Per ESPN…

LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul were among the players who attended a negotiating session between the NBA and the union Thursday.

“It’s important for me that all of us, as being the faces of the NBA, to be involved in the negotiations and what’s going on,” Anthony said as he left. “Our future is in jeopardy if we can’t come into a mutual agreement.”

LeBron and Wade are locked into long term deals, and it would be very difficult for the owners to negotiate any kind of changes to those contracts. The guys that really have something to lose with an owner-friendly CBA are Anthony and Paul, who will be signing new deals in the next two years.

Regardless, the show of force from the players’ side is important. The owners need to know that the league’s biggest names are behind the union in these negotiations.

The four-hour bargaining session Thursday was the first since February’s All-Star weekend, when the players — also strengthened by the surprising attendance of some big names — rejected the owners’ proposal. The union recently submitted its own proposal, but commissioner David Stern has indicated it’s similar to the current CBA, and the owners are seeking significant changes to the system.

Stern has estimated the league will lose about $370 million this season, which the union disputes. The sides began discussions last year but remained far apart, creating fears of a lockout next summer.

Stern cracks me up. He effuses positivity whenever he’s asked about the financial state of the league — to the point that I think he’s trying to hypnotize his audience — but now that it’s time to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, the league is suddenly $370 million in the red. After going on and on about how well the league is doing worldwide, he’s pleading poverty.

However, the CBA does need a few changes. Contracts need to be guaranteed only to a certain point — say, 50% in years 3-4-5 — or they need to be kept to a maximum of four years. Too many franchises handicap themselves by giving long-term, lucrative contracts to players on the decline. Also, there’s nothing a team can do when a perfectly good player is hamstrung by injuries after signing his deal (i.e. Michael Redd or Tracy McGrady).

I’d also like to see a harder cap. Teams with free-spending owners like James Dolan, Jerry Buss or Mark Cuban make things that much tougher on small market teams who can’t afford to keep up with the Joneses. Fortunately, these teams — the Knicks, Lakers and the Mavs — are generally way over the cap, so they aren’t competing directly with the small market teams for free agents. (The Knicks were obviously the exception this summer, but they’ll be over the cap before too long, especially if they rehire Isiah Thomas in a year or two.) All in all, the salary cap rules aren’t too bad — at least it’s not uncapped, like baseball.

The Associated Press is reporting that Tracy McGrady will sign a one-year contract with the Detroit Pistons for the league minimum ($1.3 million).

I thought that the 31-year-old would perhaps sign a two- or three-year deal for $3-$4 million per season, and if he had been willing to accept a role off the bench, he may have been able to strike such a deal. The Bulls were interested, but when he balked at a reserve role, they moved on to Keith Bogans… Keith Bogans. Think about that for a second.

T-Mac is officially in Allen Iverson territory.

Presumably he agreed to sign with the Pistons in a starting role, but what does that mean for Rip Hamilton and/or Tayshaun Prince?

Looks like Chicago is getting closer to signing Tracy McGrady.

The Bulls are prepared to sign Tracy McGrady if he proves to be sufficiently healthy in a workout Monday and can convince the team he is willing to accept a bench role, one source familiar with Chicago’s thinking said Sunday.

“Nothing is done until it’s done, but I expect the Bulls to sign McGrady later this week,” the source said.

Although he has expressed interest in snagging one of the spots on Miami’s bench in support of the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh triumvirate and he auditioned for the Los Angeles Clippers last week, Chicago is undeniably where McGrady has been hoping to wind up.

McGrady made his desires evident in several recent messages on his Twitter feed, including his pronouncements Saturday that he has “unfinished business” with the Bulls and that it “could be fate this time round” with Chicago after drawing serious interest from the Bulls in the 1997 draft and again during free agency in 2000.

It obviously doesn’t hurt McGrady’s chances that Bulls star Derrick Rose told ESPNChicago.com’s Nick Friedell on Friday that the idea of signing McGrady — Rose’s favorite player as a kid — has his full support.

“That would be good,” Rose said. “I think that if he comes along, he could help our team.

“A player like him, with his experience and how he plays, I think it would help us.”

McGrady is/was a great player, when healthy. But ‘health’ has always been his biggest problem. He has missed a ton of games in his career, so his mileage maybe isn’t as bad as a typical 31-year-old. (Remember though, he came to the NBA straight out of high school, so he has played 852 games in his career.)

It sounds like the Bulls want him to anchor the bench, but it’s crowded on the wing with Luol Deng, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and now possibly T-Mac in the fold. As long as the Bulls aren’t investing too much money in McGrady, it (probably) can’t hurt to roll the dice and see how much he has left.

Here’s what he told the NY Times…

There’s no question I will be an All-Star,” McGrady said. “Not right now, but next year when I come into the season, I will be an All-Star-caliber player, there’s no question.”

He added, for emphasis, “I will be myself next year.”

All right, so he said he’d be an All-Star caliber player, and that’s different than saying he’ll actually make the All-Star game, but still.

I admire the guy’s confidence and optimism, but I think McGrady’s All-Star days are behind him. Who knows…maybe he’ll prove his doubters wrong.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

ESPN has the details.

The Knicks will acquire McGrady and Sergio Rodriguez from Sacramento, sources said.

The Rockets get Kevin Martin, Jordan Hill and Jared Jeffries from New York and will have the right to swap first-round picks with New York in 2011 as well as take on New York’s 2012 first-round pick.

Sacramento obtains Houston’s Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey and New York’s Larry Hughes.

This differs from the Rockets/Kings deal I wrote about earlier in that Houston will take on Jeffries’ contract next season and in return get a prospect (Jordan Hill) the right to move up in the 2011 draft. In addition, the Rockets get the Knicks’ pick in 2012. I love this trade from Houston’s perspective.

The Knicks get to see if T-Mac has anything left in the tank and a decent young point guard in Sergio Rodriguez (6 points/3 assists in 13 minutes of PT for the Kings). More importantly, they free up enough cap space (~$30 million) two sign two big-name free agents this summer.

I’m not sure why the Kings wanted to get the Knicks involved. They’re taking on Hughes contract for this season, so I guess it will save them the trouble of buying T-Mac out.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Multiple media outlets have reported that the Rockets and Kings have struck a deal that involves sharpshooting off guard Kevin Martin.

…the Kings and Rockets have agreed in principle to a deal that would send Kevin Martin and three other players to Houston in return for McGrady and forwards Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey.

But that might just be the start.

As the teams hammer out the details today, there are reports the Knicks are still involved, intent on landing McGrady and unloading Jared Jeffries.

If no deal with the Knicks is made, the Rockets and Kings are still expected to go through with the swap.

The Rockets couldn’t come to terms with the Knicks because they were reluctant to take on Jared Jeffries’ contract without owning the Knicks’ future first rounders. They’ve reportedly coveted Martin all along, so when he became available, they went out and struck a deal with the Kings.

If it stays simply a Sacramento-Houston deal, the Rockets will have essentially landed Martin at the cost of Carl Landry and the undead body of Tracy McGrady. While Houston fans will be sad to see Landry go, they’ll be getting a dynamic shooting guard and one of the best scorers in the game. Alongside Aaron Brooks, the Rockets will have one of the great young backcourts in the league.

And the amazing thing is that it doesn’t appear that the Rockets will take on any long-term contracts other than Martin’s.

As for the Kings, they wanted a big man for Martin and they got a pretty good one in Landry, who is averaging 16-6 with 55% shooting. I’m not sure how he fits in with Jason Thompson and Omri Casspi, but he’s probably better than Thompson and Casspi can play small forward, so there should be room for all three. If the Kings are able to move T-Mac to New York, they’ll likely have to take on Jared Jeffries’ contract — he’s owed $6.9 million for next season — and will probably get a draft pick as well.

If the Knicks can clear Jeffries from the payroll, they’ll have enough cap space to sign two big name free agents this summer.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports writes that the Knicks are discussing a deal that would bring Tracy McGrady to the Big Apple.

The centerpieces of the trade would include the Washington Wizards shipping forward Caron Butler and center Brendan Haywood to the Rockets. The Knicks would send Al Harrington to the Wizards. For the Wizards’ part, they would still need another player, as well as a draft pick and cash to make this a workable scenario, sources said.

Let’s look at this proposed trade from the perspective of all three teams.

The Houston Rockets would be the big winner because they’d get Caron Butler and possibly Brendan Haywood. Haywood’s deal is expiring while Butler has one more affordable year ($10.6 million) on his contract. They’d essentially get an All-Star caliber player and a good defensive center for the price of a player that they’ve banished from their team (McGrady).

The New York Knicks would acquire T-Mac, who is a mystery at this point in his career. Can he still play? No one really knows. Since his contract is worth $22 million, just giving up Al Harrington ($10.0 M) isn’t going to be enough. They have a number of players with expiring contracts that they could include (Larry Hughes, Darko Milicic, Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson), but they would really like to unload Jared Jeffries, who has another year remaining on his deal. John Hollinger puts the Knicks’ playoff chances at 0.5%, so they don’t have much to play for this season. They probably weren’t going to re-sign Harrington anyway, so with this trade, they’d roll the dice on T-Mac and see if he has anything left. If they like what they see, they’d try to re-sign him this summer. If they can include Jeffries in the deal, it would be pretty much a no-brainer for the Knicks, which makes me wonder what Washington is thinking.

Ah, the Wizards. They’d essentially be giving up Butler and Haywood for Al Harrington and whomever else the Knicks sent them. It’s possible that the Rockets could send over a young piece like Kyle Lowry. Something like that would have to be in the works because it makes no sense to trade Butler for Harrington. They’re the same age and Butler is simply the better player. Unless they’re looking to completely blow the team up, the Wizards should focus on getting a young piece for Jamison, who is 33 and has a bigger contract.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Via TrueHoop, Chris Broussard says that the Rockets think they can move Tracy McGrady before the trade deadline, and that the top two destinations are Washington and Chicago.

Washington, which league executives believe is in cost-cutting mode after the Gilbert Arenas disaster, could have McGrady for a deal featuring Caron Butler and some expiring contracts, perhaps Mike Miller and Randy Foye.

Chicago, which has definite interest in McGrady, also has the combination of young talent and expiring contracts the Rockets are looking for. There is a Bulls player Houston covets, but it’s not clear who that is. Since the Rockets surely realize that Derrick Rose won’t be traded, logic suggests it’s Joakim Noah.

A package of Noah, Brad Miller and Jerome James (the latter two have expiring contracts) would work financially, but sources say the Bulls have no desire to part with Noah.

I’m not sure why any team would covet McGrady at this point. He hasn’t scored double figures in a game in more than 11 months and there’s no guarantee that he’s going to get back to his old self. I certainly wouldn’t advise trading a healthy Caron Butler or Joakim Noah for him.

The only upside is salary cap relief. If the Wizards just want to blow the team up, then this is one way to do it. McGrady’s deal is expiring, so whoever trades for him can really help their cap flexibility in the short term. But at this point, Butler is the Wizards’ best player and only has one year (at an affordable $10.5 million) left on his deal. Why trade him?

Then again, who knows what’s going on in the mind of Ernie Grunfeld.

T-Mac speaks out about where he wants to be next season, via Fanhouse…

“Money is not an issue for me…If it boiled down to it, I got a great, great adidas contract. So money is not an issue. I just want to win. That’s my main focus…At this stage of my career, it’s all about winning. I don’t care about a max contract or nothing like that. I want to play basketball, and I want to win. … There’s no question (about wanting to return to Houston). I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket, but definitely this is where I’d love to be.”

– Tracy McGrady

McGrady is in the final year of his contract and is making $23 million per season, so he’s right to not expect a max contract — the market simply won’t bear it. Whether or not the Rockets want to bring him back will depend on how well he can fit into the team concept that Daryl Morey and Rick Adelman have created in Houston.

McGrady played a few minutes the other night, but seems a long way away from competing at the level that he was at prior to his injury. The Rockets would be wise to ease him back into some minutes and see what his trade value is. If they can pry a first round pick or a good young prospect away from another team and not take on any additional long term salary in the process, they should pull the trigger.

Originally published December 11, 2008.
Updated November 12, 2009.

The phrase “Summer of 2010″ has become part of the NBA lexicon. Teams have been tripping over each other trying to clear cap space for next summer so that they can sign an impact free agent (or two). With that in mind, let’s take a look ahead at the free agent crop of 2010.

Below is a list of the top 10 players that are likely to be free agents next summer. I’m ranking them based mostly on talent, but it’s also important to note each player’s age in July of 2010, as that will affect his value and skill. For example, a 31 year-old Paul Pierce holds much more value than a 33 year-old Paul Pierce. Get the drift?

1. LeBron James, SF (26 years-old)
James is the golden boy of this free agent class and is the player that every franchise would love to land next summer. He will have just turned 26 and whatever team is lucky enough to sign him will – barring injury – enjoy four or five years of the best basketball of his career. The Cavs have gone “all in” this season, signing Shaq, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon, and re-signing Anderson Varejao. In the process, they gave up whatever cap space they would have enjoyed next summer. If Cleveland’s season ends in disappointment once again, it wouldn’t be surprising if LeBron decides to take his game elsewhere. Three teams — the Knicks, Bulls and Nets — jump out as good fits. LeBron has stated that his top priority is to become a “global icon” and playing in Manhattan would serve that purpose. If the Knicks are able to unload Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries before the trade deadline, then they’ll have the projected cap space to sign two top players on this list, and that might be enough to convince LeBron to sign on the dotted line. Plus, he’s familiar with Mike D’Antoni (via the duo’s work with Team USA) and the Knicks’ up-tempo system would be a near-perfect fit for LeBron’s skill set. The Nets offer a better supporting cast (led by Devin Harris and Brook Lopez) and the (impending?) move to Brooklyn would boost the franchise’s profile. Chicago has a number of pieces already in place (Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Kirk Hinrich) and is bigger market than Cleveland. But would LeBron want to go to the franchise that Michael Jordan built?
Note: Player option (PO)

Read the rest of this entry »