Is the NBA ’09 free agent class better than ’10?
When I saw the headline — “’09 free agents may be better than ’10 class” — I was ready to jump all over David Aldridge for saying that any free agent class could be better than the one that will likely feature LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire. But as I read the full article, he made some sense. I still don’t agree with him, but I see his point.
Here’s a look at the possible free agents in ’09:
Those with asterisks either have options for ’09 or can terminate existing contracts for ’09, and many are expected to do one or the other, for one reason or another:
Kobe Bryant*, Carlos Boozer, Shawn Marion, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Hedo Turkoglu*, Mehmet Okur*, Andre Miller, Mike Bibby, Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace, Kyle Korver*, Anderson Varejao*, Drew Gooden, Stephon Marbury, Grant Hill, Brandon Bass, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, Zaza Pachulia and Anthony Parker. Jermaine O’Neal could join the group if he walks away from $23 million next season. (Don’t hold your breath. There’s no asterisk by Boozer because he’s already said he’s opting out next summer.)
Aldridge has four major arguments:
1. 2010 is fool’s gold.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that unless seismic changes take place, James is either going to stay in Cleveland in 2010 or go to New York. Maybe Los Angeles. Wade will almost certainly choose between Miami, New York, L.A. and Chicago. Bosh will choose between the preceding cities and, perhaps, Detroit. And that’s it.
Without the Big Three on the market for most NBA cities, the ’10 class loses a good bit of its luster. That’s going to leave a lot of teams with max money to spend on mostly not-max players.
Read the rest after the jump...
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Posted in: Fantasy Basketball, NBA
Tags: Allen Iverson, Amare Stoudemire, Anderson Varejao, Andre Miller, Anthony Parker, Brandon Bass, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, David Aldridge, Drew Gooden, Dwyane Wade, Grant Hill, Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Kidd, Joe Smith, Kobe Bryant, Kyle Korver, Lamar Odom, LeBron James, Mehmet Okur, Mike Bibby, Rasheed Wallace, Ron Artest, Shawn Marion, Stephon Marbury, Summer of 2010, Wally Szczerbiak, Zaza Pachulia