Mega Trio In Miami - Yes We Did

source: heat.com

The Mega Trio have officially signed today, with both LeBron James and Chris Bosh coming to Miami through a pair of sign-and-trade transactions. All 3 of them took paycuts. James and Bosh each signed a 6-year, $110.1 million contract with their original team, while Wade signed a 6-year, $107.5 million contract with the Heat ...

Since James and Bosh did not come to the Heat as free agents, it will be interesting to see how the Heat take advantage of this (well, the Heat did pay the price and gave away 6 draft picks) and bring in more free agents. They are now in the process of signing Mike Miller, and their own free agent Udonis Haslem. And they are looking to add Jason Williams, Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher ...

The sign-and-trade between the New York Knicks and the Golden State Warriors has completed. The Warriors will pay David Lee $80 million over 6 years, while the Knicks will get Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike and Ronny Turiaf ...

New Signings:
1) Tyrus Thomas (Charlotte Bobcats) ... 5-year, $40 million
2) Kyle Korver (Chicago Bulls) ... 3-year, $15 million
3) Brian Cook (Los Angeles Clippers) ... 2-year, $2.5 million
4) Matt Bonner (San Antonio Spurs) ... a 4-year contract

Other News:
1) Anthony Morrow (New Jersey Nets) ... 3-year, $12 million offer sheet
2) J.J. Redick (Chicago Bulls) ... 3-year, $20 million offer sheet
3) The Knicks are close to signing Raymond Felton ...

Mega Trio In Miami - How About 3 + 1 = 4

Heat president Pat Riley has just pulled off another amazing deal about an hour ago. The Miami Heat have (finally) traded Michael Beasley, their No.2 overall draft choice in 2008, to the Minnesota Timberwolves to create another $4.9 million in cap space to sign yet another team USA member Mike Miller to a 5-year, $30 million contract. Even though the Miami Heat have only 5 players under contract as of this moment, 4 of them were actually team USA members ...

source: mikemiller33

The Mike Miller signing wasn't as easy as some of you might think. The New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers were about to overpay Miller to make sure they would get at least something this summer. Pat Riley predicted all this, and gave Miller the $30 million offer with a deadline of yesterday night. He basically didn't let the Knicks and the Clippers enough time to make better offers or counter-offers to the one he gave Miller, and also forced Miller to take the opportunity of playing with 3 other team USA members before Riley gives it to someone else ...

For the work that Pat Riley has done so far, maybe we should just give him the next 5 NBA Executive of the Year Awards ...

Mega Trio In Miami - Helps Are Coming

Don't ever underestimate the Miami Heat's chance for an NBA title just as soon as this coming 2010-2011 NBA season. Let me be the first to breakdown who might be on their way to join the Mega Trio in Miami next year ...

PG: Jamaal Tinsley, Rafer Alston, Carlos Arroyo, Royal Ivey, Chris Quinn, Kevin Ollie, Anthony Johnson, Jason Williams, Travis Diener, Earl Boykins, Allen Iverson

SG: Larry Hughes, Devin Brown, Michael Finley, Luther Head, Bobby Brown, Jerry Stackhouse, Keith Bogans, Tracy McGrady

SF: Joey Graham, Devean George, Steve Novak, Sasha Pavlovic, Bobby Simmons, Rodney Carney, Dominic McGuire, Ime Udoka, Cartier Martin

PF: Joe Smith, Brian Scalabrine, Shelden Williams, Tim Thomas, Malik Allen, Anthony Tolliver, Josh Powell, Shavlik Randolph, Earl Barron, Louis Amundson, Sean May, Juwan Howard, Fabricio Oberto, James Singleton

C: Jason Collins, Theo Ratliff, Johan Petro, Ben Wallace, Brian Skinner, D.J. Mbenga, Jamaal Magloire, Primoz Brezec, Tony Battie, Jarron Collins, Francisco Elson, Ian Mahinmi, Rasho Nesterovic, Patrick O'Bryant

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I know the list is really long, but this is exactly the point I'm trying to make here. Now let me give you a shorter and detailed version ...

PG: Jason Williams (Wade won his last championship with him and have called him already ...)

PG: Travis Diener (Wade went to Final Four with him ...)

PG: Rafer Alston / Carlos Arroyo / Kevin Ollie (all good backup point guards ...)

PG: Allen Iverson (Pat Riley wanted him last season and if he doesn't mind signing for the minimum ...)

SG: Michael Finley / Jerry Stackhouse (I don't see how they are not coming to Miami ...)

SG: Keith Bogans (well, he was good and smart enough to start for the San Antonio Spurs last season ...)

SG: Larry Hughes / Tracy McGrady (only if they don't mind signing for the minimum ...)

SF: Steve Novak (Wade went to Final Four with him and he's a 6'-10" deadly shooter with unlimited range ...)

SF: Joey Graham (he started a playoff game for the Denver Nuggets last season ... )

SF: Ime Udoka (he, too, played for the San Antonio Spurs just 2 seasons ago ...)

PF: Josh Powell / Louis Amundson (they both played in the Western Conference Finals 6 weeks ago ...)

PF: James Singleton / Anthony Tolliver / Earl Barron / Shavlik Randolph (what can I say, they are just good ...)

PF: Juwan Howard / Joe Smith / Malik Allen / Fabricio Oberto (another playoff run?)

C: Ben Wallace / Rasho Nesterovic / Theo Ratliff (another playoff run?)

C: Tony Battie / Brian Skinner (they still can play ...)

C: Ian Mahinmi / D.J. Mbenga (give them a chance to start for a playoff team please ...)

Mega Trio In Miami - How It Happened

It's now official! We will have a mega team in Miami next season. It is supposed to be huge that LeBron James has decided to play for the Miami Heat along with team USA teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. If everyone has been following the news in the past 24 hours, however, knew this is his decision all along ...

If he weren't going to the Miami Heat, why would he schedule a party in Miami tonight? And why would the police department plan to send an extra squad working around LeBron James' house tonight if he were to stay in Cleveland? Not only did we know, but also everyone knew even before he said it live on ESPN. It is just the matter of whether you wanted to accept the truth or not until now ...

The news of course broke many hearts in Cleveland and New York. The Cavaliers can't keep their own superstar in Cleveland, and this essentially ends all of their playoff / championship hopes. And there are news reporting that fans in Cleveland were seen burning LeBron James' jersey right after his free agency announcement. The New York Knicks, on the other hand, got their brilliant plan stolen by Pat Riley and the Miami Heat. Not only did they complete it, but also they did it 10 times better ...

The Miami Heat ended up having, not just 2, all 3 superstars in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Heat president Pat Riley also didn't trash the whole team for 2 full NBA seasons like the New York Knicks' way, allowing the team to make the NBA playoffs in each of their past 2 seasons. Once the NBA playoffs are finished, he traded Daequan Cook to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and completed the buyout of James Jones' contract to give the Heat enough cap room for possibly 3 superstar free agents. (Yes, he structured the contract this way 2 years ago to give himself a chance to do this ...)

Then, I really don't know how he did it, he talked Joel Anthony to opt-out of his contract for next season to give the Heat another $0.9 million to spend this summer. You have to really appreciate the work that Pat Riley has done this past month and the past 2 seasons in order to make everything happened today. Like Kevin Garnett said, "Anything is possible!"

source: espn.com

2010 NBA Free Agency - Mega Trio In Miami

LeBron James will announce his free agency decision at 9pm ET on ESPN tonight. Even though it is pretty much a done deal that James will join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, everyone is still busy making phone calls ...

On James' side, their people are calling players and agents around the league to see who will indeed join the Mega Trio in Miami for just the veteran minimum. On the Miami Heat side, team president Pat Riley is still discussing different trade scenarios that will send Michael Beasley to the Charlotte Bobcats to create another $5 million in cap room for another LeBron James' buddy Mike Miller. The offer on the table is $27-$30 million over 5 years, with a deadline of Thursday night. And as for Dwyane Wade, he is trying his best to bring ex-Heat starting point guard Jason Williams back for another run in Miami ...

With the belief that the Miami Heat has successfully pulled off Mega Trio plan ...

1) The Toronto Raptors have signed Denver's restricted free agent Linas Kleiza to a 4-year, $18.8 million offer sheet.

2) The New Jersey Nets have signed Travis Outlaw to a 5-year, $35 million contract and now have their sight set on Luis Scola.

3) The Boston Celtics have signed Jermaine O'Neal to a 2-year, $12 million contract.

4) The Dallas Mavericks have re-signed Brendan Haywood to a 6-year, $55 million contract.

5) The New York Knicks will proceed with their sign-and-trade with the Golden State Warriors (David Lee for Anthony Randolph) if LeBron James decides not to join the Knicks tonight.

2010 NBA Free Agency - Mega Trio In Miami

People in Miami can finally breathe easy as Chris Bosh has chosen the Miami Heat over the Chicago Bulls today. We're not sure if his decision has anything to do with the fact that there is no income tax in the state of Florida, but he has already agreed to sign with the Miami Heat and will not change his mind ...

Dwyane Wade has said it yesterday that if Chris Bosh decides to sign with the Miami Heat, he will re-sign with them also. This is exactly what happened today. And it is reported that LeBron James was on his way flying to Miami to meet with Heat president Pat Riley after Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh told him about their decisions over a conference call earlier today ...

source: thecanadianpress

With Chris Bosh going to the Miami Heat, the Chicago Bulls have quickly gone to plan B and signed Carlo Boozer to a 5-year, $80 million contract. After his commitment to the Chicago Bulls, he, too, reached out to LeBron James. But before the Bulls have a chance to overpay Ray Allen to pry him from re-signing with the Boston Celtics, they have agreed to a 2-year, $20 million deal that will keep the Big 3 in Boston intact. Now the Celtics are in the process of getting Jermaine O'Neal to join them ...

Knowing that they are about to lose out on LeBron James, the New York Knicks are considering a sign-and-trade deal that will send David Lee to the Golden States Warriors for team USA invitee Anthony Randolph. Let's imagine the pairing of Amare Stoudemire and Anthony Randolph playing under Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni's run-and-gun system ...

Even though Kevin Durant is not one of this year's free agents, he has agreed to a 5-year, $86 million contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder. And ex-Chicago Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro has agreed to coach the Los Angeles Clippers next year, that feature Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordon ...

2010 NBA Free Agency - Superstars Update

It has been reported that LeBron James wants Chris Bosh to join him in Cleveland but Bosh doesn't like the idea of playing in Cleveland and wants James to join him in Miami or Chicago instead. Chris Bosh has made it clear since day 1 that he doesn't want to go to a place where he will have to play center, and Cleveland certainly is one of those places. The Cleveland Cavaliers currently have no center under contract, and will send their only big man Anderson Varejao to the Toronto Raptors to make the sign-and-trade work ...

It is expected that Carmelo Anthony will accept the Denver Nuggets' 3-year, $65 million contract extension this summer, but it definitely will not be this week since he's getting married in New York this coming Saturday. The Denver Nuggets are now holding their breath because who knows what will happen after the Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh announce their decisions on Thursday ...

After the Orlando Magic signed Chris Duhon to a 4-year, $15 million contract on Tuesday, we have 13 signings thus far in the first 6 days of this year free agent frenzy ...

1) Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies) ... 5-year, $81.6 million
2) Darko Milicic (Minnesota Timberwolves) ... 4-year, $20 million
3) Drew Gooden (Milwaukee Bucks) ... 5-year, $32 million
4) John Salmons (Milwaukee Bucks) ... 5-year, $39 million
5) Amir Johnson (Toronto Raptors) ... 5-year, $34 million
6) Channing Frye (Phoenix Suns) ... 5-year, $30 million
7) Hakim Warrick (Phoenix Suns)... 4 year, $18 million
8) Steve Blake (Los Angeles Lakers) ... 4-year, $16 million
9) Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics) ... 4-year, $61 million
10) Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) ... 4-year, $80 million
11) Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks) ... 6-year, $123.7 million
12) Amare Stoudemire (New York Knicks) ... 5-year, $100 million
13) Chris Duhon (Orlando Magic) ... 4 year, $15 million

2010 NBA Free Agency - More Superstar Signings

Some of the top free agents are finally signed as we are now 5 days into the 2010 NBA free agency period. The Boston Celtics have re-signed the 32 years old Paul Pierce to a 4-year, $61 million contract. With coach Doc Rivers also agreed to return for next season, the Boston Celtics are looking forward to keeping the whole team intact and re-signing Ray Allen this week ...

The Dallas Mavericks have re-signed Dirk Nowitzki to a 4-year, $80 million contract. He was eligible for a max contract worth $96 million over 4 years but decided to take less to give the Mavericks more cap room to sign other free agents. To make sure he will finish his NBA career in Dallas, his contract includes a no-trade clause ...

The Atlanta Hawks have finally re-signed Joe Johnson to a 6-year max contract worth $119 million. The offer was on table since the first day of free agency, but Johnson did not commit to it right away even though he had an awful playoff performance just a couple of months ago ...

After 4 strikes (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Joe Johnson), the New York Knicks have signed Amare Stoudemire to a 5-year max contract worth $99.7 million. There was no question that the Knicks would at least get Stoudemire in this year's free agency as they were the only team willing to pay him max money. When he met with the media today, he said "The Knicks are back!!!" ...

source: espn.com

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

The Count Down - 5 more days before the 2010 NBA free agency

The NBA has been unexpectedly quiet considering that we are less than 5 days before July 1st. With most teams are not willing to take on more salaries and trying to clear more cap room as they prepare for free agency, trades are really difficult to come by. And there are only 4 teams or so who are actively involve in trade disussions ...

1. The Chicago Bulls are still trying move Luol Deng before July 1st. By trading him, the Bulls would clear another $11.4 million in cap space giving them over $30-40 million to spend in this summer. But with Deng signed through 2014, it is unlikely that they will find a taker, even on a sign-and-trade deal ...

2. The Miami Heat are "trying" to trade Michael Beasley to clear more cap space but no one wants him due to his past (and possibly future) off court issues ...

3. The Golden States Warriors are, all of a sudden, putting everyone except for Stephen Curry and Anthony Morrow on the trading block. They have already traded Corey Maggette just a couple of days ago ...

4. The Minnesota Timberwolves will move Al Jefferson for the right deal this summer as they know they are still years away from being a title contender. And head coach Kurt Rambis' reluctance to play Kevin Love alongside Jefferson the past season basically forces GM David Kahn's hand ...

As for the King himself, it is reported that he will not travel to the teams and cities that he's interested in, but will invite the teams' representatives over to Ohio and meet with them starting on July 1st. They six teams on the list are the New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers ...

source: nba.com

The Count Down - 6 more days before the 2010 NBA free agency

We are only 6 days away from the biggest free agency summer in NBA history, but still, the 2010 NBA draft last night ended quite uneventfully. For people who have been following some pre-draft news and reports, the first 5 picks went exactly the same as all the reports have suggested ...

1st pick ... Washington Wizards ... selected PG John Wall (Kentucky)
2nd pick ... Philadelphia 76ers ... selected G/F Evan Turner (Ohio State)
3rd pick ... New Jersey Nets ... selected PF Derrick Favors (Georgia Tech)
4th pick ... Minnesota Timberwolves ... selected G/F Wesley Johnson (Syracuse)
5th pick ... Sacramento Kings ... selected PF DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky)

source: espn.com

I know everyone has been talking about John Wall since the beginning of last season. And he has signed a $25 million shoe contract with Reebok 2 weeks before he was even drafted by an NBA team. I have to agree that he could be a star one day, but I will believe it when I see it. With John Wall's amazing 24% turnover rate in half-court offense, it will be interesting to see how many turnovers per game will the Washington Wizards backcourt combo of Gilbert "the gunman" Arenas and John Wall average next season (4 + 5 = 9?). But of course, we might not have a chance to see that if the Wizards could finally find a taker for their $111 million problem ...

Now shift our attention back to the NBA draft. After a series of picks and trades right before and after the conclusion of the draft, the net outcome is that ...

1) 4 of the 5 AP All-Americans were taken with the top 5 picks in this year draft. The 5th All-American, Scottie Reynolds (Villanova), made history in a bad way and went undrafted ...

2) The Atlanta Hawks got the extremely famous G/F Jordan Crawford (Xavier) in the draft. Now see if he can repeat what he did last year in a real NBA game, that is making another two-handed dunk over LeBron James ...

3) The Oklahoma City Thunder finally get a center they badly need. They picked up Mo Peterson and rookie center Cole Aldrich (Kansas) from the New Orleans Hornets ...

4) The Chicago Bulls have traded Kirk Hinrich to the Washington Wizards to clear up even more cap room to put themselves in position to sign 2 max-contract players!!!

5) The Miami Heat have traded 3-point champ Daequan Cook and the 18th pick of the draft to the Oklahoma City Thunder to go further under the cap. With just 2 players under contract for next year, they are now in position to sign 3 max-contract players!!!

The last 2 points are definitely bad news for teams trying to resign their own big name free agents. With the cap room that both the Bulls and the Heat are having, free agents like Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson might no longer wait for their respective sign-and-trade deals with their old teams, but instead, join forces and jump right into the team they think have the best chance of winning an NBA championship ...

The Count Down - 7 more days before the 2010 NBA free agency

With the 2010 NBA free agency just around the corner, everyone is talking about where LeBron James will be playing next year. Rightfully so. There is no doubt that he's the best player in this year's free agency pool. And if he really decides to play for the New York Knicks next year, I'm sure he will not be the only big name free agent playing there. In my mind, however, the biggest free agent this year is not LeBron James but Chris Bosh ...

source: nba.com

Chris Bosh? Yes, Chris Bosh. Let me ask you the question. Among all the big name free agents (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, David Lee, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen), who has the least chance of returning back to his own team? The answer should be pretty obvious. There is only 1 max-contract player on that list who failed to make the playoffs last year. That's Chris Bosh. And he basically has no, zero, nada intention whatsoever of returning to the Toronto Raptors since day 1 ...

During the past season, Bosh tried not to talk about the free agency situation / future with the Toronto Raptors / possibility of playing alongside LeBron James. But we all (including most Raptors fans) knew he is leaving regardless. When he got hurt in that Cleveland game late in the season, we knew right away it was the last and final game that Bosh played in a Raptors uniform. But as an NBA fan, you also got to be excited about the fact that we were going to have a much more entertaining first round playoff series with the Chicago Bulls playing the Cleveland Cavaliers, especially after the December game in which Joakim Noah and LeBron James exchanged words due to some non-stop dancing from the King throughout the entire game ...

Now back to the Chris Bosh's free agency story. The only twist we might have here to prevent Bosh from leaving Toronto is that Bosh isn't willing to leave any money on the table by just walking out and signing elsewhere. And this is exactly the reason why he gave Raptors GM Brian Colangelo his wish list of teams (Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, and New York Knicks) that he would like to get sign-and-traded to so that he could get the absolute maximum on his new contract. But with the Hedo Turkoglu situation in Toronto, GM Brian Colangelo is not going to take the first sign-and-trade offer he gets for Chris Bosh unless he also has a deal for Hedo Turkoglu with yet another team. He needs to use Bosh to get him the right mix of players, draft picks and contracts in order to use them in return to ship Turkoglu out of town ...

Therefore, for all the Raptors fans out there, you can hate Mr. Hedo nightclub Turkoglu as much as you want. Or you can hate Raptors GM Colangelo for signing Turkoglu last summer. Regardless of the outcome, Turkoglu will play an important role in dictating which team will end up getting Bosh or whether Bosh will actually get his wish and leave Toronto with a big fat contract. Even though it's unlikely, Turkoglu and Colangelo might be the ones that eventually keep Bosh from leaving the city of Toronto as Bosh runs of out options in late August ...