Kevin Seraphin accepts Wizards’ qualifying offer
The Washington Wizards have Kevin Seraphin back for one year and $3.8 million after the young big man accepted the team’s qualifying offer on Friday, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports.
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Seraphin, 24, received the qualifying offer from Washington last month despite a poor 2013-14 season coming off the bench. He didn’t receive much interest as a restricted free agent, with much of the market quickly drying up once the big names went off the board.
Rather than accept less money elsewhere in hopes of taking his career to the next level, Seraphin will return to D.C. and give the Wizards impressive frontcourt depth. Playing time hopefully won’t be important to Seraphin, though, because he currently stands as the sixth big man on the team’s roster, behind Marcin Gortat, Nene, Kris Humphries, DeJuan Blair and Drew Gooden.
Last season, Seraphin averaged just 10.9 minutes per game, taking on a significantly reduced role after back-to-back seasons of 20-plus minutes a night. He scored 4.7 points per game on 51 percent shooting, and showed progress as a free throw shooter, but remains a sub-par defender who struggles with his positioning and footwork.
The Wizards originally acquired Seraphin (along with Kirk Hinrich) on draft day in 2010 as part of a cap-saving trade by the Chicago Bulls. He quickly became one of the team’s top young players, carving out a spot in the rotation by his second season, but has failed to keep it as the team moves towards contention.
Now, Seraphin will essentially give Washington depth, and an adequate option should one of the key players go down. Otherwise, he likely won’t play much, and get paid handsomely to do so.