Last week it was announced that the Blazers had signed second round draft pick Jeff Pendergraph but, as always, the terms of the contract were not disclosed.
Thanks to Sham Sports for disclosing those terms today.
Pendergraph signed a 3 year minimum deal.
- Year 1 Salary: $457,588
- Year 2 Salary: $762,195
- Year 3 Salary: $884,293
Jeff Pendergraph: Signed a three year minimum salary contract in September 2009. First year is fully guaranteed. Second year fully unguaranteed, but becomes fully guaranteed if:
a) Pendergraph plays in 10 or more regular season games in 2009/10
b) Pendergraph plays in at least 50% of the team's postseason games in 2009/10
c) Pendergraph is not waived on or before July 25th 2010.
Third year is also fully unguaranteed, becoming fully guaranteed if:
a) Pendergraph plays in 41 or more regular season games in 2010/11
b) Pendergraph is not waived on or before June 30th 2011.
The Blazers did the right thing by signing Pendergraph despite his hip injury, which was suffered during off-season work preparing for the season. Past that, though, this deal doesn't get much better for the organization, which is no surprise. It's at the minimum (rookie) commitment so a warm body for the roster literally doesn't come any cheaper. And the team has also carefully hedged its bets: if for some reason Pendergraph's injury turns out to be difficult to recover from or if questions about whether Pendergraph can handle NBA bigs from an athletic standpoint turn out to be true, the Blazers can cut and run after this season with very little difficulty.
To boil it down, the non-guaranteed 2nd and 3rd years of the deal allow the Blazers to be as committed -- or un-committed -- to Pendergraph as they desire next off-season. The message to Pendergraph: every day over the next 9 or 10 months you're fighting to earn the second year of your contract.
In case you missed it, Sham also recently revealed Dante Cunningham's contract details and shed light on some very interesting Brandon Roy contract incentives. If only Sham had played for the mid-1990s Sonics, he'd be the Blazers Assistant GM right now.
-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)