Unseld: Bullets Are in a Rut

A day after the Washington Bullets’ season was ended by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the NBA playoffs, Coach Wes Unseld said the team is in a rut and suggested that trading players might be one of the few avenues of escape.

“I’m looking down the road, at where we want to go and how we want to get there--that’s the number one priority right now,” said Unseld, who took over the team Jan. 3 and led the Bullets to a 30-25 regular season record. “We’ll take everything into consideration--free agency, the expansion draft--but first you have to set your goals . . . the big problem . . . the only light at the end of the tunnel is trades. We’ll have to make some changes to get out of this rut, and we’ve been in a rut.”

During this decade, the Bullets have had a regular season record of 357-381. Although they’ve qualified for the playoffs in seven of the nine years since the start of the 1979-80 season, only once, in 1981-82, have they advanced beyond the first round.

Sunday the Bullets lost, 99-78, in the fifth game of their best-of-five series. Monday, the Washington players met at Capital Centre to distribute playoff shares. Of the 13 men in the locker room for the final meeting of the 1987-88 season only three--Moses Malone, Bernard King and Charles Jones--were over 30 years of age.

Of the trio, only King, who came to Washington as a free agent after signing a two-year contract in November, is certain to return. It’s possible Jones could be left unprotected by Washington for next month’s expansion draft and Malone becomes a free agent with the expiration of his contract.

Malone had said last week that his representatives had halted negotiations with the Bullets until the team’s season ended. “I don’t want to get into it but years (on a new contract), that’s the big thing,” Malone, 33, said Monday.

Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players association, the center is an unencumbered free agent. If the Bullets fail to sign Malone before the conclusion of this season’s championship series, he would be free to accept a contract from any other team in the league. If that happened, Washington would be unable to match the offer (as it could under the old contract) and would not receive compensation in return.

Financially, there are a number of decisions that both Malone and the Bullets have to make. If the Bullets re-sign Malone, they have to offer him a raise with an increase of at least 25% above his previous salary, which would mean adding about $500,000 to his $2.1 million paycheck.

However, another team wishing to sign Malone isn’t bound to any sort of figure as long as the salary fits within the squad’s salary cap. It has been said that a contending team like Dallas or Atlanta could offer Malone less than $2.1 million and still sign the all-star because of its championship potential. Last week Malone balked at the idea of having his salary reduced under any circumstances.

The Bullets’ decision is obviously whether to spend that kind of money on a player who may only have two years of premium play left. Monday, Unseld said he’d like to have Malone back but added that there was probably some limit as to how much the team might pay.

“I’d like to have him back, he’s the center of this team,” Unseld said. “But at any cost? That’s a decision that will have to be made by me and the people who have to foot the bill.”

Bullets owner Abe Pollin was unavailable for comment Monday, but that decision undoubtedly will tell which approach Washington will take regarding its future. Re-signing Malone would represent the status quo but to let him go would probably knock the team out of the playoffs for at least a couple of seasons, a thought that has been unpalatable to Pollin in recent years.

If the Bullets decided that Malone didn’t fit into their plans, their only hope of getting something in return for him would be to re-sign him before the end of the playoffs then trade.

One member of the Pistons’ organization said that would be his course of action were he in Washington’s position, suggesting that he might even arrange a deal with another team that Malone approved of. Monday, though, Malone said he would never OK such a plan.

“If they re-sign me it won’t be with any agreements,” he said. “If I sign with the Washington Bullets then I want to be here; I wouldn’t do it go get traded. Why should I do that? I’m in a situation where I can make the decision of where I want to be (before signing any contract).”