Wesley Matthews Contract is Guaranteed

Wesley Matthews’s contract is guaranteed

// January 6th, 2010 // Player Profile

Some good news came to the rookie, Wesley Matthews, that his contract would be guaranteed through the rest of this season. If the Jazz play their cards right, hopefully they’ll lock him up for a few years at the league minimum for rookies and we’ll have the NBA’s best bargain on our hands (much as Paul Millsap was). This provides a great opportunity to talk about how great of a player Matthews is.

For the ’09-10 season, Matthews will earn $457,588. As of right now, his contract is only for this year but just like any other rookie the Jazz will be able to sign him to a multi-year contract before any other team can.

Matthews went undrafted in the 2009 draft after playing a full 4 years at Marquette. He was invited to play for the Kings and Jazz in the summer league. With injuries to CJ Miles and Kyle Korver the Jazz felt like the needed some added depth in the wing positions and signed Matthews. In very non-typical Jerry Sloan style Matthews made the starting lineup very quickly. Matthews began contributing almost immediately with some of his more memorable performances against Cleveland and Philadelphia early in the season.

In the Jazz’ continued quest for better defense, they have adopted an individual grading system based on defensive performance for every player. The Jazz haven’t been quiet in mentioning that Wesley Matthews has continually been the top (or near to) defender for the Jazz. His size requires him to defend some of the leagues best players like Kobe Bryant, Brandon Roy, J.R. Smith, Joe Johnson, and a lot more. He has performed admirably against some of these great players, and this is his first year. I’m excited to think of his progression and what he is capable of. I’ve heard some say that he is undersized for his position but he is about the same size as Bruce Bowen or Kobe Bryant and both have been lauded as some of the best defenders of the last decade.

Offensively he has a number of weapons that have a lot of room to grow. He can catch and shoot, he has decent dribbling skills, he can create his own shot and is surprisingly good at getting to the rim. Kyle Korver can only make a claim to one of those skills and he hasn’t even done the one very well this year. Sometimes Matthews shot selection can be better but that is a very typical rookie characteristic and most (if not all) rookies improve with time….except CJ Miles that is. I have seen little improvement in his selection and he’s been in the league 5 years now. Clearly I’m high on Wesley Matthews but, realistically, how high is his ceiling?

The interesting thing will be to look towards the next few seasons because the Jazz have some decisions to make at the wing. Kyle Korver’s contract expires this season and I have a hard time believing the Jazz will bring him back considering he’s a one-trick pony. Ronnie Brewer will be a restricted free agent this summer and he very well could get some offers in the $6 million/year range. We’re on the hook to CJ for $3.7M for 2 years after this season BUT the Jazz have a team option on him after next season which I’m praying, to the basketball gods, the Jazz exercise. Considering that we could lock up Wesley Matthews for very cheap for a few years it seems like we could reduce our logjam at the wing position by letting Korver and maybe CJ or Brewer walk. I, personally, like a lineup with Matthews at the 2 and Brewer at the 3. Given the Jazz’ financial situation it might be tough to match an offer that Brewer will likely receive this summer.

For now, I hope that Matthews starts getting his minutes back since CJ and Korver have been gratiously taking them.

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