Charlie Villanueva is 24 years old, stands 6’11”, and last year averaged over 16 point per game. Still, the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to even make him a $4.6 million qualifying offer. Milwaukee is having financial troubles, but still, this is should be very worrisome to this year’s free agent class. Hedo Turkoglu opted out of a $7.3 million salary for next year - will he really get more than twice as much as Villanueva? Hedo is better - and he has eyebrows - but is he that much better? The demand for tall, offensively-skilled forwards who play zero defense may be less than expected.
Kyle Korver already passed up free agency. Carlos Boozer may not opt out at all. With so many teams cutting payroll, the free agent market might be a very scary place to be in 2009.
