they shouldn't have been so surprised by his opting out.

The W's were probably hoping/banking on another year of BD playing for a contract... allows them to negotiate with Ellis as a combo. G as opposed to their starting PG and gives them a full year to evaluate his ability to play the point.

another 45+ win season.

Baron opts out, the W's quickly shift gears. Arenas wasn't going to sign here. He was going to follow the money, which he did.

Brand wanted to get back to the playoffs. The W's w/o Davis didn't offer him a better opportunity than the Clips w/Davis or the Sixers in the E. That Philly cleared salary to increase their offer seemed to go a long way with Brand.

4-5 million per for Turiaf isn't Foyle-ugly on the contract front, but the W's were sitting on ~8 million in cap space at the time. The W's halved that to sign a back-up F/C. Again, not a great use of their assets at the time.

Giving Maggette 50 million when his next best offers were MLE deals shows just how much over the W's feel they have to pay to sign someone. He doesn't fit particularly well next to Ellis. He doesn't create for teammates. He's an efficient scorer and I think Nelson will take advantage of his skills, but he's not a guy who takes this team to where Baron Davis could.