Tag: 2010 NBA free agents (Page 34 of 54)

      Where do the Suns go from here?

      May 30, 2010 /

      On the heels of their Game 6 loss to the Lakers, the Phoenix Suns once again start an offseason after coming up short in the postseason.

      In reality, despite the sour finish, making the Western Conference Finals represents a resounding success for the Suns, who weren’t expected to be a legitimate title contender heading into the season. But after the trade deadline, Amare Stoudemire played like an All-NBAer (27-10 after the All-Star break), and the Suns’ bench — specifically Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley and Channing Frye — provided a much-needed punch when the starters weren’t getting it done.

      This team already has great chemistry and is playing championship-caliber ball, why mess with it? Well, the Suns have a huge decision this offseason — whether or not to offer Stoudemire a max contract.

      Is he worth a max deal? He doesn’t rebound as well as he should — and grabbed just nine rebounds in the first two games of the WCF — and he’s not known as a very good defender. Shouldn’t a max player excel at scoring, rebounding and defense?

      Stoudemire is open to staying in Phoenix, but it seems like he wants a max deal. Without it, he’ll probably go elsewhere, providing they’ll offer him the non-Bird max.

      If he leaves, the Suns will have about $13 million of cap space assuming Grant Hill opts in and Channing Frye opts out (which they are rumored to do). What that means is that if Stoudemire bolts, the Suns will be a player in this summer’s free agency frenzy. They may not have a shot at LeBron James or Chris Bosh, but they could potentially afford someone like Carlos Boozer or David Lee, who would both fit in well with the Suns’ up-tempo system. However, neither player is known for his defense, so the Suns will probably continue to struggle on that end of the court. Also, such a move would only serve to further highlight the length issues that the Suns have when they face the Lakers.

      Steve Nash is already 36 and his game has to fall off at some point. However, he’s in tremendous shape and the emergence of Goran Dragic should continue to offset the decline in Nash’s game. The Suns have a nice core, so if they re-sign Stoudemire or end up with someone like Boozer or Lee to pay power forward, they should stay near the top of the Western Conference. It doesn’t appear that they’re built to get by the Lakers, but if there’s a playoff-threatening injury to Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol, the Suns would be in position to pick up the ball and run to the Finals. That’s better than blowing the whole thing up and starting over, right?


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      D-Wade’s “free agent summit” good for the Knicks?

      May 28, 2010 /

      Marc Berman of the New York Post thinks Dwyane Wade’s upcoming meeting with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson is a good thing for the Knicks.

      The Knicks’ only shot at James is if he can convince Bosh — or Wade or Johnson — to come along for the ride. The Knicks are the only club that has cap room to sign two maximum contracts — with $34M in space.

      Even if James stays in Cleveland or heads to Chicago, the Knicks would take any pair — Wade and Bosh, Johnson and Bosh, even Johnson and Wade.

      I tend to agree. The only way the Knicks land two big-name free agents is if there is communication amongst the group and two players commit at the same time. The more communication, the better the chances of this happening.

      That said, the Knicks are not the only team in position to sign two big-name free agents. If they can dump Michael Beasley’s salary, the Heat will have room to sign two big names and re-sign Dwyane Wade. It wouldn’t be as easy, but if the Bulls can use Luol Deng or Kirk Hinrich in a sign-and-trade for a max free agent, they could add two big names as well.

      In other words, if a treaty agreement is reached at the summit, and two or more players agree to go to a certain team, then they can probably make it happen. For example, the Bulls could sign LeBron outright and work out a sign-and-trade with Toronto for Bosh. Why would the Raptors agree to this? Well, if Bosh decides that’s who he wants to sign with, then the Raptors are in a tough spot — either work out a trade with the Bulls and get something in return, or Bosh walks (to another team) via free agency.

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      Handicapping the players in the LeBron sweepstakes

      May 27, 2010 /

      Anyone outside of his entourage who claims to know what LeBron is going to do is being disingenuous. He loves the fact that he’s the center of attention even though the playoffs are still in full swing. He often speaks of July 1 in grandiose terms and that’s because, like most superstars, he has a very high opinion of himself.

      That said, I found myself rooting for the Celtics in their series with the Cavs because as a writer, Cleveland’s early exit throws LeBron’s future to the wind. He could land any number of places.

      Though the LeBron Tracker makes me a little nauseous, I thought I’d take a stab at handicapping where King James might end up. I’ll include the six teams that ESPN deemed worthy of making the top banner and add the Mavs for good measure. For each team, I’ll outline why he’d sign and why he wouldn’t. I’ll also rank (on a scale of 1-10) how he fits from a personnel standpoint.

      In terms of fit, I look to the last few premier wings who have broken through and won at least one title as the best player on their team. I’m talking about Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade and Michael Jordan. What do they have in common? Kobe, Pierce and Wade all played with top notch big men — Gasol, Garnett and Shaq, respectively — while Jordan had Scottie Pippen. In other words, they all got to play with another All-NBA (Top 15) caliber player when they won their title.

      They also enjoyed good coaching. Jordan and Kobe had Phil Jackson, Wade had Pat Riley and Doc Rivers did a great job of coaching the ’08 Celtics. They were also all surrounded by good shooters who could make teams pay for double-teaming their respective superstar.

      Without further ado, let’s take a look at the major players in line for LeBron’s services and try to handicap their chances of signing the league’s most valuable player.

      CAVS (25%)
      Why he’ll sign: Loyalty, comfort, familiarity. He’s from the area and he doesn’t want to leave town after an early postseason exit, as it would effectively destroy basketball in the city of Cleveland. Shaq will be gone and there’s an opportunity for an upgrade at head coach.
      Why he won’t sign: Too much baggage. The franchise has had seven years to build around him and they’ve made just one Finals appearance. Suspect flexibility with the roster.
      Fit: 5/10 The Cavs have a pretty good shooter at power forward (Antawn Jamison) and a good shooter at point guard (Mo Williams), but neither player is even average on defense. There are a lot of solid-to-good players on the roster, but no one approaches the Top 15 sidekick that helped the aforementioned wings win their titles. It’s tough to find that kind of player via trade, but that’s how Gasol, Garnett and Shaq came to play for the Lakers, Celtics and Heat. Cap-wise, if they re-sign LeBron, they won’t have any cap space to speak of until the summer of 2012 when Jamison’s salary is off the books.

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      Wade unsure about Chicago’s loyalty to its players

      May 27, 2010 /

      In an ESPN report that is mostly dedicated to Dwyane Wade’s declaration that he’s going to talk about his future with LeBron James and Joe Johnson — yes, Joe Johnson — Wade discusses the loyalty of the Miami Heat and how that loyalty compares favorably to the Chicago Bulls.

      “I think the biggest question that you think about has to be loyalty,” Wade told the Tribune. “I know one thing about Miami: It is a very loyal organization. I see what they do with their players when their players get done with the game of basketball . . . how loyal they are. I don’t know about the Bulls.”

      In particular, Wade questions why Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, who led the Bulls to six NBA championships, are no longer with the organization.

      “I see Michael Jordan is not there, Scottie Pippen is not there . . . You know, these guys are not a part,” Wade told the Tribune. “Things like that. So that is probably one of the biggest things for me, because I am a very loyal person.”

      Original source: Chicago Tribune

      Regarding Joe Johnson, I would have expected “Chris Bosh” or “Amare Stoudemire,” not the Hawks’ wing. Johnson is 6’7″ and could play small forward if necessary, so I guess he could fit alongside Wade somewhere. It doesn’t seem ideal, however.

      To me, the bit about loyalty is the bigger news, as it seems that Wade’s #1 issue is loyalty, and the Bulls haven’t shown much to its stars over the years. We already had an inkling that Wade was going to stay put in Miami, and barring a meeting with LeBron or Chris Bosh in New York, it still seems like that’s the case.


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      Bill Simmons’ idiot’s guide to Russian Mark Cuban

      May 26, 2010 /

      I missed this column over the weekend, but it’s a pretty good read for those interested in the Nets’ new owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. Here is Simmons’ prediction for Prokhorov’s first offseason:

      Still, allow me two making-a-splash predictions for this summer. The first: MRMC pounces on Phil Jackson with an absolutely unfathomable offer. How unfathomable? Five years, $85 million. Yeah. That’s what I mean. Prokhorov is already on record as saying that he wants an NBA coach. Why not overpay to get one of the greatest ever? How could the Lakers possibly come close to matching that commitment? And why would Jackson say no to finishing his career in the New York area for the most lucrative coaching deal ever, BY FAR? I say the Godfather offer gets made, and I say Jackson takes it.

      Second, instead of chewing up Jersey’s cap space with overpaid free agents, I bet Prokhorov trades for Andrei Kirilenko — his former CSKA star, as well as an expiring 2011 contract of $17.82 million — in a deal that won’t cost Jersey anything because Utah (struggling to find money for Carlos Boozer) could easily replace Kirilenko with its lottery pick (No. 8 overall) and a second trade. For the Nets, even if they just rented Kirilenko and picked Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors (the draft’s best power forward) at No. 3, that’s an intriguing short-term front line (Favors, Kirilenko and Brook Lopez) and they’d maintain flexibility for a run at Carmelo in 2011 and/or have Kirilenko’s expiring deal to shop this February. And it would go over big back home for Prokhorov. Win, win and win.

      That is a lot of money, but would Jackson agree to coach the Nets? I guess it would depend on how quickly they can turn the roster around. I’d say this is a long shot. But still, with Jerry Buss asking Jackson to take a pay cut, it would make a potentially huge raise pretty intriguing.

      The Nets missed out on the chance to draft John Wall, but they will have a shot at either Evan Turner or Derrick Favors at #3, or even DeMarcus Cousins if they decide that he’s not crazy enough to pass up. Cousins is more of a center, while I could easily see the developing Favors playing alongside Lopez. If Philly takes Favors #2, Turner would be a nice consolation prize, and he can play shooting guard if the Nets have their eye on Carmelo Anthony next summer.

      Regardless, the Nets are going to be an attracting landing spot for free agents over the next few years, especially when the move to Brooklyn finally happens. Players like to play for owners who are willing to spend to win, and there’s a great chance that the Nets will have one of the biggest payrolls within five years.


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