July 11th, 2010 by Chase

Don’t be fooled by all the big names in this years free agency and thinking that those are the only good players available. At the time of writing this article there are 40 solid free agents that could help fill important roles for championship contenders. Here is where it gets interesting. Lets first identify who the actual championship contenders are going into next years NBA season:

1. Los Angeles Lakers
2. Boston Celtics
3. Orlando Magic
4. Miami Heat

It’s safe to predict that the team out of this list of 4 that takes best advantage of signing some of these available free agents is the team that has the upper hand in winning next years title. With that being said, let’s take a look at the free agents that are available this off-season that the Lakers could potentially snag.

Note: each free agent listed is an UNRESTRICTED free agent. There are actually more free agents available than this, but this list consists of those who could actually contribute to a team and make an impact. An example of a free agent who did not make this list is Devean George, who is unrestricted but lacks the dexterity to really impact a teams performance.

Big’s Available (unrestricted)

1. Joe Smith
2. Theo Ratliff
3. Brad Miller
4. Shaquille O’Neal
5. Zydrunas Ilgauskas
6. Kwame Brown
7. Ben Wallace
8. Craig Smith
9. Udonis Haslem
10. Kurt Thomas
11. Al Harrington
12. Etan Thomas
13. Louis Amundson

Guards Available (unrestricted)

1. Marquis Daniels
2. Tony Allen
3. Nate Robinson
4. Larry Hughes
5. Acie Law
6. Ronald Murray
7. Jannero Pargo
8. Luther Head
9. Earl Watson
10. Rafer Alston
11. Luke Ridnour
12. Eddie House
13. Allen Iverson

Wings Available (unrestricted)

1. Mike Miller
2. Josh Howard
3. Richard Jefferson
4. Matt Barnes
5. Tracy McGrady
6. Sasha Pavlovic
7. Michael Finley
8. Jerry Stackhouse
9. Quentin Richardson
10. Ime Udoka
11. Keith Bogans
12. Roger Mason
13. Rasual Butler
14. Ronnie Brewer
15. Raja Bell

source = http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FreeAgents-10-11

Players in Bold: the players in bold are those who I think would fit in well with this current Lakers roster. The rest could be good additions, but not nearly as good as those in bold. At least in my opinion. What are your thoughts? Which free agents do you think the Lakers should pick up?

The Challenge = The Lakers Salary Cap Situation

The Los Angeles Lakers have some serious salary cap issues. From last year alone it is estimated that Dr. Buss will have to pay $21.4 million in Luxury Tax to the league offices by July 23rd. That’s quite a bit of money! A few players come off the books including Adam Morrison, Jordan Farmar, and Shannon Brown. But the Lakers are still way over the new Salary Cap.

The new Salary Cap is $58,044,000. The luxuy tax does not actually set in until the $70,307,000 mark. What happens if the Lakers go over the Luxeuy Tax limit of $70 million? Basically they will have to pay 1 tax dollar for every dollar they are over the limit. So lets look at the Lakers current payroll for this upcoming 2010-11 season:

• Kobe Bryant – $24,806,250
• Pau Gasol – $17,822,187
• Andrew Bynum – $13,842,332
• Lamar Odom – $8,200,000
• Ron Artest – $6,322,320
• Sasha Vuyacic – $5,475,113
• Luke Walton – $5,260,000
• Total = $81,728,202

source = http://hoopshype.com/salaries/la_lakers.htm

This puts the Lakers $11,421,202 over the luxary cap already!!! Notice that this does not include guard/locker room leader Derek Fisher. He still NEEDS to be resigned.

Now there is something called the MLE (mid level expection) which is a limit of $5.765 million that a team can use to sign a player at “an average” salary which will not affect the salary/luxury tax limit. The Laker just used $4 million of that up with the signing of point guard Steve Blake, leaving them only $1.765 million left on their MLE.

So What Can The Lakers Do?

Well really it all depends on how you look at it. If it were basically any other organization the answer would be NOTHING, they are already way over the cap. But we all know how dedicated to winning and how competitive Dr. Jerry Buss is with his Lakers. So much so that he was willing to spend $20 million in luxury tax fees last year to repeat as champs.

If the Lakers do what they did last year, they essentially could spend another $10 Million in resigning Derek Fisher ($4 mill or so) and 2 other free agents (seen in list above). Or they could find a way to convice players like Kobe, Pau, Bynum, and Odom to take some pay cuts in order to bring in a few more guys.

Either way they do it, if the Lakers want to 3-peat they are going to have to find a way to bring back Derek Fisher for his leadership and sign someone to backup Ron Artest at the small forward position if they want to beat a team like the Miami Heat in the finals.

July 8th, 2010 by Chase

With so much talk going on about LeBron James I figured it would be better that I make my points as quickly and efficiently as possible. So lets get into this shall we?

The Big 3 Will Not Be Enough

As entertaining as the combination of Bosh, Wade, & LeBron will be it alone will not be good enough to win a championship. There are some serious holes in this Miami roster. Can Mario Chalmers be a starting point guard for a championship caliber team? Who will play in the front-court with Bosh that will give them more length and size to compete with bigger teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and Magic?

Just a single answer to just 1 of these questions could result in the Heat reaching the cap. And what about the bench? Miami is going to need at least 3 solid players at key positions to come off the bench and be not just good, but strong contributors. Most likely they will need a big man, a swing man, and a point guard to come off the bench and provide huge contributions throughout the season.

The 2008 Boston Celtic Comparison

Everybody in the media is comparing this big three (naturally) to the big 3 compiled in Boston back in 2008 that resulted in a championship. Not so fast “experts!” Boston had a point guard by the name of Rajon Rondo that provided a 4th big threat for the C’s. Even though many of us at the time didn’t think much of Rondo, he became arguably one of the best PG’s in the league. Is this something that Mario Chalmers can pull off? That’s going to be quite a stretch. And I doubt it will happen.

Let’s not forget 3-point shooting. Boston in 2008 had a ton of it. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Eddie House, and James Posey could all light it up from 3 point range. This Miami team doesn’t have any of that yet. And with drivers and slashers like Wade and LeBron, they HAVE to have 3 point threats to spread the floor.

It Won’t Be Enough…This Year At Least

There’s no doubt Pat Riley will be able to lure a few solid veteran players down to Miami for minimums simply based off the opportunity to play with this Miami “Super Team.” But in the end it won’t be enough to win a championship…at least in the 2010-11 season that is. Look for it to take till after this season for LeBron to get a ring in Miami.

July 6th, 2010 by ckirkham

Can’t get a ring? How about a twitter account instead?

The twitter account @KingJames already has almost 50,000 followers, and still hasn’t been verified by Twitter. However, all kinds of people in the know are saying it’s him, and it is coming at a time when the King is expected to announce where he is moving his throne, if at all. As with most celebrities, I’m sure we’ll all be waiting with baited breath to see what he tweets from the toilet.

Update:

The account is verified and up to 116,000 followers. The King’s epic first tweet:
Hello World, the Real King James is in the Building “Finally”. My Brother @oneandonlycp3 gas’d me up to jump on board so I’m here. Haaaa
So classic.