NBA Free Agency Rumours – 1 July 2013
The frenzied festival of NBA free-agency kicked off last night at 12:01am EST with big man, Dwight Howard topping the bill. Free-agency brings with it an incredulous amount of rumours, ‘facts’ and above all a lot of dollars being splashed out.
So let’s take a look at the top rumours out of day one, a year in which ‘superstars’ aren’t available but with the new CBA, franchises are still going to be spending some big time money.
Dwight Howard has confirmed that he will have his decision by the 7th of July. The Houston Rockets appear to be the front-runners with a strong contingent, including Hall of famer Hakeem Olajuwon & current star James Harden heading out to LA as they look to sell their franchise and city to Howard. A source close to Howard confirmed to the LA Daily News that his only priority is to ‘Win a title.’ However it’s hard to envisage the bright lights of ‘lala’ and the shadow of Kobe not having an impact on Howard’s decision.
UPDATE: The Rockets finalized a trade early on Monday sending Thomas Robinson to the Portland to clear more cap room for a run at Howard.
Speaking of Houston. CBSSports.com are reporting that Houston GM Daryl Morey is shopping both Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin as they look to build a roster capable of selling a style of play to Dwight Howard. Lin was not invited to Houston’s meeting with Howard.
As was widly expected within the league and from afar Chris Paul will ink himself a new 5-year max deal with the LA Clippers after the franchise displayed the willingness to compete for a championship by trading for star coach Doc Rivers.
Chris Broussard of ESPN.com says that multiple teams continue their interest in Clippers PG Eric Bledsoe with the Toronto raptors throwing their hat in the ring. However, thus far, they haven’t mustered the fire power needed to convince the Clippers to part with him.
Yahoo! Sports are reporting that Small Forward Andre Iguodala will be the busiest free-agent on Monday as he and his agent plan to meet with up to seven teams including the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings.
However Marc Stein of ESPN.com claims that the Detroit Pistons see small forward Josh Smith as the ‘most valuable commodity’ on the open-market this year. A source told stein they hope to wrap up a deal as early as Wednesday as they make their pitch to Smith.
Steins colleague at ESPN.com Tom Carpenter believes that the Pistons want to sign a pair of free-agent Smiths – linking up Josh Smith with J.R. Smith.
The final rumour hitting the mill involves JR’s former ball-club the New York Knick’s who have expressed an interested in Bucks shooting guard Monta Ellis. A deal between Ellis and the Knicks is a real longshot, as the Knicks are left with just $3.2m mid-level exception available. Ellis who has regularly acknowledged that Ellis is ready to compromise on a deal in order to move to a ‘contender’ and a large market.
The Bulls, Spurs, Nuggets and Suns are also among the reams who are interested in Ellis the free-agent.
