Stiemsma must wait to learn fate

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ORLANDO, Fla.The Minnesota Timberwolves have moved one step closer to ensuring they will get little resistance from the Boston Celtics when they, as expected, present restricted free agent Greg Stiemsma with an offer sheet.
The Timberwolves have used their amnesty provision to waive Darko Milicic. In addition, there are reports that they are working towards buy-outs with Martell Webster and Brad Miller.
Even if Portland decides to not match the 45 million offer sheet Minnesota signed Nicolas Batum to recently, the Timberwolves will still be in good position to sign Stiemsma to more money than the C's can match.
Boston is over the cap and in all likelihood, would consider signing Stiemsma with their bi-annual exception which is worth 1.9 million.
However, Stiemsma's agent Mike Naiditch told CSNNE.com that the C's have not offered that exception to his client, and that Stiemsma has yet to receive an offer sheet from Minnesota even though all indications are that they will move in that direction once the Blazers make a decision on whether to match the offer sheet.
According to CSNNW.com, the Blazers have indicated that they will match the offer sheet which is reportedly worth 46.5 million.
Once the paperwork is submitted to the league office, Portland will have 72 hours from then to match.
So that means free agents -- Stiemsma among them -- will continue to wait for some of the dust to settle before their business begins.
His agent has no problem playing the waiting game."The moratorium is over. It's not the deadline for free agency," Naiditch said. "It's only the beginning. Everyone is in kind of a rush to have resolution on the (July) 11th. That's really just the beginning of free agency."

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