Tag: Chris Bosh (Page 20 of 27)

The Knicks’ plan to woo LeBron

Chad Ford wrote an interesting article with a look at the Knicks’ plan for this summer. An Insider subscription is required, so I’ll refrain from excerpting, but here’s how the plan goes…

The first angle is that LeBron (or Dwyane Wade) will get to play alongside another superstar. According to Ford’s sources, Plan A is LeBron and Chris Bosh, Plan B is Wade and Bosh and Plan C is LeBron and Wade. The Knicks see Bosh as an ideal fit along either wing player due to his ability to stretch the floor with his jumper. If they can’t get Bosh? Look for the Knicks to make a run at a certain seven-foot German who plans to opt out of his contract in Dallas.

The next pitch is that the Knicks’ supporting cast is not as bad as it seems. Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Bill Walker and Toney Douglas can all shoot, and the Knicks think that once a couple of big names are on board, there will be a few solid vets (like Grant Hill?) who will be willing to play on the cheap in order to have a chance at a ring.

Thirdly, the Knicks will use Mike D’Antoni, who is familiar with LeBron, Bosh and Wade from his time as Team USA assistant, as their leading pitchman. They think that once he starts diagramming plays, he’ll convince these stars that he can make best use of their respective talents.

Lastly, the Knicks will talk about what a championship would mean to the city of New York. No one can usurp Michael Jordan in Chicago, and Miami’s fans aren’t die-hard like Knicks fans. If you win a title, you will own the world’s greatest city. That’s a pretty strong pitch.

Needless to say, it’s going to be a pretty interesting summer. One thing that might make the dominoes fall a little faster is the fact that most of the top free agents — LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Nowitzki, Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay, etc. — are sitting at home right now watching the playoffs. They have time to consider their options, recruit each other, talk to teams through back channels and form some sort of plan for July 1. The #1 domino is LeBron, and he’s going to have plenty of time to figure out where he’s headed. Once he decides, the pieces may fall into place pretty quickly.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

GM confirms Bosh’s list, agent denies it

Per the Toronto Star

Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo admits there are a group of teams that Bosh would like to go to should he decide to leave the Raptors as a free agent in July.

ESPN.com reported Bosh’s agent, Henry Thomas, has told Colangelo that Bosh would like to go to the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat or New York Knicks should he decide not to re-sign with Toronto.

“It has been narrowed down to a handful of teams, including us,” Colangelo said, not going into any more details.

Of course, Bosh’s agent, Henry Thomas, denies that he has given the Raptors any list. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Agent Henry Thomas on Friday denounced a report by ESPN that stated he had narrowed down a list of preferred destinations for Toronto Raptors free-agent client Chris Bosh.

Thomas, who also represents Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade, another pending free agent, said he has not forwarded any such list to Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo.

“I haven’t closed the door on anything,” Thomas insisted. “I haven’t given Bryan any lists. There is no list. This is a process that is ongoing.”

I still think it’s funny that Bosh gave Colangelo a list of teams he’d like to play for while also saying that he’s open to re-signing with the Raptors. Has he really not made up his mind about staying put? You’d think that at this point, with the regular season over for a month now, that he would know whether or not he wants to stay or go. Maybe he’s waiting to see what trades the Raptors can make during the Draft.

And, of course, there’s the matter of Bosh talking out of both sides of his mouth. He says it’s all about winning, but he wants to force a sign-and-trade so he can make the most money (which is only going to hurt his new team in the process by taking away good players and/or draft picks).

Chris Bosh’s wish list is revealing…

…and not in the way you might think.

Per ESPN…

Chris Bosh’s agent has told the Toronto Raptors that he’s narrowed his list of preferred teams to five, two sources told ESPN.com’s Chad Ford at the NBA draft camp.

The list of five teams — Toronto plus the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and New York Knicks, sources said — were given to Toronto management in case the Raptors want to construct a sign-and-trade deal (assuming he doesn’t re-sign with Toronto).

Bosh likes that option, sources told Ford, because he’d get one more year on his contract and could make more money.

I’m not sure why Bosh would give Toronto a list of sign-and-trade destinations that included the Raptors, but hey, sources are sources.

There are no real surprises there. The Bulls, Heat, Knicks and Lakers have long been rumored as possible landing spots for Bosh. But the absence of a few other teams — namely, the Nets, Rockets and Thunder — is a bit surprising.

In terms of potential sign-and-trade chips, each team on his list has at least one player the Raptors might want. Chicago has Luol Deng, though he’s a bit overpaid. The Knicks have David Lee, who would be a nice consolation prize if Bosh decides not to re-sign with Toronto. The Heat have Michael Beasley, but his stock continues to fall. And the Lakers have Andrew Bynum, but with his knee injuries, he’s not as enticing of a prospect as he was at the start of the season.

But here’s what gets me about this story, if it’s accurate — Bosh may want that extra year on his deal, but it’s going to be tough for a team that already has the cap space to sign him to have to take a big hit in young talent and draft picks as well. In fact, this strategy reveals that Bosh is more concerned with the size of his own paycheck than he is with the strength and potential of his new team. I realize it’s a lot of money, but when a player says over and over that it’s “all about winning” and then turns around and forces his new team to give up a couple of prospects and/or draft picks so that he can pocket an extra $30 million (and an extra year on the deal), then clearly he’s being disingenuous.

An in-depth look at the top free agent bigs

Normally, I’d wait for the playoffs to conclude before really digging into this summer’s free agency. But the free agent class of 2010 is so good, and the face of the league could change so much, I think an early look is warranted.

A few months ago, I updated my list of the Top 10 NBA Free Agents of 2010, and not a whole lot has changed in terms of the overall rankings of these players.

I thought it would be interesting to look at the five best free agent big men — Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer and David Lee — and compare them using a variety of statistics. Here is what I found:

(As always, click on the table to see a bigger version.)

All of the stats in Table 1 should be familiar to most NBA fans. % GP represents the number of games in which a particular player has appeared, so the lower the number, the more games the player has missed due to injury or other reasons. I’m not 100% clear on Lee’s rookie year — I don’t know if he missed time with injury or just did not play because the coach didn’t put him in. He has been very durable the last three years, appearing in 81 games each season. Stoudemire and Boozer are clearly the biggest injury concerns of the bunch, but both players have stayed healthy this season. Stoudemire’s FG% (55.7%) is very impressive, while Bosh brings a bit of three-point shooting to the table.

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Houston’s pitch to Chris Bosh

Last Friday, Chris Bosh used his Twitter page to ask his fans where he should play and why. Some see the move as harmless, while others think he’s out of line for baiting his fans like that. The truth is probably somewhere in between. With the playoffs in full swing — and Bosh sitting at home — I suspect he was missing the limelight a little bit and needed the ego boost.

Regardless, the move confirms that Bosh is seriously considering changing zip codes this summer and Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle suggests that the Rockets can put together one hell of a pitch for the native Texan.

Chris Bosh will open his front door at 12:01 a.m. July 1 and see a smiling Daryl Morey standing between Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming.

How’s that for a first impression?

Just to be clear, Justice doesn’t know that this is the plan, but if it is, that would be a pretty serious pitch. While most of the other teams with cap space — Miami, New York, Chicago, in particular — will be chasing after LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Houston may be the only team that has Bosh at the top of its list. And that may go a long way with Bosh, who has said in the past that he is the kind of player a franchise can build around.

The presence of Olajuwon and Yao would give a glimpse of the franchise’s past and potential future. Olajuwon won back-to-back titles in the ’90s while Yao is the big center that Bosh has always wanted to play with. (Remember, he thinks of himself as a power forward, not a center.)

The issue with the Rockets is that they don’t have any cap space and can’t sign Bosh outright. But if they can convince him to come to Houston, then the Rockets can then work out a deal with Toronto that is mutually beneficial. Marc Stein has a few ideas:

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