2010 NBA Free Agency - Superstars Update

The world champion Los Angeles Lakers, who have no point guard on the team at this moment, have signed Steve Blake to a 4-year, $16 million contract. Their plan is still to have Blake coming off the bench behind Derek Fisher next year, but they are so far apart in contact negotiation that you would have to think that Steve Blake might actually be the opening night starter at point guard for the Lakers ...

The Phoenix Suns, who used Amare Stoudemire's knees as an excuse for not offering him a max-contract, have signed Hakim Warrick to a 4 year, $18 million contract. The New York Knicks, on the other hand, are close to signing Stoudemire to a 5-year max contract after watching him played in all 82 games last season. This could be a reunion between him and ex-Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni. The New York Knicks are also said to have their sight set on Luke Ridnour after his talk with the Milwaukee Bucks fell apart ...

Another news today is that Chicago Bulls have moved another step closer to signing LeBron James, Chris Bosh, AND Dwyane Wade. Wade, who everyone believes will be re-signing with the Miami Heat this summer, tweeted a couple of times today after his meeting with the Bulls. The messages he posted on twitter really make you wonder whether the Heat is still the favorite to (re)sign him ...

source: espn.com

2010 NBA Free Agency - More Free Agent Signings

Now this is getting ridiculous. Every NBA talk show in the world is talking about this deal. The Toronto Raptors have just re-signed their superstar free agent Chris Bosh Amir Johnson to a 5-year, $34 million contract ...

I know they are about to lose Chris Bosh to the Chicago Bulls. (Yes, not the Miami Heat, but the Chicago Bulls.) And Amir Johnson has amazing upside. But we have heard about this for 4 or 5 years now. We first heard about it when he was playing behind Ben and Rasheed Wallace back in Detroit. If a guy with such potential is still a bench player after 5 years, it's safe to say he is probably a bust. No wonder why Chris Bosh wants to leave ...

With report that the Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson will return for another season, the Lakers have met with free agent Mike Miller today and offered him a 5-year, $30 million contract. The world champion Lakers are looking to improve their roster regardless of where LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will be playing next year ...

While there is no chance that Amare Stoudemire would return to the Phoenix Suns next year due to not receiving a max-contract, the Suns have re-signed Channing Frye to a 5-year, $30 million contract. With the Suns knocking themselves out of the equation, the New York Knicks are ready to offer Stoudemire the contract he's looking for ...

2010 NBA Free Agency - Free Agent Signings

There are still many many different possible scenarios for the top free agents, but we do have some official signings ...

The Memphis Grizzlies have re-signed Rudy Gay to a 5-year, $81.6 million contract. On the surface, the Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace did the right thing by acted quickly and re-signed Rudy Gay. But it was just yesterday that he decided not to make a qualifying offer to Ronnie Brewer, thus allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent after giving up a 1st round draft pick to the Utah Jazz for him. He played a total of 5 games, or 80 minutes, for the Memphis Grizzlies this past season. Go figure ...

The Minnesota Timberwolves have also re-signed their own free agent Darko Milicic to a 4-year, $20 million contract. Apparently, the Timberwolves GM David Kahn thinks Darko Milicic is a much better player than Al Jefferson, and is trying his best to trade Al Jefferson before the start of next season ...

Today is a big day for the Milwaukee Bucks. They have signed Drew Gooden to a 5-year, $32 million contract, and John Salmons to a 5-year, $39 million contract. Their lineup for the 2010-2011 season will be ...

PG - Brandon Jennings
SG - John Salmons
SF - Corey Maggette
PF - Drew Gooden
C - Andrew Bogut

BN - Carlos Delfino
BN - Ersan Ilyasova
BN - Micheal Redd
BN - Chris Douglas-Roberts
BN - Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

In another news, Chris Paul, who was almost traded last week to the Portland Trailblazers, is now linked to the New York Knicks' plan. Stay tuned ...

The Count Down - 1 more day before the 2010 NBA free agency

We finally have some kind of development as we are only 10 hours away from the start of the 2010 NBA free agency period. In the wake of losing Chris Bosh in free agency, the Toronto Raptors are going through all the possible sign-and-trade scenarios with different teams. They have pretty much rejected the Los Angeles Lakers' proposal of Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom as they are looking for young players and draft picks only, making the Miami Heat (Mario Chalmers) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (J.J. Hickson) the early "favorites" for straight-up 2-teams sign-and-trade partners ...

Not that I want to promote sports betting, but I would like to bring you more updates on the NBA free agency betting. One of the major sports bookmakers (I won't name which one here) has already stopped taking bets on LeBron James' free agency situation because they think "it's not worth the risk". Below are the updated betting odds on the 5 NBA free agents ...

1) LeBron James joining the:

	Heat ... 5 to 7	Bulls ... 1 to 1	Cavaliers...14 to 5 (down)
	Knicks ... 12 to 1 (up)	Nets ... 12 to 1 (up)	Clippers ... 30 to 1(up)

2) Dwyane Wade joining the:

	Heat ... 1 to 10	Knicks ... 5 to 1	Bulls ... 10 to 1
	Nets ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1

3) Chris Bosh joining the:

	Heat...2 to 3 (further down)	Bulls...1 to 1 (further up)	Knicks ... 5 to 1
	Cavaliers ... 10 to 1	Rockets ... 12 to 1	Wizards ... 12 to 1
	Nets ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 20 to 1	Raptors ... 20 to 1

4) Amare Stoudemire joining the:

	Suns ... 11 to 5	Heat ... 11 to 5	Knicks ... 11 to 5
	Nets ... 11 to 5	Bulls ... 5 to 1	Wizards ... 15 to 1
	Kings ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1	Cavaliers ... 20 to 1

5) Carlos Boozer joining the:

	Heat ... 1 to 1	Jazz ... 3 to 1	Nets ... 3 to 1
	Wizards ... 11 to 2	Bulls ... 7 to 1	Knicks ... 7 to 1
	Timberwolves ... 7 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1	Cavaliers ... 15 to 1

The Count Down - 2 more days before the 2010 NBA free agency

We are about 25 hours before the start of the 2010 NBA free agency. But no one is more excited about this than the Minnesota Timberwolves. They have already said that they will call the Memphis Grizzlies' Rudy Gay right at midnight when the free agency period starts ...

Today the New Jersey Nets have traded Yi JianLian to the Washington Wizards for Quinton Ross in a straight salary dumping move. They are now officially $30 million under the projected 2010 NBA salary cap. Below is the complete table for teams with $30 million or more to spend this summer ...

1) Miami Heat ... $44 million
2) New York Knicks ... $35 million
3) Chicago Bulls ... $30 million
4) New Jersey Nets ... $30 million

Following is an update on the official betting odds on the 2010 NBA free agents ...

1) LeBron James joining the:

	Heat ... 5 to 7 (down)	Bulls ... 1 to 1 (up)	Cavaliers ... 7 to 2 (up)
	Knicks ... 10 to 1 (up)	Nets ... 10 to 1 (up)	Clippers ... 20 to 1

2) Dwyane Wade joining the:

	Heat ... 1 to 10	Knicks ... 5 to 1	Bulls ... 10 to 1
	Nets ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1

3) Chris Bosh joining the:

	Heat ... 5 to 6 (down)	Bulls ... 5 to 6 (up)	Knicks ... 5 to 1
	Cavaliers ... 10 to 1	Rockets ... 12 to 1	Wizards ... 12 to 1
	Nets ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 20 to 1	Raptors ... 20 to 1

4) Amare Stoudemire joining the:

	Suns ... 11 to 5	Heat ... 11 to 5	Knicks ... 11 to 5
	Nets ... 11 to 5	Bulls ... 5 to 1	Wizards ... 15 to 1
	Kings ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1	Cavaliers ... 20 to 1

5) Carlos Boozer joining the:

	Heat ... 1 to 1	Jazz ... 3 to 1	Nets ... 3 to 1
	Wizards ... 11 to 2	Bulls ... 7 to 1	Knicks ... 7 to 1
	Timberwolves ... 7 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1	Cavaliers ... 15 to 1

Notice that the payouts for LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining the Miami Heat have gone down to reflect the fact that the bookies truly believe the Miami Heat are now the frontrunner in the LeBron James sweepstakes ...

Speaking of Chris Bosh. The NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, as expected, have proposed a sign-and-trade deal of Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom for the Toronto Raptors Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack ...

The Count Down - 3 more days before the 2010 NBA free agency

The 2010 NBA free agency period will officially start in about 50 hours. If you have been trying hard tracking down free agency news from all possible inside and outside sources, you would have found out that we are not any closer to knowing which free agent will end up playing for which team than maybe a month ago ...

A lot of this is due to the fact that we have 3 teams with well over $30 million to spend this summer. NBA superstars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are really looking at this as a once in a lifetime chance of playing together and winning multiple NBA championships, and therefore, not willing to commit to certain teams until they know who will also be joining them ...

As team representatives are preparing to meet with the free agents in 3 days time, don't be surprised if the recruitment process ends after just a couple of days. There are already teams who have said they will go after the second-tier free agents instead knowing that they do not have the cap room to sign multiple superstars and are in no better position to sign a superstar than the star's original team. So watch for players like Rudy Gay, David Lee, John Salmons, Al Harrington, Luis Scola, Raymond Felton, Josh Howard, Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, Travis Outlaw, and Nate Robinson to get signed quickly ...

Below are the official betting odds offered for some of the 2010 NBA free agents as of today. Some lines are quite interesting ...

1) LeBron James joining the:

	Bulls ... 1 to 3	Cavaliers ... 2 to 1	Heat ... 2 to 1
	Knicks ... 7 to 1	Nets ... 7 to 1	Clippers ... 20 to 1

2) Dwyane Wade joining the:

	Heat ... 1 to 10	Knicks ... 5 to 1	Bulls ... 10 to 1
	Nets ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1

3) Chris Bosh joining the:

	Bulls ... 1 to 3	Heat ... 2 to 1	Knicks ... 5 to 1
	Cavaliers ... 10 to 1	Rockets ... 12 to 1	Wizards ... 12 to 1
	Nets ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 20 to 1	Raptors ... 20 to 1

4) Amare Stoudemire joining the:

	Suns ... 11 to 5	Heat ... 11 to 5	Knicks ... 11 to 5
	Nets ... 11 to 5	Bulls ... 5 to 1	Wizards ... 15 to 1
	Kings ... 15 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1	Cavaliers ... 20 to 1

5) Carlos Boozer joining the:

	Heat ... 1 to 1	Jazz ... 3 to 1	Nets ... 3 to 1
	Wizards ... 11 to 2	Bulls ... 7 to 1	Knicks ... 7 to 1
	Timberwolves ... 7 to 1	Clippers ... 15 to 1	Cavaliers ... 15 to 1