More NBA Rumors and News

The Knicks signed free agent guard Anthony Roberson to a two year deal stoking speculation that Stephon Marbury’s days in New York are numbered.  The signing puts the Knicks roster at 16 players, 7 of which are guards, which is one above the league limit meaning they need to trim the roster by one player.  There is some speculation that Jerome James may be the fall guy here.  The Knicks of course are denying there is any truth to the rumor that they are looking to move Marbury.

In other Knicks’ news Danilo Gallinari has a sore back and is being held out of Summer League competition as a precautionary measure.  After missing his first five shots Gallinari settled in to hit five of his last six shots and score 14 points in the second half of the Knicks first summer league game.

Donnie Walsh also denies rumors that the Knicks are interested in acquiring Ron Artest.  While I am sure Artest would love to come back home and play for his home town team the Knicks do not have a lot to offer other than proposing a potential swap for Marbury.  That notion is not as far fetched as it may seem though.  The Kings need to seriously consider moving the enigmatic Artest who has become increasingly grumpy about not opting out of his contract and they are in desperate need of an established point man in addition to a marquee name.

Beno Udrih is a solid player but I am not entirely sold on him being a quality NBA point guard.  Marbury’s career has probably peaked but his contract is up at the end of the year and they could probably force the Knicks to take Kenny Thomas back given they would need addtional salary to make such a deal work under the salary cap.  This, in turn, frees up an additonal 8.5 million in cap space for next summer which would put the Kings a good 25 to 30 million under the cap with some decent young talent to build around.

The Pacers actually offered the Heat Jamaal Tinsley in exchange for Udonis Haslem.  Fortunately for Heat fans Pat Riley is smarter than that.  There is no way the Heat are going to move their only established post player for a middle of the road point guard.  Not that Haslem is anything special himself but he provides the Heat with their only real low post option on offense.

NBA Free Agency Update: Monta Ellis Sweepstakes is Heating up

The Heat and Cavs are interested in Monta Ellis while he claims to have an interest in playing for the Knicks. Unfortunately for those teams Ellis wants $10 million per year and none of those teams have any cap space to be able to sign him outright.  They would have to do some kind of a sign-and-trade deal and it is debatable whether any of those teams have anything Don Nelson would be interested in that would be available.  The Knicks have some tradeable assets though I don’t know the Warriors have any interest in them.  Stephon Marbury and Malik Rose’s expiring contracts are available and David Lee is available for the right deal.  The thing of it is is you do not trade a young up-and-coming talent like Ellis away for expiring contracts and David Lee does not really fit into Nelson’s style of play.  Cleveland really has nothing of interest to offer either other than expiring contracts of mediocre players.  With Baron Davis having jumped ship to Los Angeles Golden State ultimately cannot deal Ellis without getting a starting point guard in return.

Switching gears to Corey Maggette.  He is rumored to be considering the Celtics after a conversation with Doc Rivers.  I still don’t see how Maggette fits into the equation in Boston with Pierce and Allen still in the mix.  Meanwhile Maggette talks as though he is done with the Clippers and with some extra cash to spend now that Baron has jumped ship the Warriors are expected to show interest in Maggette’s services along with the Sixers who are likely hedging their bets in the event they cannot come to terms with Andre Iguodala.  The Warriors interest is probably stronger than the Sixers at this point.  If they retain Ellis and move him over to the point as is expected to happen they will then have an opening at shooting guard and Maggette could fit right in there.  The Sixers are likely using Maggette as a bargaining chip with Iguodala.  Otherwise if they re-sign Igoudala then they have no real use for a guy like Maggette with Thaddeus Young already in place as the small forward of the future.

NBA Free Agency Update: 07/01/08

Baron Davis chooses to ditch Golden State in favor of the Los Angeles Clippers. Not really surprised to see Davis move on, he opted out for a reason.  Despite what everyone was saying it appears that Davis was truly ticked about Nelson benching him.  The Warriors were reportedly interested in negotiating an extension but the two sides were rumored to be very far apart.  Surely the Warriors were trying to bide their time until they knew what it was going to ultimately take to re-sign Monta Ellis.  I like this acquisition for the Clippers and it likely means Elton Brand stays put and all but signals the end of Corey Maggette’s days with the Clippers.  With the additon of Davis the Clippers now have a solid starting five in place and if Brand stays healthy there is no reason they cannot compete for a playoff spot next season.

As was widely expected to happen Jose Calderon has agreed to stay in Toronto. Calderon had a breakout year with the Raptors this past season averaging just over 11 points and 8 assists per game and emerging as a reliable 3-point shooter.  Calderon’s play made mercurial point guard T. J. Ford expendable.  The Raptors had to do everything in their power to lock Calderon up immediately as he was the only remaining point man on the roster.  Toronto will now likely look to pluck a servicable backup off the free agent pile to back Calderon up.  Expect them to make a run at someone like a Chris Duhon or Carlos Arroyo or they may try to lure a veteran like Damon Stoudamire or Sam Cassell into the fold.

Beno Udrih is no longer an option for the Raptors as he decides to stay with Sacramento after the Clippers made a push to sign him. The Kings could do worse than Udrih but they really had few options available and with Ron Artest opting to play out his contract in Sacramento next season they have no real cap flexibility to go out and pick someone up and the current alternatives they have under contract still need some seasoning and are not yet ready to run an offense.

Sizing up the NBA Free Agency Market

Free agency started today with the Sixers, Grizzlies, and Warriors having the most money to spend. Here is a list of available free agents:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s…2008FreeAgents

There is not a whole lot to be excited about with this year’s group.  Elton Brand, Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, and Corey Maggette are about the only real difference makers available on the un-restricted list.

Davis and Maggette are as good as gone.  Davis opted out because he is probably still upset over being benched for the entire second half in a late season game against the Suns.  Besides, the Warriors really see restricted free agent Monta Ellis as the future anyway and they would rather match any offer he gets in lieu of placating Davis and giving him the money that he wants.  Davis is supposedly lobbying for a sign-and-trade that would send him to the Knicks though I don’t know what the Knicks could offer aside from potential picks and Marbury’s contract which expires after the upcoming season.

Maggette has supposedly butted heads with Dunleavy since day one and I doubt he whas any interest in staying with the Clippers.  It is being rumored that Orlando is his top choice as of right now but the Magic would have to agree to do a sign-and-trade in order to fit him under the cap and I don’t really see who they would be willing to part with at this point to get him.

Brand supposedly is intent on staying in LA but the Sixers are supposedly going to make a competitive offer to see if they cannot lure him ot Philly.  Although if you are content to stay with the Clippers then why opt out?  Why not make an attempt to negotiate a contract extension if that is where you truly want to be.  If both parties are truly committed to each other then this should not be an issue, right?

Arenas supposedly wants a max deal and it was being reported on SportsCenter last night that the Wizards are willing to give him $100 mil over 6 years.  Arenas is a bit of a dicey proposition though.  When healthy he is as good of a scorer as there is in the league, unfortunately he was only healthy enough to appear in 13 games last year.  Do you take the risk of signing him to a big deal hoping his knee gets back to where he can give you 38 to 40 minutes a night or do you try to sign him to shorter contract? 

One name of interest to keep an eye on from the unrestricted list is Gerald Green.  He is only 22 and looked poised to have a breakout year after averaging 10 points in 22 minutes a game coming off the bench for the Celtics in the ‘06/’07 season.  He got buried on the bench in Minnesota and never got the chance to show what he could do out there. He could easily be a 15-20 ppg scorer on the right team next year and he could end up being a steal of a signing for someone since he is going to command relatively low salary.

NBA Coaching News and Notes

Here some hot NBA coaching news and notes floating around:

-Rick Carlisle interviewed for the Mavericks job today.  I am not sure it really matters who they hire here as unless the Mavs shake up the roster they are going to remain in the second tier of Western Conference teams for the foreseeable future.

-Carlisle is also rumored to be on John Paxson’s list of candidates for the job in Chicago, though I don’t necessarily see that as a good fit.  Carlisle is one of the no-nonsense, my-way-or-the-highway kind of coaches and they just got rid of a guy like that in Scott Skiles because he could not seem to get along with the players.  Carlisle is not deemed as extreme as Skiles, but it just does not seem like a good fit especially given the talent that is there.

-Avery Johnson is rumored to be on Paxson’s list as well.  Of all the candidates currently out there he is probably the best fit for Chicago.  He will get the Baby Bulls to play defense and they have the athletes to run the more up-tempo offense he had in Dallas.

-New York is also rumored to be in the mix for Avery’s services but given their druthers I cannot imagine that a coach worth his salt would be terribly interested in the New York job until they get their crap together.  Hiring Donnie Walsh is a huge step in the right direction but they still have some personnel issues to resolve before they are going to be competitive again.