Never a doubt with Thomas

Not long after Milwaukee Bucks general manager Larry Harris stepped off a jet to present a $38million offer sheet to Washington center Etan Thomas, Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld knew the trip was a waste of time.

All along, Grunfeld said, he had intended to keep the 26-year-old Thomas in Washington, and yesterday the team made it official with a matching offer.

“We felt very good that we were going to sign him right away,” Grunfeld said. “Obviously you have to look at the specifics of the contract and study it for a little while. We met on it and we made the decision right away that in due time we were going to match the offer.”

It was a disappointing decision for the Bucks, who need a bruising, 6-10, 260-pound player like Thomas. As Thomas was a restricted free agent, the Wizards only had to match the offer to keep his rights.

The Wizards have exceeded the salary cap of $43.8million this season. The 11 players under contract bring their projected payroll for the coming season to approximately $45million.

They are somewhat restricted in their ability to pursue what is left of the 2004 free-agent class before the start of the regular season. But they do have most of their mid-level exception (roughly $5million) and a $1.6million veteran’s exception available.

Grunfeld has said all along that the Wizards wanted to keep Thomas, who last season averaged 8.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. Yesterday he reiterated the reasons.

“We think he is an outstanding person as far as character is concerned,” Grunfeld said of Thomas, who did not attend the press conference because of other obligations. “He’s a very good rebounder, shot blocker. He plays with energy. He’s a very good teammate and he is the type of person that we like to have in our organization.”

Wizards owner Abe Pollin, who joined Grunfeld at the press conference, was equally effusive in his praise of Thomas.

“We’re very happy to match,” Pollin said. “There’s no way that I would let Etan Thomas go, no way. He’s part of us and he’s going to be part of us for many years to come.”

Pollin also voiced his pleasure in the trade that shipped both Jerry Stackhouse and Christian Laettner to Dallas in exchange for the team’s new starting small forward, Antawn Jamison.

“We’re getting a superior player in Jamison and a superior human being,” Pollin said. “We are very optimistic about this year. It’s been a great summer and we’re looking forward to training camp.”

The Wizards have until Oct.31 to offer an extension to big men Kwame Brown and Brendan Haywood, the team’s starting power forward and center, respectively, and are operating from a position of strength.

Both players are under contract. The Wizards also have the players’ Larry Bird rights which, if they chose to do so, will allow Washington to pay them more than any other team in the league next summer.

“There is no urgency to that,” Grunfeld said. “We feel we are in a good position there. We will probably sit down and have some conversations with those players this summer. But there is no urgency there.”