by MJ23 on Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:21 pm
For players who are going to be free agents, this is a horrible year to be one. For teams, this is going to be a great year. This is because there are only 2 teams (Charlotte and Orlando) who can offer a maximum contract offer. There are 3 all-stars on the market (Lewis, Billups, and Carter). That means at least one team is going to get one of them for less than a max contract offer. That is if only one of them decides to go for less money, instead of being on a bad team. That isn't where it ends though. Mo Williams is a great rising point guard and could very well be in all-star in years to come. Many teams will be looking at him and he will most likely be unable to get a huge offer. Gerald Wallace is the guy who in my opinion will help his new team (unless Charlotte signs him again) not nearly as much as they thought. He is sort of a Shawn Marion to be me. He gets big blocks, steals, scores about 15 points and grabs some boards. Well, he gets blocks and a lot of boards because the Bobcats only have one real big man in Okafor. He scores about 15 points because the Bobcats don't have many offensive threats.
Anyways, we'll move down the lower tier of the Top 10 free agents. Grant Hill is on the borderline of being in the upper tier, but his age and injury-proneness get him out. He will probably get a 2 year contract, 3 if hes lucky as most teams will be looking for his veteran leadership. Some teams look at Darko Milicic as a possible star in the future, but in all likeliness, Orland will resign him. Anderson Varejao will not be offered a big contract, and most likely will be added to a team lacking front court depth. Nocioni is a tough situation to try to analyze. He may look to stay where hes been successful or he may look to go to somewhere with more minutes to offer him. Webber will probably resign with the Pistons if they go deep in the playoffs. If not, he will most likely sign with the champs, whoever they may be.
All in all, Vince Carter is the top free agent. You could make a serious argument for Billups, but the 2 teams with the most cap space already have good point guards. Whoever Carter signs with (I guarantee it will be the Bobcats or the Magic, most likely the Magic) will be helped out a lot because he helps in areas they lack. Both teams are in the bottom of the league when it comes to scoring and both teams want to let their young guys (Felton and Okafor, Howard and Nelson) play with an all-star. What would be really amazing though, is if the Bobcats could resign Wallace and sign Carter. Then they would have a great shot at landing another front court post player via through trade for either Caroll or Morrison (most likely Caroll).
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