France - Pietrus forced to play waiting game

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As small forwards with similar skills, Matt Barnes and Mickael Pietrus filled many of the same roles for the Warriors last season, knocking down open 3-pointers, collecting the odd rebound and expending as much energy defensively as they could.
Now, the pair has shared similar offseason fates, as well.

Barnes, who was an unrestricted free agent, signed a one-year contract with the Warriors worth $3.5 million on Monday, matching practically dollar for dollar the amount Pietrus is slated to make next season thanks to the qualifying offer the team locked in last month.

It's a far cry from the $5 million-plus each man had hoped to snag as a starting salary on a long-term deal.

"Mickael's in a tough situation," said Barnes, who had been hoping to earn the Warriors' entire midlevel exception of $5.36 million. "I'm sure I'm not the only one the market got up on."

For restricted free agent Pietrus, there is still hope for a larger payday, although the ball is firmly in the Warriors' court, as no offer sheets have been forthcoming from other teams.

Asked if it's correct to assume that the Warriors won't offer Pietrus a long-term deal unless it's in response to another team's offer sheet, Warriors executive vice president Chris Mullin said no.

"We like him. He knows that we like him," Mullin said. "Any other assumption would probably be wrong."

That said, it's hard to envision why the Warriors would bid against themselves for Pietrus' services.

Even if that path leads to the disappointment of Pietrus, which he has made clear in the media this summer.

"I'm totally confident in what I'm doing," Mullin said. "I've been on both sides of this. I know you're not going to please everybody."

Pietrus, who's in France with the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program, isn't sweating Barnes' return, according to his agent, Happy Walters.

"(Barnes' signing) doesn't affect Mickael in terms of him being worried about it," Walters said. "We'll just have to see what happens. Golden State knows other teams are interested, they've talked and we're trying to help that process along."

Indeed, with Barnes on board, the Warriors might be more willing to engage in a sign-and-trade scenario with one of Pietrus' suitors, which would presumably increase both the salary and length of his deal. Dallas and Miami still appear to be at the top of that list, and Pietrus talked up the Heat on Tuesday in Paris.

"The Miami Heat is a great team," Pietrus told PA SportsTicker. "I would love to play with Dwyane Wade and Shaq (Shaquille O'Neal), and I think they have a lot of talent. I really think I could help them, in offense and defense. I think they would appreciate my work."

Securing Barnes and 2006 draft pick Kosta Perovic has effectively eaten up the Warriors' entire midlevel exception, so unless a free agent is willing to come to Oakland for less than the biannual limit of $1.83 million, the only available option for adding players at the moment is via trade. Golden State has a $10 million trade exception from the Jason Richardson deal it could use to add salary, but is only approximately $4 million under the luxury-tax threshold.

Mark Bartlestein, agent for unrestricted free-agent forward James Posey, said the Warriors were still in the picture as a sign-and-trade partner with Posey's former Miami employers, but didn't make it sound as if Golden State is a front-runner.

"There's a lot of conversations that go on. I think anything's a possibility," Bartlestein said. "It's not like we're counting on that, but we haven't ruled that out."