Free Agency. Where are they going?

Straight from the Gods:

Lebron James: Chicago Bulls. And no, he is not pairing with Bosh. Carlos Boozer is coming to Chi town. That is going to hurt Cavs. Double. This is leaving Chicago enough money to round up the roster with decent role players

Chris Bosh: Miami Heat. DWade has his new sidekick. Same case as the Bulls, the are not throwing all their money in two players. They are going to spread the wealth.

Amare Stoudemire and Joe Johnson: New York Knicks. Well, Plan B worked.

David Lee: New Jersey Nets. He likes the area and the Russian guy is probably going to seriously overpaid to get him. Keeps him in line with his plan of turning Knicks fans into Nets fans

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen: Boston Celtics

Dirk Nowitzki: Dallas Mavericks. He is probably also getting Shaquille O'neal in a sign and trade for Butler with the Cavs. This team might be the front runners on getting Arenas next February.

Rudy Gay: L.A Clippers. They are going to overpay for him. Big time!

J.J. Redick: Orlando Magic. Offers are going to be there but I don't the Magic letting him go

John Salmons: Torn between Milwaukee Bucks and New Jersey Nets. Probably the latter

Brad Miller: Chicago Bulls. He likes it there. They like him

Udonis Haslem: Miami Heat

Free Agency. What are the offering?

The last post i gave a list of 8 teams that actually are players in this cute lil summer. This is a grosso modo what are they offering:

New York Knicks: The same thing they have been preaching since Donnie Walsh came aboard. Faith. Mike Wilbon said it. They have nothing more than faith. I'm aware of New York city's glamour and appeal but the main targets are taking basketball based decisions. New York has nothing more to offer than a Spike Lee and the "Meca" of basketball. I think is pretty clear that whoever they get is going to have to wait 2 years atleast to start winning seriously.

They have room for two max players. But nothing else. You are telling me that Bron, Bosh, Gallinari and Wilson Chandler surrounded by less-than-2-million-per-year role players are going through Orlando , Boston or L.A.? Please!

New Yersey Nets: This is why is important to start thinking about this right now. 6 months ago nobody was giving the Nets a chance. Now they have this owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, who is worth bizillions. He has come to spent, to shake things up. He is like a mutant Mark Cuban, like Bill Simmons calls him. This guy plus the eventual move to Brooklyn plus Brook Lopez and Devin Harris and Derrick Favors, makes the Nets are pretty good place to consider.

The bad? Those supposedly two years in Newark could became three or four. Devin Harris is not that good and the russian might get bored on his new toy. All signs point that they guy is not like that at all. He is a successful guy, he takes care of his investments and his a fan but you never know....

Chicago Bulls: Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah could be in contention in a couple of years adding the right players to the mix. This is great nucleus already and they have room for two max players ( with a little paycut). There is also the big market, the "winning tradition", the great fan base. An owner that might not be perfect but he is willing to pay. The wrinkle in this is HOW much is going to pay. Every free agent is going to ask for the assurance that Rose and Noah are going to be Bulls for a long time, not sure Reinsdorf is going for that one.

Miami Heat: Everything is working for Miami. They have DWade recruiting. They can pair DWade with two more A list players ( with discount). They have the owner. The city. The fans.

Nothing is wrong with that picture but if they manage to add two more player to play with Wade then there is no money left for role players. Right now Miami only has Chalmers and Beasley under contract. If they go the other way and sign just one max player to pair with Wade they would have enough money to overpaid another B list player ( lets say Richard Jefferson or David Lee). Just an hint...

L.A Clippers: They are the perfect fit for Lebron. Everything! Is like a glove! The players, the city, the scenario of stealing Kobe's spotlight. Good God that would be priceless. But no , Donald Sterling still running the show over there so too bad. I'm pretty sure they are going to grab a free agent. No big name but somebody is going to give it a shot.

Wizards: They have been helping teams unload contracts lately ( Nets and Bulls) so I think they holding to their cap space and "collect" those favors come February when they try to unload Arenas. You know, three or four team deals are hard to pull off.

Kings and Bucks: They are going to add somebody, some JJ Redick or Shanon Brown type of name. Both are young teams willing to roll a dice a little bit.

Celtics: I think they are staying put. They are going to spent big resigning Pierce. Don't expect any big moves from Ainge unless he decides to blow things up which is very likely now that Doc is returning

Free Agency. The facts

We have been waiting for this for more than 2 years. This is when I'm giggling like a school girl because we finally know most of the facts that we need to take an EDUCATED GUESS ( I don't think ESPN are familiar with this concept. They know things like " HITS" and "POPULARITY" things me or the Basketball Gods have no idea )

This is what you need to know:

1. The Cleveland Cavaliers did not win the championship. They didn't even get close to it. My thoughts were if Lebron wins a ring in Cleveland there is no way he's leaving. No way in hell. If the had gotten close, lets say game 6 or 7 of the NBA Finals, he wasn't going to leave neither. But he got pwned in the second round by the Boston Celtics. At that point I said "60-40" on he leaving.

2. The L.A. Lakers won the championship. Proving that you need two big GAME players to make it. Lebron does not have that on Cleveland, neither does Bosh on Toronto. Cleveland try to pull on of those shameless steals ala Pau Gasol and all they got was Shaq and Antawn Jamison.Not bad players to have in your roster but there is no way they are second bananas. Third option in Jamison case. First big from the bench for Shaq.

3. The cap will be $56.1.

4. This are the teams that cap and cards on this game:

1. New York Knicks

2. Chicago Bulls

3. New Jersey Nets.

4. Miami Heat

5. Milwaukee Bucks

6. Boston Celtics

7. Washington Wizards

8. L.A. Clippers

5. All the big names you were expecting to opt-out did. Also crashing the party came: Dirk, Paul Pierce and Richard Jefferson

6. Something you already now , just in case lets put it on paper, one or two free agents are going to get seriously overpaid. This is a huge factor to keep an eye on. Lets say Atlanta offers Joe Johnson 13 millions but the Russian guy goes out an offer the max ( around 16.7 millions). Guess were JJ is going....

Game 5. 2010 NBA Finals

Lakers 86 - Celtics 92

I don't know how much sense i'm going to have after a game like that!

The first half the Celtics play amazing basketball, their D was suffocating. All time highs! Amazing. But in the other end the were committing turnovers left and right, specially Rondo. At the halftime they were up by 6 shooting like 60%. The Lakers were smiling. Believe me!

The third quarter was epic! Epic! Best quarter of basketball I've seen in years. Kobe got off, 19 points. 15 of them he got them in a hardest way possible . Then Pierce got hot too. They started coming back at each other for at least 4 possessions. Pierce was less effective. He scored 11. Still it was something to see, Kobe's show, Tony Allen block on Pau Gasol. KG played solid 12 minutes defensively . Just amazing basketball.

At this point I was really sure i was seeing a future classic, that until the 6 minute point. The Lakers totally went cold. They made 2 baskets in the final 6 minutes but somehow managed to cut a 11 point lead to 5 working they way into the score from the free throw line. Artest and Fissher took bad shots. Kobe had a couple of forced passes the ended up being lost possessions. The Cs decided to make the game interesting and shoot themselves in the foot having 4 straight empty trips and going 0 from 3 from the floor while the Lakers were taking free throws. Neither had that cold blooded clutch perfomance. Both teams missed free throws. Both teams made mental mistakes ( Fisher won a jump ball against KG, Artest went for the uncontested lay up but Piercer fouled him. He made the first one, he missed the second one which got rebounded by Kobe but Pierce snatched the ball right out of his hands). The Celtics just did enough to hold on the lead.

Three key aspects of this game that could easily affect game 6:

1. Artest is about to snap. He was on the verge the entire second half. He gave two crazy look in the fourth. One to the Celtics bench that yelled at him when he was about to shoot and another one to Pierce when he walk in front of him between free throws. He could easily go bananas in game 6 given the motivation needed....

2. Kobe is not going to trust no one in game 6 or 7. I have the feeling that if the Lakers get behind in the second half for more than 5 points he is going to start shooting anything in sight. I mean anything. The basketball, towels, Phil's table, Vujacic's head. My point: Bad news to the Lakers.

3. Ray has missed 16 straight three pointers. He is due. This is not a streaky shooter we are talking about. This is Ray Allen. Just saying...

Everything looks like crap for the Lakers. But...

4. KG is not getting shot illegal stuff in his body at L.A.

5.Odom and their bench tend to play much better at home.

Game 4. 2010 NBA Finals

Didn't see it. :P

Kinda happy about that I dont think I wanna see Big Baby Davis drooling all over the court

I know...this is not a post, is a tweet! What ya gonna do :P

Game 3. 2010 NBA Finals

Lakers 91, Celtics 84

If I had played that game in NBA Live or something I would had quit half way the fourth quarter.

Very chippy played, marquee players didn't played like they are scripted to play, officiating was terrible ( I know that doesn't apply to video games. Anyhow!). That game was odd. I wanna see some type of study out of it from basketball-reference.com.

The game was close from the the third quarter on, the Celtics kept shrinking the difference but never got over the hump. Ray Allen shot 0 from 13! ( 0 from 8 from downtown) Pierce had his second straight bad game ( 5 from 12) . The Celtics played a very bad game offensively, the TO's were pretty low though, their struggled running their sets. The looked and waited so much for Ray to get open that their offense never moved from second gear. Pierce got locked down again by Artest. KG was the only Celtic scoring. Look, Boston has 4 great players we all know that. In order for them to win either Ray Allen or Paul Pierce need to have a solid game. KG is a 15 ppg player at this point of his career. He is their inside presence they can do it without his production because of Rondo and the timely contributions of Big Baby. Rondo is not a scorer. They will struggle every game if their two wing player gives them crap. There is no rhythm in the offense and much less space to do anything. You combine that with LA's length and defensive activity and you can say the the Celtics were close at the end of the game.

It wasn't all luck thought, the Lakers won despite playing terrible. Kobe played like he was shooting the Lakers out of the game. He needed 29 shots to score 29 points. He was shooting anything withing 16 feet no matter what defender was him or how many. He took the same amount of shots that Gasol, Bynum, Artest and Odom combined. Just saying.

Gasol, he disappeared again in the fourth. I'm not putting this on Gasol at all. Kobe was just shooting anything that touched his hands. I'm putting it on Phil Jackson. The Lakers got lucky last night and Phil didn't do anything to push that luck. You know how lucky they were? Derek Fisher was the start of the game. He scored 11 points in the fourth. At some point he scored 6 straight points. It doesn't sound that impressive but the timing of those points were gold. It wasn't offense by accident he saw how Kobe was playing he knew he needed to take the ball out of his hands. He saw how Gasol wasn't being all man in the inside, he had a little bit of a regresion against 2008 GK, he couldn't be trusted. So yeah, he give it a shot and push his Lakers to a 1 game lead.

Good game Mr Fisher!

Oh...almost forgot to make emphasis on this: RAY ALLEN MISSSED 13 SHOTS. 8 FROM THREE. If Ray goes 4 -13( 2 - 8 on 3 pointers) Boston wins this game. The pull a comeback win and get their second straight victory against the Lakers. That's A LOT of momentum!

Game 2. 2010 NBA Finals

Celtics 103 - Lakers 94

Look at that boxscore.

KG was 2-5. Pierce was 2-11 and Big Baby managed to attempt 13 shots making 4 of them. And the Celtics won.

Gasol was 7 - 10, 11-13 from the free throw line. Bynum played 40 minutes. Kobe had a 20-5-5. And the Lakers lost.

A better game than game 1. A more physical game too courtesy of the Celtics. A better played game specially from the C's. Their defense was way more active and they needed it. Pierce still hasn't figure out how to shake off Artest. Expect better games from the Truth at Boston.

Garnett looked bad. Fuck it, Vujacic played better than him. Something is up with this guy that the C's are not telling us. He is jumping with one knee , he has no elevation, he's trying to rebound one handed. He's shooting bricks.He's getting torched by Gasol. Easily.

That was the bad, the good: Ray Allen. I'm so in love with his jump shot. He played a perfect first half. He didn't waste any opportunity and let it go the second he got the ball. The result was a 27 point, 7-8 from three first half. Pure beauty. Lakers D got to zero on him on the second half as he was running through screen the Lakers got to start switching once the premier defender got behind on one of those screens. That let the door open to what Rondo did , and that was make the Lakers D pay. They let him open and they let him roam around and he totally controlled the fourth quater. Wasn't only his rebounds or the jump shot from the left wing, he controlled the pace of the game doing a great job looking for other options rather than KG and Pierce. Defensively he sealed the game, the block on Fisher and the steal from Kobe that became Kobe's fifth and pretty much caged him for the rest of them game, were probably the plays of the game.

32 points and 8 threes by Allen and he still wasn't the best player in the court. Remember what I told you about Rondo figuring Lakers'D out. It happened sooner than I expected

The Lakers got the best game they are going to get out of Bynum. He played 40 minutes because they needed him. Odom hasn't arrived to the Finals yet and that creates 0 production from their bench ( Their bench is so thin without Lamar's production that Phil's orders for Farmar and Brown is just " attack the basket". They are not event trying to run any freaking triangle. He just need something out of his bench. He played Vujacic again for crying out loud). Bynum was a force at both ends. 7 rejections ( at least three on Rondo) and 21 points. Easily towered over the Celtics D for a lot of easy points. The Lakers cannot ask more of him. Gasol played as aggressive and fearless as I had see him played. He still a little "hesitant" against Sheed but against any other C he is straight up taking to their bodies. 25 points, 8 boards, 6 blocks. He faded somehow at the end of the game. He is not the closer.

That was the good, the bad: Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher and Ron Artest. They were 4-21 with 5 TO's. Nobody can win when your best man of the bench, your starting point guard and small forward play like that. With around 45 seconds to play Artest got the ball in the right wing, started dribbling, moved to the top of the key, twirled his way to the left side just in front of Doc Rivers, pick up the dribbled, pump faked twice and shot a brick. It took him 22 seconds. You just can't win like that.

The Celtics got their bounce back, the energy they showed was nothing like game 1. This was the fighting and scrappy team that won 6 straight games against Cleveland and Orlando - Big Baby got block like 6 times and while getting like 3 offensive rebounds in one sequence. Next play: Big Baby scored against Gasol. This are the Celtics that can win this series. The Lakers in the other hand played the first half in cruise control. One get the feeling they were just waiting for a run in the second half to take control of the game. These are not the Utah Jazz. These are not the Oklahoma City Thunder. They better snap the shit out of that mindset or we might be seeing a 5 game sweep

Game 1. 2010 NBA Finals

Celtics 89, Lakers 102

I wasn't expecting that. At all.

First surprise of the night was the play of Ron Artest. The guy played under control, with the offense, no crazy shots and more importantly play physical defense on Paul Pierce. That not only took Pierce out of the game ( still got 24 points and 9 rebs) but the entire Lakers team fed off of that energy. Kobe doesn't have that effect. Truly a great game by Ron Ron.

The KG- Gasol matchup we were all expecting was like watching bizarro Finals 2008. After halftime that is. Gasol still shit his calzones a little bit when he saw Garnett but after intermission ( I'm guessing Ron Ron or Phil pretty much told him "Stop crying and shivering you puto! He's playing in one leg. Fuck it, Bynum is in better shape!!" or something like that). The final two quarters Gasol just took it to KG, no contest. Gasol 2010 vs one legged KG is not a matchup, is like Lebron posting up Larry King in their little P-I-G game. Too bad Sheed can't be kept under control for entire quaters 'case Gasol looked waaaaay more hesitant against Sheed. He just doesn't like contact.

A lot of thing went wrong for the Celtics in the logic of " they didn't get beat, they lost the game".

Ray Allen foul trouble took him completely out of the game. Rondo didn't seem all there, Lakers are too long for him, we just need to give him some time. The main reason they lost , besides the Gasol schooling KG, was that they didn't play with the same intensity. No sense of urgency. No diving for loose balls. The second half -- minus some 6 solid minutes in the fourth quater where they almost seemed to start kicking it in -- all the Celtics were like expecting some sort of energy explosion from Rondo or Piercer that never happened.

Can't believe I'm saying these but the tougher, meaner team last night were the Lakers. If you think about it makes sense. The Lakers have one the more physical wing defenders in Artest ( which is good as long as he is under control) and the C's have their head "jackal" ( as Phil Jackson referred to Scottie Pippen in the 2000 Conference Finals) KG playing in less than half of what he is (was). This is up to Paul Pierce to pick up the slack not only being the vocal leader KG was supposed to be but also taking his aggressiveness against Artest another notch. He can't not allow Artest to treat him like he was Kevin Durant. You are a big boy PP, step up!