benaikey

With free agency now upon us, deals made this year will strongly impact next year’s highly publicized free agency. There are some solid players available this year, and some teams need to be in desperation mode to sign them to keep their star players from leaving next year. Here’s a look at some players that could have the biggest impact.

Shawn Marion – I think “The Matrix” is the best available free agent this year, as well as the possible impact he could have. Marion has played for 3 different teams the last 2 seasons and should be looking to play for a title contender. He’s made the All-Star team 4 times since 2003, and I think the team that needs to step up and pay him is the Cleveland Cavaliers. With all this talk about LeBron James possibly leaving next summer for the Knicks (which I think is absolute rubbish – but that’s another rant for another time), Cleveland needs to give him a high-profile teammate so King James doesn’t have to carry the load by himself. Say what you want about how well his teammates work together, Cleveland is still a one man team. Adding Marion to play alongside LeBron gives Cleveland as strong of a one-two punch as Kobe and Lamar Odom for the Lakers. And correct me if I’m wrong, but they just won the NBA title. Cavaliers management, sign this guy.

Lamar Odom – I expect the Lakers will re-sign him. They’d be foolish not to, and he’d be equally foolish for not wanting to keep playing with Kobe. I know it was a team effort with the Lakers, with great teamwork between Kobe, Odom, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Derek Fisher. Re-sign Odom, keep that starting lineup together, and you’ll have a good chance of winning a few more titles before it’s all said and done.

Ron Artest – Say what you want about his attitude, the man can play some defense. The Rockets need him desperately considering the possible severity of Yao Ming’s injury and the possible departure next year of Tracy McGrady. He’s unpredictable though, so I can’t really make an estimate on where I think he’ll end up. Personally, I’d like to see him here in Charlotte. The Bobcats are a team on the rise and Larry Brown is known for being able to control troubled players. Look at what he did his first year with Rasheed Wallace in Detroit. He could add some depth to the Bobcats and possibly help them reach the playoffs for the first time in franchise history next year.

Ben Gordon – As well as he played during the playoffs, nearly upsetting the Celtics, Gordon has become one of the hot names on the market. Every team can use a good outside shooter, and at a career 41.5% from downtown and 18.5 points per game, he could be a major difference-maker. I’m going to make an unorthodox pick and say his best fit is with the Los Angeles Clippers. Think about it for a minute. They have a solid point guard in Baron Davis and just drafted Blake Griffin, one of the most anticipated, can’t-miss rookies in recent memory. If he signs with them, in spite of how hard the Western Conference is, the Clippers will have a solid 1-2-3 combination.

Now, the dead weight of this year’s class. Not all free agents out there are as good as advertised. Here are the guys I see being over-valued or possibly not even getting signed.

Jason Kidd - As much as I like his style and demeanor, Jason Kidd isn’t worth as much as people think he is. Sure, he never gets injured and he’s a great team player. I just think at age 36, he’s not worth the money most people are going to offer him.

Sean May - Let’s face it, the guy is a bust. Larry Brown refused to play the guy because he wasn’t in good enough shape. I don’t see anyone wanting to sign him.

Allen Iverson - I’ve never liked this guy because let’s face it, he’s got a bad attitude. He’s not a team player, only cares about himself, and I don’t think anyone wants to put up with that. At 34 years old, he’s at a possible retirement age, and if nobody wants to take a chance on an aging point guard, he could be forced into early retirement.

Rasheed Wallace - I think the same applies to him as it does for Iverson.. He’s an aging big man that gets a lot of technical fouls for running his mouth, and I don’t think he can really help many teams. All the title contenders are pretty well set with their big men (the Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Cavaliers with Shaq, Lakers with Gasol, Magic with Dwight Howard, etc). If he goes to a title contender, I don’t see him starting. If he wants to start, it won’t be with a title contender. I think he needs to stay with Detroit, but there’s not a lot of hope in that.

Charlie Villanueva – This one isn’t quite as easy. He’s a solid player, averaging 13.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game over the course of his career. He’s stayed healthy for the most part, and I think he could step in and play well for someone. The problem is how much money he’ll be paid. I don’t really think he’s earned the right to make All-Star money just yet.

So those are my thoughts on some key free agents. I know there’s bound to be people that disagree with me, and they’ve got all right to. Regardless of your opinions, try to keep it respectful when posting comments.

Share This

The NBA got lucky last year. After the highly publicized rebuilding of the Boston Celtics and their new “big three”, the Celtics met the Lakers in the finals for yet another chapter of professional basketball’s most storied rivalry. The series went six games, and Boston walked away with the title, ending a championship drought of 22 years. The rivalry meant something again, and the slate was set for the two teams to have a rematch in this year’s finals. Unfortunately, Kevin Garnett’s injury put the Celtics championship hopes on the backburner; but this presented the NBA with a new marketing angle. This might be the year LeBron James gets to win a title.

So what does the NBA do? Come to a deal with Nike to feature commercials with puppet versions of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. And you know what? They were funny, or at least amusing. Anticipation grew at the possibility of the league’s two biggest stars facing off for the title. Even ESPN shot a commercial of these puppets singing the Sportscenter theme. It was a foregone conclusion, conference finals be damned, that the finals would be the Lakers vs. the Cavaliers. But wait, you actually have to play the games instead of creating your dream matchup.

Come to find out as good as LeBron is, he’s still not a one man team. The Magic were better this series, preferring teamwork and focus to one player scoring half his team’s points. I’m not bashing King James here. Not by any measure. But Orlando was content to work as a team and not feature any star player more than another, ran with the underdog role, and pulled the upset in six games. LeBron refused to shake hands with his opponents and speak to the media after the loss, which severely damages the character of a superstar who, until this point, had done everything right. Let me get this straight, LeBron. You can go on Saturday Night Live and joke about being swept by the Spurs in the finals, but you can’t shake Dwight Howard’s hand after his team beat you? You can’t be a leader and support your teammates after a tough loss? You’ve still got some growing up to do, but to be fair, you’re only 23. Still, your fans deserved better than that. Shame on you.

Panic time for the NBA and their advertising campaigns. Now, the Nike puppet commercials don’t get to have a legitimate ending, but are you just gonna scrap the project? Of course not, you’re gonna make another commercial with little Desmond annoying the life out of LeBron, rubbing salt in his fresh wounds for not reaching the finals as he was supposed to. All of a sudden, to take the spotlight away from King James, all the sports reporters (probably on secret missions from Commissioner Stern – the dirty puppet master he is) focus on Kobe and finally winning one without Shaq. Excuse me, what’s this doing here? Shaq and Kobe aren’t rivals anymore. You’re about two or three years too late on that. There are probably young NBA fans that don’t remember Shaq and Kobe ever playing together in the first place. Not to mention the fact that if you’ve actually been watching the playoffs and finals, Kobe isn’t putting up the ball-hog numbers he put up a few years ago in the playoffs. He’s putting up 30 points per game, which is about average for number 24. He isn’t dropping 40 and 50 per game like Wilt Chamberlain, he’s getting his points and feeding his teammates, averaging 5.5 assists per game over the course of the playoffs, and 8 assists per game in the Finals. It’s a team effort; Kobe has finally learned that, and it shows. And then there was that god-awful Spike Lee “documentary”, Kobe Doin’ Work, which is about as shameless of a promotion as I’ve ever seen. It’s literally painful to watch, so for those of you that haven’t seen it yet, don’t bother. And for those of you that watch as much Sportscenter as I do, you’ve probably seen something vaguely resembling a finals documentary all week. It’s shameless promoting, self-indulgent crap. You see Stan van Gundy yelling at his players for not working hard enough, fan reactions, Lamar Odom dribbling in slow-motion, and Orlando players looking depressed. Honestly? You’re airing this to try and get people to watch the finals? The NBA has officially hit a new low. The games haven’t been that good, and some bad voiceovers over an hour’s worth of highlights isn’t going to make it any more interesting. And has anyone else noticed the basketball analysts calling Rafer Alston “Skip to my Lou” instead of by his real name? He’s been in the NBA for how many years now? He’s not in And-1 basketball games anymore. Do they really have to reach that far just to get people to watch the finals? Is hockey really that serious of a competitor now?

The finals begin and the Magic get stomped all over, down 3-1 in the series going into Sunday’s Game 5. The anchors on ESPN focus on the fact that if Courtney Lee had hit the last-second layup at the buzzer instead of missing it at the end of regulation in Game 2, and Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu hadn’t choked away their foul shots in Game 4, the Magic would be up 3-1 instead. Well guess what? Neither of those things happened so you can stop making excuses for a young team that just isn’t as good as the Lakers yet. The Lakers are an older, more experienced, and better team, and they’re going to win the finals. Accept it and move on with your lives.

Share This