Following last month’s trade deadline, the Hornets were more than willing to negotiate buyouts with their veterans on expiring contracts. Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were both bought out within days of the deadline and quickly caught on with new teams.
Veteran center Bismack Biyombo, whose four-year, $68MM contract will be up at season’s end, tells Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer that he could have gotten a buyout and that he considered the possibility, noting that “a lot of (teams were) calling.” However, he opted to stick with the Hornets and play out the rest of his contract in Charlotte, explaining that he wanted to continue to be a veteran mentor as the team rebuilds.
“The house is on fire? Let’s find a way to fix it,” Biyombo said of the Hornets’ situation. “I think the way we have been competing shows a lot of character from a lot of guys.”
Biyombo, 27, has been out of the starting lineup and even out of the rotation at times this season, but he’s seeing regular minutes lately, averaging 8.1 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 1.6 BPG in his last seven games (20.5 MPG).
Although it’s probably too late for the Hornets, who are 5.5 games back of the eighth-seeded Nets, to make a run at the playoffs, Biyombo is happy to fill the leadership void that was created in Charlotte when longtime Hornets like Kemba Walker, Williams, and Kidd-Gilchrist departed.
“When things are not going right, everybody wants to run away. It’s human nature,” Biyombo said. “Instead of always seeing problems, sometimes you can see opportunity. So we lean on each other.”
How in the world did he ever get a 68m contract from Orlando?
Probably the same reason the Magic can’t get over the hump of being mediocre: poor management.
Bad franchises are bad for a reason, because they consistently make bad decisions. It’s the common thread amongst all the consistently below average teams in the NBA.
Cap spike paid a lot of bad players a lot of money. You can thank the absurd CBA and salary cap regulations.
If I remember correctly, he had some monster rebound/block games in 2016 ECF. Parlayed that with the cap spike that summer.
He spiked in Rebounds but not enough to earn a 14mil a year increase
Right, knee jerk reaction from highly visible games against James’ Cavs in ECF accompanied by the cap spike
The only people “calling” Biyombo were relatives asking for “loans”. He was not in demand among contenders, to be sure. He’s putting a good spin on what will probably be his last NBA season. He might get a tryout somewhere but his skills are not in demand so it is unlikely he will get another contract, might as well make the Hornets pay all of this one.
he’s not worth $17 million but he’s good enough to be a backup center on most teams
Backup centers aren’t exactly a hot commodity these days. Lakers fans may think it will be difficult to re-sign both Boogie and Howard, but it will be way more affordable than they think.
This 100 percent won’t be his last NBA season.
Maybe this is who James harden was talking about when he said 7 foot and no skill dunking
Biyombo is only 6′ 8″
Bet your fun to hang out with
Isn’t 19 minutes a game in 51 games played a “regular rotation player?”
This stuff isn’t complicated.
When I said he hasn’t been “a regular rotation player for the entire season,” I meant he’s been out of rotation at times (ie. five consecutive DNP-CDs a month ago). I reworded to make that clearer.
Didn’t mean to be snarky. He seems like he has a job to me.
In other words, I got paid on my last contract and don’t want to give up any money because my next contract will be 2-3 million per year
If I were him, I’d do the same. Can’t blame a player for accepting an oversized contract and playing exactly how he did before the contract.
2 to 3 mil? – only if he is lucky, or playing in China.
How dare this man make as much money as possible?!