Category: NBA (Page 534 of 595)

Everyone in Cleveland is breathing a big sigh of relief as LeBron James agreed to sign a max extension to stay with the Cavs for the foreseeable future. James had the fans in Cleveland worried when he didn’t immediately agree to the extension, even after Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade agreed to stay with their respective teams…Mike James is rumored to be taking the weekend to decide his future, but we should have a decision on Monday. He’s deciding between offers from the Rockets, Timberwolves and the Mavericks. All three teams are above the salary cap so the max they can offer is the mid-level exception (~$5.5 M per season) unless one of teams is able to negotiate a sign-and-trade with the Raptors. Houston feels like a natural fit, considering that’s where James’ house is and that’s where he said he wanted to play as soon as the season was over…In non-free agency news, Amare Stoudemire played 30 minutes in a Las Vegas summer league game, scoring 21 points in the process.

After a flurry of signings in the last week, expect things to slow down a little as teams pick over the remaining players, who either don’t have the reputations of the early signees or have taken a tough negotiating stance with their current team. One example is Chris Wilcox, a restricted free agent who wants a deal in the neighborhood of Nene’s 6-year/$60 M contract. Who can blame him? Nene is a career 10/6 guy, while Wilcox averaged better than 14/8 over the last half of the season as a starter in Seattle. The Bulls are one of nine teams that are rumored to be interested, and a lineup of Hinrich, Gordon, Deng/Nocioni, Wilcox and Wallace would be formidable indeed. The Sonics should see if they can wrest Luol Deng from the Bulls in exchange for Wilcox. He’d be a nice compliment to Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis…The Kings offered Bonzi Wells a five year deal worth approximately $36 M, but that’s actually a pay cut from what Wells made last year, and he wants a raise…The Mike James to the Rockets rumor is not a done deal and it appears that Minnsota is making a strong bid for the point guard. I think that James will end up in Houston after it’s all said and done…Marcus Banks hasn’t spoken about his free agent status, and the Timberwolves may be waiting to see what happens with James before dealing with Banks. Though unproven, Banks is one of the better values in the free agent market, and will only command $3 – $5 M a year, due to the oversupply of point guards.

You can forget about the Bulls going after Kevin Garnett – any deal for the Minnesota superstar would have no doubt included Tyson Chandler and the 5-years/$55 M remaining on his contract. Now that the Bulls and Hornets have agreed to swap Chandler for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith, any deal including KG would be difficult to picture, unless the team wants to give up newly-acquired Ben Wallace. Smith is a prospect, but this is basically a salary dump to give the Bulls cap room next summer, when Kirk Hinrich will be a free agent…The Mavericks have agreed to send Marquis Daniels to the Pacers for Austin Croshere. The Pacers are getting the better end of this talent-wise, as the Mavs just wanted to get rid of Daniels’ contract. It’s clear that he wasn’t going to play much for Avery Johnson…The Jazz acquired Derek Fisher from the Warriors for Keith McLeod and Andre Owens. Fisher is a point guard, so it’s not clear how he’s going to fit in with Deron Williams and draft pick Ronnie Brewer…The Sonics’ negotiations with Chris Wilcox have not gone well, and the team is exploring sign-and-trade options. As many as nine teams are interested in the young power forward…Mike James appears to be close to signing with the Houston Rockets. This would be a great move and it’s likely that Houston is getting a hometown discount (as I covered in my offseason blueprint for the Rockets).

Free agent centers are falling like dominoes after the Ben Wallace signing…Joel Przybilla and the Trail Blazers agreed to a 5-year/$32 M deal…One of the teams interested in Przybilla was Detroit, and after he turned them down, they signed Nazr Mohammed to a 5-year/$30 M deal. If they offered Pryzbilla the same deal, one wonders why he’d turn down the chance to play for the Pistons. Maybe he didn’t want to be the guy to replace Wallace…Speaking of the Pistons, how nice would it be to have Darko Milicic on the roster right now? He was supposedly moved so that they had the salary flexibility to re-sign Wallace; so much for that…Matt Harpring agreed to stay with the Jazz for 4-years/$25 M, though the terms were undisclosed. That’s a pretty good deal for a guy who couldn’t play two games in a row this season due to his bum knee…Even with the Wallace signing, the Bulls are still rumored to be making a run at Kevin Garnett. Would Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas and Tyson Chandler be enough? If I were the Wolves, I’d be hesitant to take on Chandler’s contract, so I’d ask for a first round pick as well…Chandler is also rumored to be heading to the Hornets for P.J. Brown (and his one-year/$8 M salary) along with J.R. Smith.

Players can’t sign anything for another week or so, but Ben Wallace has told the Pistons that he’s heading for Chicago. The deal was believed to be 4-yrs/$52 M, but is actually 4-yrs/$60M. This is a bold move by the Bulls, and it will obviously improve the team, but they give up precious cap space in the process. They’ll now try to move Tyson Chandler for another player or cap relief…Dwayne Wade and the Heat have agreed on a max five-year extension. This has to make the fans in Cleveland even more nervous, considering LeBron James still hasn’t agreed to stay…Speedy Claxton left the Hornets, and agreed to a 4-year/$25 M deal with the Atlanta Hawks. This is a good signing by Atlanta, and will give the team a true point guard to play alongside Joe Johnson, who will play the two…The Seattle Supersonics and Chris Wilcox are far apart as their contract negotiations begin. Wilcox is a big man in a tight market and might be asking for more than $10 M a season, when he’s probably worth $8-$10 M. Of course, he’s worth whatever someone will sign him for, and he no doubt has several suitors around the league. He needs to land in an up-tempo system like Seattle’s in order to thrive.