*****OFFICIAL NBA FA signing day*****

[NicksDad1970]

Unless I'm wrong which is very possible today, July 11th, is when FA can sign contracts. It's also the day RFA can sign offer sheets.

We all know Lewis is going to the Magic. But who else is out there and where does everyone think they're going?

I think the Grizz will sign Anderson Varejao. I think it'll be for a lil more than the MLE. Who knows if the Cavs will take him and sign and trade or let him go.

Derek Fisher is going to the Lakers right?

Darko Milicic is not staying at the Magic according to his agent. I know the Bulls, Grizz, and a couple others are interested.

Chris Webber is either staying at Detroit or going to the Mavs.

Who else?

[MEbenhoe]

Bucks better sign a PG, thats all I know. Supposedly Miami is very interested in Mo Williams, although I am clueless how that is possible with Shaq, D-Wade, Jason Williams, and Antoine Walker accounting for about 50 M in cap alone, I'm pretty sure Miami is well over the cap.

Are there any other good free agent PGs out there since Billups resigning with Detroit seems to be a done deal? The Bucks will likely resign Charlie Bell, but I don't know if I believe that he's ready for starting PG duties.

[NicksDad1970]

I dunno what about Mo Williams?

I'll get bashed for saying thins but I've heard the Heat are going to look to trade Jason Williams. I believe he's in the last year of his contract so that's appealing.

Jason Williams is awesome and terrible in the same game evry game. Every game I've seen him play he makes a couple plays that are so good you don't think they're possible to make. Also every game he makes plays that are so bad you're left shaking your head.

[capone0]

Players need to be consistant in the NBA, J-Will is the definition of inconsistancy. He should be a bench player but gets paid like a starter.

[Green Kool Aid]

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Players need to be consistant in the NBA, J-Will is the definition of inconsistancy. He should be a bench player but gets paid like a starter.

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Paging Assani...

[Assani Fisher]

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Players need to be consistant in the NBA, J-Will is the definition of inconsistancy. He should be a bench player but gets paid like a starter.

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Paging Assani...

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Ask and you shall receive...

NicksDad1970 and capone0 seem to only be remembering the JWill from Sacramento. The truth is that he greatly matured once he left there. And honestly I don't really blame him for his early career inconsistencies. Sacramento had a very much losing culture before the Williams/Divac/Webber/Peja days and since they were finally winning and making the playoffs nobody really complained. But the truth is that they weren't a very disciplined or well coached team(let me paraphrase that by saying that they were excellently coached on offense but not much else). And JWill, who was always a good but not great player, suddenly became a superstar due to his flashy play. With fans clamoring for highlight reels and the coaching staff not really demanding him to play solid fundamental ball, he was given free reign on the court.

But as soon as he left, he blossomed into a very solid and veteran PG. Its funny, but all of those fans who critisized him so much for his wild play in Sacramento suddenly stopped paying attention to him after he left and settled down...kinda hypocritical really.

In only his second year in Memphis, Williams led the league in assist to turnover ratio....thats quite an amazing turnaround from the wild and crazy young player that he was early in his career. His ratio was over 3.77-1. Compare that to the best year that Nash, Kidd, or some of the other great offensive PGs of this generation have put up and I think you'll come away quite impressed.

Perhaps even more important than all of that is the fact that he seems to win wherever he goes. I've already pointed out how Sacramento was a perrenial loser before he arrived. Well the Grizzles won only 23 games the year before he got there and IIRC they made the playoffs in 3 out of his 4 seasons. And obviously the Heat have been very successful with him, winning an NBA title. And yes, of course, I understand that he has had some very good teamates and I am in no way attributing all or even the majority of the success to him. I'm just pointing out that he does seem to make his teams better.

This past year only 2 players on the Heat roster had a positive Roland Rating, a positive offensive net, and a negative defensive net: Shaq and JWill(Wade just missed out on the defensive end). Thats especially impressive considering that defense was once considered a fault of JWill.

The Heat were 10-11 in games that Williams missed this past year. They were 34-27 when he did play.

Upon first glance, you may be put off by his low FG%. But you fail to realize that about 1/2 of his shots are 3 pointers. In his past 4 years his eFG% has been 49.1%, 49.6%, 53.1%, and 50.1%. Oh and hes an excellent FT shooter(81.2% for his career) and only seems to be improving with age there as he has hit 86.7% and 91.3% in the past two years. Taking all those numbers into consideration, hes a pretty damn efficient scorer that will give you 10+ points per game and can be a dominant scorer at times when needed(look at some of the games in which the Heat had either Wade or Shaq out and look at how he stepped up with the scoring then).

In his past 5 years, his assist to turnover ratio has been 3.77-1, 3.58-1, 3.11-1, 2.88-1, and 3.31-1. He takes great care of the ball and clearly has phenomenal court vision and passing ability.

Now he is getting older(32), has had several knee surgeries, and has had trouble staying healthy lately(has played 59 and 61 games in the past two years). So I don't have any qualms with the Heat searching for a young replacement of the future this offseason, especially considering that his contract is up after next year and since they're rebuilding they'll probably let him go. However these claims about him being inconsistent or making frequent boneheaded plays are simply false. I'm looking over his game long now and I thought about posting a bunch of numbers and stats for you about his season highs/lows and how hes pretty damn consistent, doesn't turn the ball over a lot, and usually either scores or has a decent number of assists in nearly every game(with Shaq and Wade out for much of this past year his role greatly changed from distributor to scorer throughout the year), but I don't really feel like it. Just look for yourself:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/...sjgEKTetakvLYF

"He should be a bench player."

This simply isn't true at all. JWill would've started at PG for the following teams for sure last year:

New York
Boston
Cleveland
Indiana
Miami
Washington
Orlando
Charlotte
Atlanta
Houston
Memphis
Denver
Portland
Minnesota(move Foye to the 2)
Seattle
Lakers
Clippers


Thats over 1/2 the teams in the league and thats not even counting teams that I was on the fence about.

[IrishHand]

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Bucks better sign a PG, thats all I know. Supposedly Miami is very interested in Mo Williams, although I am clueless how that is possible with Shaq, D-Wade, Jason Williams, and Antoine Walker accounting for about 50 M in cap alone, I'm pretty sure Miami is well over the cap.

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Miami (and any other over-cap team) can offer a 5-year deal starting at the midlevel (something like $5.4M) - so around 6 years, $32M (with the max 8% annual raises). If Mo Williams can't get much more from an under-cap team (and there aren't many out there after the Orlando-Rashard splurge), then he may want to take a midlevel deal from a championship contender.

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Are there any other good free agent PGs out there since Billups resigning with Detroit seems to be a done deal?

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No. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[MEbenhoe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Bucks better sign a PG, thats all I know. Supposedly Miami is very interested in Mo Williams, although I am clueless how that is possible with Shaq, D-Wade, Jason Williams, and Antoine Walker accounting for about 50 M in cap alone, I'm pretty sure Miami is well over the cap.

[/ QUOTE ]
Miami (and any other over-cap team) can offer a 5-year deal starting at the midlevel (something like $5.4M) - so around 6 years, $32M (with the max 8% annual raises). If Mo Williams can't get much more from an under-cap team (and there aren't many out there after the Orlando-Rashard splurge), then he may want to take a midlevel deal from a championship contender.


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Well, I'm pretty sure Milwaukee will be willing to offer more than 6/32 to resign Mo, so hopefully he won't be headed to Miami.

[Green Kool Aid]

6 years, 124.6 million dollars for Rashard Lewis.

LOL

[ThaSaltCracka]

waste of money.