The Top Remaining Free Agents
The summer storm that was the National Basketball Association’s free agency period has quelled significantly. Nearly all the players teams had been sparing salary cap room for or attempting to wow have been signed. That leaves a lot of less fortunate teams with a lot of salary cap space and an interesting pool of available talent. Here are the top remaining free agents this offseason:
Shaquille O’Neal: O’Neal is desperate for another title, and at 38-years-old his time is running out. He had a moderately successful year at Cleveland playing second-fiddle to LeBron James, but would play a lot better in a slower-tempo offence.
The Atlanta Hawks and the Dallas Mavericks have expressed interest in Shaq, but he’d fit best in a system like that of the San Antonio Spurs.
Luis Scola: Scola is a restricted free agent for the Houston Rockets and he will likely be returning to Houston next year. General manager Darryl Morey has been adamant about keeping his restricted free agents and the re-signing of Kyle Lowry after a Cleveland offer shows his commitment.
The Rockets freed up some cap room with the departure of Carl Landry and will be able to match most offers. The only way Scola leaves Houston is if a team like the New Jersey Nets or New York Knicks makes a gargantuan offer for him, but that doesn’t seem likely given Prokhorov’s spending philosophy in NJ and the Knicks’ signing of Amare Stoudemire.
Richard Jefferson: Jefferson opted out of his contract with the Spurs and left $16 million dollars behind in order to pursue free agency. While Jefferson did so initially to restructure a longer-term, smaller-pay deal with the Spurs, he is not fully exploring all of his free agency options.
Jefferson previously played for the Nets and could also be a target for the depleted Cavaliers.
Ronnie Brewer: Brewer was traded away by the Utah Jazz to the Memphis Grizzlies before the trade deadline and is not a free agent. The Jazz have already lost Kyle Korver to free agency and are on the fence about matching a sizable offer the Portland Trailblazers have made to Wesley Matthews.
Brewer is very close to Jazz point guard Deron Williams and his return to Utah seems logical. The Cleveland Cavaliers may also be interested in Brewer.
Josh Howard: Howard could have been considered one of the elite free agents if he were not recovering from knee surgery. He will likely not be ready to start next season but his career average of 15.3 points per game should excite some teams into signing him.
The Knicks are likely to go for Howard, but the Bulls, Celtics, and Cavs are also intrigued. The Washington Wizards may retain him as well for veteran leadership skills.
Tracy McGrady: McGrady is beyond repair and no longer commands the star power he once did. He is still a career 20 point scorer and desperately wants a championship. McGrady is attempting to sign up for a minimum salary to play with the Miami Heat.
If that doesn’t work out, he may have a spot for himself in Chicago. Chicago actually has a good roster and if he doesn’t attempt to take the No. 1 role, McGrady could actually perform efficiently well.
Nate Robinson: Robinson put up some impressive performances in the playoffs for the Boston Celtics, yet the market has not been very receptive of the diminutive point guard. There seems to be no interested outside of the Celtics, who just lost Tony Allen to Memphis. Celtics president Danny Ainge like Robinson, and he’ll almost certainly return to Boston next season.
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