NBA Notes July 2, 2008

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

The Cavs aren’t in position to do anything significant during free agency. They are well over the cap even though they don’t have a scorer that has proven an ability to compliment LeBron James. They do have some trade bait though, especially with forward Anderson Varejao, whose game mimics Ben Wallace’s and whose young enough to have some trade value. If the business aspect of it wasn’t involved the better on-court move would be to deal Wallace, but with his age and the perception that he’s wearing down there wouldn’t be much value for him. Plus, he’s making more money than he’s worth thanks to the Bulls and the ridiculous contract they paid to a malcontent that hardly needs guarded on offense.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

First of all, its crazy to think that guys can reject making more than $10 million over the next five years, which is of course what Andre Iguodala did. But if his agent thinks he’s worth more in the restrict free agent market, that’s his business. He might be worth more but he probably shouldn’t be the highest paid player on his team in most cases. Iguodala would make a nice complimentary player for a star like Lebron, but as the first option, he can be guarded, as Detroit showed in the first round of the playoffs last year. They 76ers are looking to meet with Josh Smith, to me he is the class of the big men in free agency this year if you look at his all-around production and he age. Smith would give teams 17 points per game and dominate defensively with blocked shots. Paring Smith with Dalembert would give them an inside combination defensively that any team in the NBA would struggle inside against.

CHICAGO BULLS

The Bulls top priority this offseason is what they plan on doing with Ben Gordon and Luol Deng. On the court it would be easier for the Bulls to take a loss at guard given the amount of players they have at that position with Kirk Hinrich, Thabo Sefalosha, Larry Hughes, Malik Rose and Gordon. At small forward the number of proven players are far less and there would be a sizeable drop-off with the loss of Deng. Deng, basketball-wise, should remain the priority. But after last season in which the Bulls were in disarray the better route to go here is taking the team member that’s going to cause less chemistry problems as the Bulls move forward with their talented younger players. A Tribune story today raised some issues about paying Deng and Gordon less money since their stats were down, but the environment of the team this season made it tough to succeed. If Jim Boylan was a better coach, they would have removed the interim label.

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

In the aftermath of Baron Davis’ departure, the Warriors have significant room under the salary cap to go after anyone as a replacement. Apparently some feel Monta Ellis is a capable replacement. Ellis is more of a combo guard than one ready to run the team. Still they need to be considering Leandro Barbosa or Kirk Hinrich. Barbosa is rumored to be headed for the Knicks, but Chris Mullins might want to see what it would take to get him to Golden State. The one glaring issue about Davis opting out of his contract and having a deal in place with the Clippers a day later is that it reeks of illegal activity. Contract negotiations take some time and the two sides in this case appear to have made a deal in less than an eight-hour shift. The NBA should investigate this, but won’t.

NEW YORK KNICKS

The Knicks are showing they clearly need a point guard even though in the last few seasons it seems like they’ve had an overabundance of players at that position. Rumors have swirled this offseason regarding players that might be coming to New York to play the 1 spot. At one time or another the Knicks have been rumored to be interested in Leandro Barbosa, Chris Duhon and Frank Isola said in his blog today that he believed the Knicks were looking for to work a trade with Charlotte for their point guard Raymond Felton.