
At the end of last season, new principal owner Howard Schultz
and CEO Wally Walker said they would listen to offers for
seven-time All-Star point guard Gary Payton and would try to trade
the disappointing Vin Baker, who lost his starting power forward's
job last season.
Schultz and Walker, also a part owner of the team, apparently
didn't like the offers they got for Payton, the franchise's
leading career scorer.
And they apparently couldn't unload Baker's $87 million contract
after he averaged career lows of 12.2 points and 5.7 rebounds last
season.
Now, it appears that Payton, 33, will be back for his 12th
season in Seattle, and that Baker will return, too.
"We said we would pursue and we'll listen to anything that
makes sense for us," Sund said Monday. "But if anything doesn't
make sense for us and we've said this from the beginning, that
we're not going to make any foolish trades."
Led by Payton's 23.1 points a game last season, the Sonics
went 44-38, but missed making the playoffs for the second time in
three seasons. Paul Westphal was fired and replaced by McMillan
after the team's 6-9 start.
The Sonics are rebuilding around forward Rashard Lewis, whom
they drafted out of high school in the Houston area in 1998, and
their top draft choice from 2000, swingman Desmond Mason.
In June, the Sonics drafted forward Vladimir Radmanovic, guard
Earl Watson and center Predrag Drobnjak.
Seattle doesn't have a hidden agenda, Sund said.
"From the basketball standpoint, the one thing that we have set
as our goal is to try to continue to get younger," he said. "It's
all been focused on basically younger players."
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