- Jose Calderon says he's staying in Toronto. Not much of a surprise there.
- Gilbert Arenas got not one, but two max offers last night. One from Golden State, one from Washington.
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution thinks the Sixers are going full-steam ahead after Josh Smith, and they aren't happy about it. Smith will reportedly visit the Sixers this week, possibly as early as tomorrow morning.
- The Knicks are interested in Chris Duhon.
- Stephen A. Smith thinks Baron Davis wants to go to the Knicks, which would only be possible as part of a sign and trade. Seeing as how the Warriors are already trying to use the cap space created by Baron opting out, I find it unlikely that they'd sign Davis to a max deal, then trade him to the Knicks for Marbury's expiring contract. Smith also says he thinks the Clippers will resign Brand for 4 years, $60M. If this was anyone other than SAS it would have me worried. Check out the video here.
- The Kings are prepared to offer their full MLE to keep Beno Udrih.
- The Sixers signed undrafted free agent Callistus Eziukwu.
The first 12 hours of free agency have been eventful. It appears as though the Sixers are focused on Josh Smith, according to reports, but Elton Brand's name in the hat should garner a great deal of attention as well.
They better not..
I still don't see it happening. The writers from the Atlanta paper don't really know what they're talking about, at all.
haha yeah. Truehoop wrote a response to that very article yesterday pretty much calling the writer a complete buffoon for oversimplifying things and not having any idea of things work.
Thats great news that theyre going hard after smith with him wed be the best defensive team and probably the most exciting team in the league. hes only 22 so his game is only going to get mbetter while brand may have peaked already. While i would love to get brand my first option would be smith.
I'm really, honestly torn between Brand and Smith. Brand is obviously the superior player, and Smith has a reputation for being a head case; on the other hand, Brand is 29 and coming off a major injury, while Smith is 22 and is a superior defensive player.
I'd be happy with either one, though I think if push came to shove I'd prefer Smith. That would still leave a lot of work to be done on the perimeter, though, as far as assembling this team.
Smith worries me. Love his age, energy and athleticism. But I don't know how well he could defend his position at the 4 (he's a great help/weakside defender but is undersized), and while he can score it's mostly facing the basket. I wasn't one of the six people on earth who watched the Hawks this year, but I don't recall him commanding a double team down low. Add in the knucklehead factor, and I'm just not sure.
Would love to have Brand on board, but still think he ends up staying in LA. Keep Magette as far away from here as possible. As anticlimactic as it sounds, I'm starting to think the best thing the team could do is maintain some of the flexibility they already have. Sign 'Dala and Williams to one-year deals, hang on to 'Dre Miller, see how the young guys do this season and have a ton of cap next year. Better than overspending on a mediocre talent.
Bummed about Calderon. He would have opened up a whole lot of options.
BTW, you were right about Memphis being willing to give Mike Miller away for nothing. I've never seen a team make a worse pair of trades than Memphis did this year. First you give Gasol away, ostensibly to create cap room. Then you give up most of that cap room taking on some horrible contracts while getting rid of one of your best players. All for a telented, young and utterly unproven gunner who may be Kobe, but right now is closer to Ricky Davis.
I think Mayo is always going to be Ricky Davis. Honestly, I think Miller is now and will always be a better shooting guard than Mayo.
I WAS one of the six people (as the resident Hawks fan).
He didn't command a double team down low because he rarely hung out there. He plays offense more like a SF and tends to hang around the 3-point line and slash to the basket either with the ball or to go for alley-oops/tip-ins. He grabs very few offensive boards. He sometimes gets lazy and will start taking mid-range jumpers and 3-pointers which most teams will welcome since he shoots at such a low clip (like 30% from 3). Granted, I'm saying all this and he is STILL just 22. One offseason of dedicated practice can fix the shooting thing. He doesn't have the true mentality of a PF though (maybe another offseason of work would fix that).