Clipper Center Bill Walton Becomes Free Agent Again

Clipper center Bill Walton is a free agent for the second time in a year, but that comes as no surprise to General Manager Carl Scheer.

“Bill made his intentions known in April,” Scheer said Wednesday.

Walton, 32, filed for free agency June 1 and has until Aug. 1 to sign an offer sheet from another NBA team. If he does, the Clippers will have an opportunity to match it. If no other team makes an offer, Walton will play with the Clippers under the terms of his existing contract.

An unusual clause in the four-year contract Walton signed before last season gave him the option to declare himself a free agent if the Clippers failed to make the playoffs.

When Walton became a free agent after last season, Scheer said that signing Walton was the Clippers’ top priority. He isn’t saying that now, though, since the Clippers will probably have the opportunity to pick Benoit Benjamin, Creighton’s 7-foot center, with the third choice in next Tuesday’s draft.

“That would not be a top priority,” Scheer said of retaining Walton. “I expected more out of Walton (last season) than what he gave us. Whether he can do what we expect him to, I don’t know. But Bill is an asset for us.”

The Lakers expressed interest in signing Walton last season.

“We will try to do some things to help ourselves for next year,” General Manager Jerry West said, when asked about Walton, “but right now our season’s just over. We will have a meeting this weekend to see what direction we want to go. We’ll see what happens.”