Bill Simmons had this to say on his Twitter feed:

Official LBJ Sweepstakes: Cavs, Bulls, NYK (favs); Mavs, Clips (sleepers); NJ, Mia, Hou, LAL(longshots). And so it begins.

It’s going to be an interesting summer. It all starts with the Cavs — can they break through and win a title? Would that keep LeBron in town?

Knicks fans are saying, “we better get LeBron,” but would they take Wade/Bosh or Wade/Stoudemire? Of course they would. I bet they’d even take Joe Johnson instead of Wade in either scenario.

The Bulls are going to be a big player. They have cap space to sign a max player and a very nice core of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah. Chicago would be a great landing spot for LeBron, Wade or Bosh.

- Steve Nash plans to wait and see what happens to the Suns’ roster before getting serious about an extension.

- Ron Artest would like to return to Houston, but if he gets an offer he can’t refuse from someone else, he’s not going to refuse it.

- The Nets have been rumored to be shopping Yi Jianlian, but Rod Thorn doesn’t see it that way.

- Before the lottery, the Grizzlies were supposedly one of the few teams to have more interest in Hasheem Thabeet than Blake Griffin, so expect Memphis to take the UConn shotblocker with the second pick in the draft.

- ESPN Insider says that the Knicks’ interest in Stephen Curry might have more to do with LeBron’s friendship with and admiration for the young man than his being the right pick for the Knicks. So they may draft Curry to have a better shot at LeBron next summer.

- It looks like Rockets owner Leslie Alexander is willing to spend. There’s never been a better time to wrestle good players from other teams looking to cut salary. The Rockets have T-Mac’s monster contract ($22.5 million) that expires next summer, which means the Rockets may be able to pull off a deal similar to the Iverson/Billups swap that the Nuggets made last year.

- The Jazz are willing to pay luxury tax to keep Paul Millsap on the roster. This could just be a smokescreen meant to dissuade other teams from making the restricted free agent an offer, but the Jazz do seem determined to re-sign the talented forward.

The New York Knicks were suspiciously absent from lot of the trade rumors that have been flying the last few days, but that’s mostly because they weren’t in play for any of the big names. They’ve pulled off two deals and may pull off a third…

The Knicks have swung two deals.

No. 1: Tim Thomas, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson to Chicago for Larry Hughes

No. 2: Malik Rose and cash to Oklahoma City for Chris Wilcox

The contracts of Thomas, James and Hughes expire after next season, so in the first deal it looks like the Knicks are trying to make themselves better with Hughes. (I guess.) Rose and Wilcox both have deals that expire this season, so it appears that they’d like to add Wilcox to the mix in the frontcourt. He’s better than Rose, so it’s probably a good move depending on how much cash they had to throw at OKC.

The Knicks may also make a third trade:

Sources say the Kings have offered Kenny Thomas for Nate Robinson and Jared Jeffries. If the Knicks could move Jeffries, it would clear another $6.8 million in the summer of 2010.

The Knicks would have to give up the talented Robinson and eat Thomas’ $8.7 million salary next year … but it’s probably worth it to the Knicks. Especially now that they’ve shored up their offense with the deals for Larry Hughes and Chris Wilcox.

So the Knicks would part ways with the diminutive but talented Nate Robinson in order to give themselves even more cap space in the summer of 2010. This deal might be the result of the possibility of the cap decreasing over the next two years. The Knicks may be looking at their books and realizing that they can’t pay David Lee, Nate Robinson and have enough left over to sign two big-name free agents next summer.

If they were to pull off this trade, they would be on the hook for only $16.7 million heading into next summer. Assuming the cap ends up at $56 million (or so) that leaves $39 million in cap space. If they can sign Lee to a deal averaging around $8 million per season, that leaves $31 million for a superstar or two.

Harrington went public with a trade demand just before the start of the season after privately urging Golden State to move him for months. New York had immediate interest, seeing the versatile and mobile Harrington as an ideal frontcourt fit in new coach Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system.

It will require the Knicks to part with Crawford, their leading scorer and another player they had pegged to flourish under D’Antoni. The Warriors, according to NBA front-office sources, see Crawford as a versatile guard who, although not a pure floor leader, can function well in coach Don Nelson’s system while Monta Ellis recovers from ankle surgery — and in tandem with Ellis once he returns.

Yet it’s believed that Walsh has multiple motivations for re-acquiring one of his favorites. Another sizable lure is Harrington’s contract, which pays him $9.2 million this season, $10 million next season and expires after the 2009-10 campaign. That meshes with New York’s intent to slice payroll and get as far under the salary cap as possible for the highly anticipated free-agent summer of 2010 to join the bidding for Cleveland’s LeBron James.

Crawford has a player option after this season that would extend his contract by two years and $19.4 million. He is likely to exercise that option, so the Knicks were smart to move him if the main goal is to cut salary prior to the summer of 2010, when a number of high-profile free agents may hit the market.

The combo guard is playing the best ball of his career, and at 28, he is in his prime. He should be a nice fit in Golden State with or without Monta Ellis at his side. Crawford can run the point, but his natural position is off guard. He’s a volume shooter, as he has only shot better than 42% once in his career. But when he gets hot, he’s an unstoppable scorer.

Al Harrington has seen his numbers decline over the last few seasons after falling out of favor with Don Nelson. He should be a good fit as a power forward in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo attack. He’s athletic and can hit the long ball pretty effectively. I’m not sure what this means for David Lee, who plays the same position as Harrington (albeit in a very different way). It’s possible that the Knicks will package Lee with Zach Randolph or Eddy Curry in order to sweeten the pot for potential trade partners. Getting rid of either contract would go a long way to clearing serious cap space in the near future.