Restricted free agency is a wonderful thing for team executives, and a terrible thing for restricted free agents. It might sound good for the players -- being able to 'test' the open market, but it's a mirage. Right now, players from Anderson Varejao to Sasha Pavlovic to Mickael Pietrus are on the verge of being forced to play for a pittance after a failed market test. And that seems to be the norm... look at Charlie Bell's lesson. He tried to decide where he wanted to go, and now he's stuck in Milwaukee for five more years.Teams have all the power, especially considering the lack of cap space around the league. Few teams have even their mid-level exceptions left over; for all intents, that's the most a fellow like Varejao or Pavlovic could command by way of offer sheet at this point. No less a talent than Gerald Wallace had to take his qualifying offer last summer, and that might as well be an extension of the rookie contract (in other words, it's a far cry from market value). The collective cap is too bloated with the leftovers of early millennium excess and recent wonton mid-level spending. So in reality, many above-average first-rounders get locked to low wages for five years, unless their agent gets them in early come their restricted summer or they work out a long-term deal with their scared team after Year Four in the league.
Pavlovic and now Varejao have threatened Europe, like Bell before them. If these players have any designs on returns to the NBA, though, that threat will ring empty. Why? Because players who flee the NBA as restricted free agents retain their restricted status upon re-entering the league. So if Pavlovic plays a year in Europe and decides to come back next summer, Cleveland would still have the right to match any contract he signed. In essence, it puts off unrestricted free agency one more year. So the best bet for these disgruntled restricteds, again, is to play for chump change one more time and pray they have a good year.
