NBA free agents 2006

Phlegm · Post by **Phlegm** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 7:01 pm

ESPN is reporting that Ben Wallace has agreed to terms with the Chicago Bulls.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:22 am

Huge for the bulls.

They're gonna score like 80 pts a game but they're gonna hold people to 60.

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:29 am

That's freaking scary. He's getting a bit older, sure... but they signed him for the best part of the remainder of his career. The last year on the contract might hurt them but I doubt it... that was a SOLID pickup for Chicago.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:31 am

When he's got 1 year left he becomes a huge expiring contract which will help them rebuild if this team hasn't done anything yet.

Jay · Post by **Jay** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:25 am

High hopes for the Bulls next season.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:31 am

Looks liek they'll be dumping Chandler for PJ Brown and JR Smith.

They might be trying to move some of those pieces for another big contract.

With the rights to swap picks with NY next year (Oden sweepstakes) and Tyrus Thomas, they may still have enough to entice Minny to move Garnett back home to Chicago.

If so, that would be a guaranteed contender for the next 3 or 4 years.

Snero · Post by **Snero** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:34 am

man that would be a sick line up, and it seems like the rockets and mavs are the top two contenders in the mike james sweepstakes

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:27 am

Dallas trades Marquis Daniels to Indiana for Austin Croshere.

Sucks to lose Marquis... Indiana clearly wins in 'talent' but... Marquis was totally losing his role here... he never really fit in Avery's system. It'll save us nearly $20m in salary cap since this is Austin's last year... even more since KVH is likely going to sign elsewhere now.

Otherwise... It's been a pretty good off-season for Dallas.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:47 am

Is there any hope of being under the cap anytime soon?

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 2:10 pm

Maybe by 2015 or so, if we don't sign another player between now and then

DESX · Post by **DESX** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 2:17 pm

Lol I remember I passed by chi town....(hometown) a few days ago. I saw a billboard that said the bulls were coming back. I almost pissed my pants roflz the only way that the bulls are coming back is if rodman jr, pippin jr. and jordan jr are in the chicago bulls.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:41 pm

MJ has a kid in a division one school.

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 8:40 am

DESX wrote:Lol I remember I passed by chi town....(hometown) a few days ago. I saw a billboard that said the bulls were coming back. I almost pissed my pants roflz the only way that the bulls are coming back is if rodman jr, pippin jr. and jordan jr are in the chicago bulls.

This current bulls team possibly could have beaten the 'world champion' Miami Heat in the playoffs this year.

Even without Ben Wallace, they almost did it...

IMHO, the top two 'up-and-coming' teams to watch are Chicago and Orlando... with Orlando just a year or two behind Chicago in the game... They are both building the 'right' way.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:07 am

I disagree with Orlando. I just see that inept franchise making another colossal blunder ala Fran Vasquez.

Nelson and Howard are awesome but aside from that it's pretty weak.

Darko?
Reddick?
Diener?

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:53 pm

I like all the cap space they are building... this time next summer, they'll be something like $19m under the cap... with Dwight locked under for 2 more years. It's pretty impressive. Howard is TOTALLY a franchise guy... worth building around... about as strong as anyone in the league...

actually... I'll make a list...

1) Lebron
2) D. Wade
3) Chris Bosh
4) Dwight Howard
5) Chris Paul
6) Carmelo Anthony

That's about it. Nobody else is worth 'building a franchise around'... IMO...

Phlegm · Post by **Phlegm** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:07 pm

What about Kobe? Or is he too old for this list?

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:43 pm

Too old... if we listed Kobe, we'd have to list KG, Dirk, Timmie and...

actually, if Amare comes back 100% (which I'm doubting at 10:1 odds), I'd put him high up on that fist list...

Post by **Arlos** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:05 pm

Heh, Bill Simmons didn't like either of the big trades so far.

That reminds me, am I the only one who thought Chicago wasted much of its cap space for two extra rebounds per game, a mild defensive upgrade and the ongoing comedy of a Buckwheat-caliber afro? Congratulations, you get to play four-on-five for the next four years in a league where every rule adjustment favors teams that can score. Why not just keep Chandler for two-thirds the price? Instead, they overpaid for Wallace and gave away Chandler for a washed-up P.J. Brown and a draft bust that New Orleans was trying to dump? I don't get it. This is like Paramount Pictures signing William H. Macy to a four-picture, $60 million deal -- sure, he's a great actor, but that doesn't mean you pay him like a superstar. They will eventually regret this one almost as much as Wallace probably regrets filming that T-Mobile commercial that made him seem whipped.

and

Charlie Villaneuva: Actually, this wasn't a tough omission -- I just wanted to comment on the Villanueva-T.J. Ford trade. Disregard Ford's scary spinal cord problems, that he can't shoot to save his life, that he's a free agent two years earlier than Villanueva, even that he lost crunch-time minutes to Charlie Bell last season. Again, I want you to disregard everything in that sentence. From a pure basketball standpoint, since when is a young point guard worth as much as a young power forward who can rebound and shoot 3s? When has that EVER been the case? How fast did the Bucks' front office say yes to this trade? 0.79 seconds? 1.2 seconds? Did they say, "Hold on, we'll discuss this and call you back in a few hours," then hang up and start pouring champagne on one another? If somebody made this deal in my fantasy league, I would have protested it.

(Did I mention that I can't get over that trade? I'm in an American League-only fantasy league in which the 10th-place guy traded Single-A prospect Cameron Maybin to the second-place team for Justin Morneau last month, and that set off three weeks of vicious message board posts, angry phone calls and the resignation of our longtime commissioner, since he was the one who ended up with Morneau. And this was a FANTASY league. The Villanueva-Ford trade was the real-life equivalent -- so were there angry e-mails and phone calls between the GMs in the Central Division when they found out? Like, did Joe Dumars immediately flip out and leave nasty messages on Bryan Colangelo's machine? Or does this only happen in fantasy leagues when the owners don't have lives?)

-Arlos

vonkaar · Post by **vonkaar** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 12:31 am

I disagree with him on both points. Ben showed that he can run and Chicago has enough offensive weapons that they won't need a scoring center. That's especially true in the East, where the only threat is an aging Shaq, who struggles against Wallace anyway. If Chicago was in the West, you'd likely need a much more mobile center...

Shrug... They have the best young power forward in the league in Chris Bosh and just got the #1 pick at PF... who 'also' happens to shoot threes. They had a huge glut of young, talented power-forwards... and a big need for a point-guard. I can 'kind of' see the argument in, "could we have gotten more for Charlie?" but I don't see how. Toronto has needed a good PG for years... and TJ Ford is top ten in my book. He's young... makes for a good leader on the floor... he's a solid acquisition for any team. If you have an overabundance of 4s and a desperate need for a 1... pick the 'odd-man-out' 4 and try to get the best PG you can get. Do you trade Bosh? Fuck no. Do you trade the #1 pick before his first game? Fuck no. Charlie was the 3rd here and they did well in the trade.

Now, if Andrea totally bombs and Villanueva continues to progress... that's going to suck donkey balls... but wouldn't surprise any of the cynical fans in Toronto =p.

Zanchief · Post by **Zanchief** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 3:26 pm

I'm not crazy about the trade but it's the only way were gonna get a young PG of TJs value.

The funny thing about simmons is he origianlly wrote that the CV pick was one of the top 5 worst draft picks of all time (his words), then later said the ONLY reason he was performing well was because of people like him and his ESPN colleagues providing him modivation to proove them wrong.

Now, this is his oppinion. He loves to say I told you so, when really he should be saying Boy was I wrong.