Nuggets Sign Wolf to Offer Sheet

The Denver Nuggets signed free agent Joe Wolf to an offer sheet Thursday, giving the Clippers 15 days to match the deal, worth more than $2 million for the next two years, or lose their former first-round draft choice without compensation.

The package is believed to guarantee Wolf about $1.8 million over two seasons, including a signing bonus. There also are $200,000 in incentive clauses and an option year is worth $1 million.

Those numbers, set against 39.5% shooting in 1989-90, may price Wolf out of the Clippers’ range. Wolf, about to begin his fourth NBA season, averaged 17.2 minutes last season, although he played in 77 games, more than any other Clipper except Charles Smith, who played in 78.

“This is a good contract for Joe,” said Mark Portnoy, Wolf’s agent. “The way they (the Clippers) used him last year, I don’t know if they’ll pay this kind of money. But we’ll wait and see.”

Wolf had perhaps his best game of the season at Denver, a 19-point, nine-rebound showing Feb. 23.

In the next meeting at Denver, he made seven of nine shots for 17 points, and on April 20 against Seattle, coached then by Bernie Bickerstaff, the Nuggets’ new general manager, the 6-foot-10 forward made three of six three-pointers.

The Chicago Bulls also showed interest in Wolf, Portnoy said, as did two teams in Europe. The Nuggets are looking to add size to a team that has one 7-footer, Blair Rasmussen, and only one other player is as tall as 6-10, unsigned rookie Terry Mills.