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Trevor Booker won't receive qualifying offer, becomes unrestricted free agent

The Wizards will let their fourth-year forward test the open market this summer.

By Mike Prada
Win McNamee

Trevor Booker's future in D.C. may be numbered. The Wizards declined to make a qualifying offer, which means he'll be an unrestricted free agent this summer, according to Michael Lee of the Washington Post.

Booker was slated to be a restricted free agent, which would have given the Wizards the right to match any offer he received. To preserve that status, though, the Wizards needed to extend a qualifying offer of $3.4 million $4.7 million by June 30. This essentially acts as a placeholder contract that the player can accept for one year if he doesn't find anything else.

But it appears the Wizards won't do this, instead preferring to have the potential for roster and salary-cap flexibility.

There's still a chance that Booker stays in D.C., though it'd likely need to be for less money. However, he can now shop around and the Wizards won't have the first right of refusal. It's not clear if the Wizards also renounced their rights to Booker, which would remove his $5.9 million cap hold. That would be the point where he'd be gone for sure. This move just means that he's not a top priority for them, which makes sense.

Still, I'd lean towards Booker going elsewhere and being replaced than him sticking around.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, it sounds like the Wizards are picking up Kevin Seraphin's $3.8 million qualifying offer, which I find mildly surprising.