ESPN.com says Rashard Lewis is off to Orlando
This doesn't exactly break my heart. I would have liked to keep Lewis, but I'm not convinced he's a max player -- he's got one All-Star selection under his belt, and even that was tenuous, brought about mostly because the team was having success.
He's a nice player, but not a superstar. I don't want to see the Sonics handcuffed by a bad contract, the way the Wolves were when they gave Wally Szczerbiak his fat deal. A max deal to Lewis probably would have done that.
Now, we'll see how good Presti is. The one thing the Sonics had going for them was that they could offer him a six-year contract; the most Orlando can offer is five. Let's see if Presti can really earn his money by negotiating a sign-and-trade with the Magic, where Lewis gets his six-year deal and the Sonics get some kind of return on him. That also would be best for the Magic, who still have designs on signing Darko Milicic. A sign-and-trade would give them enough cap space to still sign him, which they wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
I don't know exactly what the Sonics might get in return, but I know there are other people out there way smarter than me who break that stuff down. When I run across it, I'll pass it along.
