Free Agency

He's probably good in that ought to be a good facilitator for the scoters on the Maverick team rather than looking for his own game. I think if the Knicks can get a chauffeur for Jason Kidd he is a perfect fit for them.

 

from insider:
Explaining Houston's GM way of doing business
For five years now, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has been a canary in the coal mine for the basketball analytical community. He's the first of his kind, really, as someone who rose through the front office ranks to become a decision-maker for an NBA franchise based on a background rich in analytical acumen. Statistically-oriented hoops fans all over the world have erected little Daryl Morey shrines next to their spreadsheet-addled laptops.

When Morey took over as Houston's general manager on May 10, 2007, it was heralded as the beginning of the Moneyball age in the NBA, an evolution that would re-shape how the league operates. Teams are now using advanced metrics and data in more innovative ways than ever, and an affinity for numbers is becoming an essential part of a basketball operations team. Morey was at the vanguard of this trend. He himself wrote in the Economist, "The basketball world today can be divided between a new wave of objective statistical techniques and traditional methods of visual observation."

Morey has used these methods to do a quality job in Houston, and he's been widely praised during his tenure despite dealing with injuries to franchise players in Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. The Rockets have finished better than .500 in each of the three years since Yao was first injured, but they haven't made the playoffs. In fact, they've won just one playoff series since Morey took over as GM.

While Morey has built competitive teams with undervalued talent and remained flexible with Houston's finances, he hasn't been able to escape a general basketball truism: You can't win a championship without a surefire Hall of Famer leading the way (save for a couple of teams, like the '04 Pistons). In the Economist article, Morey wrote, "Looking to the past is indisputably the best way to shift the odds in a forecaster's favor."

He was referring to the surprising development of Jeremy Lin, but the same statement could be made about building a championship team. It's a lesson Morey seems to have taken to heart this summer.

Morey's offseason approach has confused some people, and it's not hard to understand the concern. In my offseason forecasting model, the Rockets started with a baseline projection of 38.8 wins and have since dropped to 27. The 11.8 projected wins the Rockets have lost during free agency is by far the most in the league, but it's because good players have fallen by the wayside in Morey's relentless quest for a star player, namely Dwight Howard.

Here's what's left: Kevin Martin (who has one year and $12.4 million left on his contract, making him highly fungible), European import Donatas Motiejunas (who has so far been impressive in the Las Vegas Summer League), three first-round picks from the most recent draft, two players on rookie contracts in Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris and a whole slew of second-round picks and non-guaranteed contracts.

But unlike the New York Knicks, Morey recognized that his team was entering the territory of limited ceiling, and rather than consign the Rockets to Sisyphean-style mediocrity, he's taken steps to escape the middle class by pursuing Howard and now Lin. Since Howard would be Houston's new foundation, let's start with him before getting to Lin's impact.

In an abstract sense, Morey can't offer the Orlando Magic fair value for Howard, but he can offer them the chance to rebuild since Houston's trade-friendly assets are plentiful. According to a Marc Stein and Chad Ford report, Morey is willing to send Martin, Patterson, Morris and Chandler Parsons along with some combination of this year's draft picks and future selections to Orlando. In doing so, Houston could take back as much as $47 million in 2012-13 salary from the Magic (but that figure would decrease if the Knicks don't match Lin's offer sheet). As Zach Lowe points out, that happens to be almost the exact combined salaries of Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, Chris Duhon, Glen Davis and Jason Richardson.

With Howard in the middle, finding cost-efficient supporting players could make a real difference. Let's take a stab at an initial Rockets rotation if Morey could pull off a Howard trade:

Centers: Howard, Josh Harrellson
Point guards: Toney Douglas, Duhon
Shooting guards: Richardson, Jeremy Lamb
Small forward: Turkoglu
Power forwards: Motiejunas, Davis

These nine players project to be about a 40-win team -- at a cost of about $53 million, or about $5 million under the cap -- though there is a clear hole at point guard and two pending situations that could change the look of the Rockets: The offer sheets to Lin and Omer Asik.

After a certain amount of silliness out in Vegas, the Knicks finally have an offer sheet in hand for Lin and are expected to use the entire three-day waiting period to decide whether to match it (Asik's offer sheet hasn't been signed, but that's a formality and a matter of timing).

It's been assumed that the Knicks would match Lin, but after Saturday's reported deal for New York to acquire Raymond Felton from the Portland Trail Blazers, suddenly that's no longer a given, which could be a huge get for the Rockets. Once we plug Lin into our forecast, Houston's projection suddenly jumps to more than 50 wins, and the Rockets could still add to the mix with cap exceptions and minimum-salaried veterans. This is where Morey's evaluative skills would come into play.

However, there's one possible problem with this scenario: If Houston gets Lin, Asik's presence would reduce the amount of salary the Rockets could take on, thus reducing the chances Magic GM Rob Hannigan pulls the trigger. Houston could involve a third team to absorb one of Orlando's bad contracts, but that might cost it another young asset or pick (or both).

Of course, Howard could also pout his way through the season and leave as a free agent next summer, and Hannigan could choose to deal with another team, thus leaving Morey with his skeletal roster. But the worst thing that happens is the Rockets are starting over, and in this case, they still escape the middle. And that risk pales in comparison to the upside of having Howard as the centerpiece of a team that could get back to the playoffs and potentially make a run.

While Morey's plan may seem risky now, it's time to stop scratching your head. Morey's gutsy pursuit of Howard and Lin is the only way to make a play for an NBA championship, and therefore it's the way Houston needs to go.

 

Antawn Jamison: Los Angeles Lakers Agree To Deal With Free Agent : Court Crusades

Jamison to the Lakers.

 

Sorry kids but daddy is going to play ball in LA

 

Yeah, I can't really blame him. Looks like this team is gonna be built to score. Not so sure about the defense.

 

Yeah he's projected to be their sixth man assuming gasol doesn't get shipped off rumored to Memphis

 

2012 NBA free agency -- Kris Humphries, Brooklyn Nets agree to 2-year deal, source says - ESPN New York

Humphries back to Nets it appears.

 

So I was reading some other sites, wonder what the impact of Jamison signing with the Lakers would have on Jordan Hill's status with them? Could be a nice pickup if very cheap. I like his ability/potential a little better than DJ White for the type of system Dunlap is wanting to run.

 

damn 12 mil a year. I guess Kayne West didn't tell his friend Jay Z to fire him like he rapped about. The Russian Billionaire probably told Jay to tell Kayne to fuck his fat ass girlfriend and shut the fuck up

 

owners have been going crazy throwing money around his offseason. they're so desperate to spend more money on people that they're using their amnesty clauses on decent players just to get more cap space to waste. and this is all coming on the heels of a lockout.