Aaron Brooks, Patty Mills and Wilson Chandler just might be having seconds thoughts about that whole “play in China during the NBA lockout” thing.
It’s certainly thrown a wrench in the works about them playing at all the rest of this NBA season, that is for sure.
With one day remaining until the NBA trade deadline expires on Thursday, a number of players around the league sit and wait to see how their immediate future plans change for the remainder of the 2011-12 season, and that’s even become the case for the trio of Brooks, Mills and Chandler.
They are stuck in a state of limbo as the current teams (Phoenix, Portland, Denver) figure out how to best utilize their restricted free agent contracts and respective teams’ 15-man roster situations.
Mills had been under contract with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association until he received his letter of clearance from FIBA two weeks ago, allowing him to return to the NBA. Or at least he thought that was he case. To his dismay, Mills learned under the new collective bargaining agreement, Portland still holds his rights to his contract and in order for the Australian point guard to sign with another team, the Blazers would have to renounce his rights.
The same holds true for Chandler and the Nuggets, Brooks with the Suns.
With Denver, they are interested only in inking Chandler (who played for Zhejiang Guangsha) to a long-term contract. Their fear: he will bolt and become an unrestricted free agent if Chandler simply signed for the remainder of this season. Although Chandler’s agent, Chris Luchey, remains in negotiations with Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri and team president Josh Kroenke, all signs point to the small forward not returning to Denver at this time.
Brooks — who is the last of the NBA players remaining in China who signed during the lockout — is helping Guangdong Southern Tigers make a playoff and CBA Finals run and leads the team in scoring (21 points per game) and assists (4 per game) this season, is simply reserved to the fact that he will sit out the rest of the season in Phoenix. The Suns can offer Brooks a multi-year contract, but that would also cut into their salary-cap space during the offseason. It’s hard to imagine the organization making that investment considering they haven’t been that sold on the point guard’s play from last season.
Out of all three players, Chandler is the one who can make the most impact to Denver’s situation. While both Portland and Phoenix are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, the Nuggets are sitting sixth in the Western Conference at 24-19.
There is another option for Brooks, Mills and Chandler if an NBA return isn’t in the cards: return to playing overseas.
A number of teams in Europe — namely Italy and Spain — are believed to be interested in signing Chandler. Mills always leaves the door open to return to Australia as he prepares for the 2012 London Olympics and Brooks can easily find work abroad too as teams in Europe begin to make their own playoff push.
Until that decision time comes, Mills has been working out with his alma mater, the St. Mary’s Gaels in California. Chandler calls Denver home these days as he works out with a personal trainer and waits word from the Nuggets, and Brooks is set to go through similar motions once his postseason concludes in China.
Come Friday, who knows where these three guys will be.
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