The Minnesota Timberwolves used their amnesty designation to waive center Darko Milicic on Thursday and submitted an offer sheet to Portland Trail Blazers restricted free agent Nicolas Batum.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said the team expected Batum to sign the offer
Thursday. Taylor also said the Wolves would continue to talk about
a sign-and-trade option for acquiring the restricted free agent.
Milicic has two years and $10 million remaining on his contract, but only $7 million is guaranteed. Once finalized, Milicic will go through a modified amnesty process. Teams with cap space will be able to make blind bids to pick up a portion of his remaining salary. If no team makes a bid, Milicic will become an unrestricted free agent.
The Timberwolves were in talks to trade for Batum. A league source said three teams were going to be involved. Portland would have received shooting guard Kyle Korver from Chicago and two future first-round draft picks from Minnesota. The Bulls would have acquired a second-round pick from the Timberwolves, the source said. But the teams were not able to agree to a trade.
Terms of Batum's offer sheet were not available, but his agent, Bouna Ndiaye, told The Associated Press last week he and the Wolves agreed to terms
on a four-year, $45 million deal with bonuses that could push the value past $50 million.
Blazers general manager Neil Olshey said Wednesday the team would match any offers for Batum.
Ndiaye told the AP that Batum wanted to play for the Wolves and they hoped the Blazers either would not match the offer or execute a sign-and-trade.
Information from ESPN.com's Chad Ford and The Associated Press contributed to this report.