With or without LeBron, time in Cleveland must go on. The team have holes all over their roster — not just the massive one that could be left if James leaves — but also at shooting guard and center. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported today:
The Cavs are also believed to be pursuing various shooting guards. Sources indicated the team planned to make contact with Ray Allen, Mike Miller and John Salmons. Allen, like Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, would become more likely if James re-signs.
Jordan Farmar wants to be a starter. So far in his four-year career with the Lakers, he has averaged 6.9 points and 2.1 assists in only 18.1 minutes a game, failing to distinguish himself from aging Derek Fisher or raw combo guard Shannon Brown as L.A.’s point guard of the future. And yet Farmar still maintained throughout the season and immediately following the Lakers’ championship run that he’s looking to be the No. 1 guy somewhere — whether it’s in L.A. or not. Now that he’s a free agent, where would Farmar have a shot at getting his wish? Read More »
For a guy who has never felt at home in the NBA thus far in his career, Darko Milicic looks like he will be staying in America after all. The Wolves and Darko have reportedly agreed on a 4-year, $20 million deal, keeping Darko in Minnesota where he finished last season. This is a dramatic turn of events for Milicic, who was expected to go back to Europe this summer, but endeared himself to coach Kurt Rambis and GM David Kahn. Read More »
When Mike Brown was fired over a little over a month ago, I listed Tom Thibodeau, Larry Brown and Avery Johnson as the three coaches the Cavaliers should pursue for their head coaching vacancy. Now, Thibodeau is with the Bulls, Johnson is with the Nets, and Larry Brown — still under contract with the Bobcats — has not pushed to be released in order to pursue other opportunities like many thought he would.
Since the vacancy, the Cleveland position has become a give-and-take. Coaches have wanted at least some indication that LeBron will be returning to Cleveland next year, but because it’s impossible for the team to ensure that, coaches such as Tom Izzo have been turning down large sums of money rather than take the risk. Read More »
So far Day 1 of NBA free agency isn’t going as fast and furious as some might have wanted, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of meetings and movement already. Let’s take a quick look at all the action going on around the NBA at the moment:
* Before his scheduled meeting with the Knicks today, Joe Johnson reportedly received a six-year contract offer from the Atlanta Hawks shortly after midnight. And while a lot of people thought J.J. played himself out of a max deal in the 2010 playoffs, according to Yahoo! Sports, the Hawks’ offer is for $127 million, a.k.a. max dollars. Read More »
With so much excitement surrounding this year’s free agency class, the Denver Nuggets are feeling left out. Yesterday, sources began reporting they were willing to trade Carmelo Anthony so he doesn’t walk next year when he’s a free agent. Now, the Denver Post said the team could be positioning themselves to have a run at a couple of big names. Read More »
… And the first free agent is (in principle) off the board. Funny, just the other day in the office we were trying to guess how many teams Drew Gooden has played for — everyone always forgets the Kings, for which Drew played one whole game — and now he’s added another in his quest to become the next Chris Gatling. Read More »
With NBA free agency now officially underway, teams are either still frantically preparing or currently delivering their pitches to potential signees. We recently caught up with New Jersey Nets head coach Avery Johnson — whose team is among those in the running for A-list free agents like LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh, Amar’e and Joe Johnson — and asked him to give us a sample of his free-agent pitch.
At the very moment today’s Smack is being posted, odds are some NBA superstar — Amar’e Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade, maybe Mr. You Know Who — is hearing a knock on his front door, or taking a phone call from a front-office exec who sounds like a 14-year-old trying to be cool on the phone with the girl he’s crushing on. You want to hear a grown man’s voice crack? Listen in on one of these icebreaker free-agent phone calls … The first bomb in the Nets/Knicks battle for talent was dropped yesterday, when a giant billboard of Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov began to appear on the side of a New York City building that just happens to face the offices at Madison Square Garden. Read More »
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