It’s that time again…The NBA is over with Boston winning the title deservedly over the Lakers and now teams are retooling through free agency with hardly any teams with money to spend.  In free agency you have a restricted and unrestricted status with an unrestricted free agent being the kind that have real power because they can sign where offered.  A restricted free agent’s team has the right to match any offer that is presented to the player.  It’s usually a fun cat and mouse game between two teams for a players services and it isn’t uncommon for a team to force the hand of another to get them to spend more money than they wanted. 

This year is a very very down year for free agents.  I thought I’d list who my top restricted and unrestricted free agents are and what will probably happen with them.

Unrestricted: 

1.  Gilbert Arenas:  He has to be the top guy on everyones list despite coming off a rather serious knee injury.  Arenas is a proven scorer in the NBA and with limited teams being able to give him more money he will undoubtedly sign with the Wizards.  This guy has proven to be all about the money from the moment he got into the league and I can’t blame him.  He is trying hard to maximize the amount of money he can get during his career and that’s why he’ll stay in Washington.

2.  Michael Pietrus:  I think this guy is going to get some serious money here.  He’s a great athlete and can defend more than one position.  He was developing as a shooter but for some reason couldn’t get a ton of time of the Warriors bench.  Some team is going to take a chance on him and pay him some money and he’s going to leave Golden St.  It may be a stretch to have him at 2 on my list but he has some upside here and is still very young.

3.  Antawn Jamison:  I have him third because he’s a tough productive player and despite his age is a great player.  He’s 32 now but is a proven scorer and option in the NBA.  What will the Wizards do here?  Clearly they will make a more concerted effort over Arenas and you can’t blame them so do they let Jamison walk?  I don’t think so.  With the Grizzlies, Clippers and 76ers under the cap it gives Jamison little flexibility and negotiating power.  At this stage of his career he is looking for that last big contract and to play for a winner and his best bet is to stay and try to get that.

 Tomorrow we will go over the restricted free agents and probably already have some idea as to what will happen with them.

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After I watched the draft last night i got thinking about a concept that’s been out there for a couple years now and that’s the idea that a top high school player is better off in Europe than in the states at a University.

The idea is strong now after Brandon Jennings, an Arizona commit and top player in the country, isn’t getting the grades to go to school and is being forced to look at his options.  If he doesn’t get the grades he will sit out the year and go into the draft next year but lose a year of growth as a player and person.  He could skip school altogether and just run to Europe to play.  Jennings is arguing that he doesn’t want to attend school anyway and that the NBA is making them go to college for a year when they don’t really care about it anyway.  He’s right.  The NBA should let these kids make a living at whatever age they want but they also shouldn’t punish them for a possible wrong choice.  What I mean is that players that declare and are drafted in the 2nd round shouldn’t lose eligibility and that team should retain their draft rights. 

Brandon Jennings is overrated if you ask me and isn’t near ready for the NBA.  He is frail and couldn’t guard a full garbage can.  He needs time to develop and that time for him should be wherever he wants it to be.  Since the NBA won’t let him in then he should go where he can develop as a player or at least have that chance. 

If he chooses Europe he’ll be forgotten about in the states and miss out on some marketing and face time.  You can’t tell me Rose didn’t make himself the number 1 choice based on the NCAA tournament.  He did.  Rose was a top 10 before the tourney and a top 3 after.  Jennings will be forgotten about and fans won’t have the connection that they developed with Mayo, Rose, Beasley and Love.  If you ask me it is a tough call because if he goes to Arizona he’ll become a nationally recognized player and become the face of a school.  If he plays in Europe he’ll develop quickly and either help or hurt his stock.  It isn’t easy competition so i think he’ll get better as a player that way. 

Jennings made a statement earlier that this hurts college basketball and I couldn’t disagree more.  I think it helps it more.  If players like him go overseas then coaches know what they are getting for multiple years.  You can’t tell me coaches like players that go one and done.  It helps the program only in a sense that the player that was there for a year got them notoriety but always having to recruit around positions instead of counting on someone for a few years can be taxing.  Coaches want the best players possible and they all want the ring so they’ll take whoever but teams that have experienced players generally win the title anyway.  Kansas won with 5 draft picks from this years squad and when it is said and done will have a lot more and they were all juniors and seniors.  Coaches know it and they’ll take a 3 year good player anyday over a 1 and done that they won’t win it all with.  I could be wrong but I don’t think so.

I wish Brandon Jennings luck and to follow his dream and pray he doesn’t get hurt.

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It’s a done deal.  The Bulls are going to take Derrick Rose with the 1st pick of the draft.  It is time they gave up on Hinrich and dealt him elsewhere and let Rose run the show.  The reason this is so cut and dry with me is because Chicago is Rose’s hometown.  He’s lived there his entire life until he chose Memphis over Illinois for his brief college career. 

The last time this happened was when Cleveland ended up with the top pick and were able to select Lebron James after he was a high school legend there.  Rose won a couple state titles at Simeon high school and is a legend and now he needs to play on with the Bulls.  He’ll have some athletes to play with who can run with him in Tyrus Thomas, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and others.  They can now play a faster pace which is reportedly what new coach Vinnie Del Negro wants to do. 

Derrick Rose will be the 1st pick in the draft on Thursday by the Chicago Bulls and if he isn’t then Paxson is the next high exec to be pushed out the door.  The chance to draft a local legend doesn’t come around very often and they better not mess it up.

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It’s official.  Kobe is not MJ.  All the chatter can stop now as MJ won in the finals and Kobe got smoked.  NO MJ team would’ve been beaten by 40 in an elimination game.  It simply wouldn’t have happened.  Kobe disappeared after the 1st quarter again, much like he has for almost all the other games.  He made 3 baskets after the 1st quarter and just couldn’t get anything to fall.  I hear all sports radio talking up how physical the Celtics were but they weren’t more physical than the Spurs and Bruce Bowen.  The difference was that when Kobe got past the first defender there were others just waiting for him and forcing him to dish to Vujacic or Fisher or Odom.  The Celtics banked on it and it happened and they cruised. 

The guy I’m most impressed with was James Posey.  I’m with Van Gundy on this one.  He did all the right things for that team.  He specializes in the little stuff that most people don’t even notice but when you see a team play for 6 games you really appreciate what certain guys bring and Posey is a keeper.

On the other hand, the Lakers will be back next year and better than they were this year.  They will start Fisher, Bryant, Odom, Gasol and Bynum and be just huge.  Gasol can play power forward and Odom is athletic enough to play outside.  I think they will be great if Bynum can show continued improvement.  No matter what though, Kobe let the Lakers get embarrassed which is something the truly great ones don’t allow.

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Yes, i’ll make fun of Pierce’s acting forever and ever because I still don’t buy that his injury was anything worthy of a wheelchair, but he is seriously outplaying Kobe so far in these playoffs.  Bryant is disappearing for minutes on end in these games while Pierce carries the Celtics on his back. 

Let’s face it, Kevin Garnett hasn’t shown any clutch ability in these finals and his two choked foul shots that could’ve tied the game didn’t help.  Ray Allen struggles to get his own shot now so the ball must fall to Pierce when the game is on the line.  Kobe stole the ball from him last night in a very clutch play but you can’t deny the nearly 40 points on the road.  Pierce can play the game and is really taking his game to the world. 

What I love about a 7 game series is the fact that you really get to see how teams evolve.  Rajon Rondo isn’t even guarded at this point.  When he is in the game Kobe switches onto him and just plays help defense the entire time.  They dare him to shoot the ball.  Rondo doesn’t have the explosiveness since he hurt his ankle so he is best served on the bench unless he gets aggressive like he was in Boston.  The Celtics just keep going to the pick and roll and the Lakers can’t guard it at all.  It is like they haven’t seen it before even though they got it time after time against the Jazz.  The difference is that Pierce comes hard off that pick looking to get to the rim for a layup or a foul while the Jazz don’t have that play in their book. 

Game 6 will end the series.  Boston doesn’t want it to go 7 but the Celtics are the better team and have the better coach who makes quicker adjustments and uses his timeouts very wisely.  I’m getting more and more impressed with Doc Rivers as the series goes on.  He instills a confidence and belief in these guys that is refreshing to watch.

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I know this is a bit late but I’m sitting here at work and watching a soccer game.  I’m not a big soccer fan because frankly I don’t understand it as well as I should.  I think baseball is fascinating because I understand the pitch counts and sequences and strategies and that makes it great to watch for me.  Basketball is the same but soccer I find boring and I blame it on my lack of understanding and not the fact that nobody scores.  But that’s not what this is about.

I just watched a guy get bumped by another player and go down like he’d been shot.  He laid on the ground writhing in pain and it made me think of Paul Pierce.  Pierce went down like his knee was blown out, the trainer was hugging him on the ground trying to console him.  He had a look of fear in his face like he thought he was done.  The look was strangely familiar with the soccer player I just watched go down.  Soon the stretcher came out and took the player off the field.  I thought he might die on the way to the hospital only he didn’t die.  In fact he was healthy enough to be playing within 5 minutes of his ‘life threatening’ injury.  It was a miracle unlike anything I’d seen in the past 5 days.  The only other miracle that topped it was Paul Pierce.

Pierce was on the ground clinging to life when half his team carried him off the court and onto a waiting wheelchair.  The camera crew followed Pierce and his ‘trainer’ entourage down the tunnel and one guy even tried to shield Pierce from the camera as he grimaced in pain while they pushed him.  The last glimpse we had of Pierce was a hand and a towel over his face clutching his ‘horrificly’ injured knee.  Then the heavens parted and within 5 minutes, like a Euro soccer player, Pierce came running out of the tunnel.  I could actually hear trumpets playing in the background, bagpipes playing from the rafters and angels singing as Pierce reached the floor.  Faintly I could hear ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and the Rocky theme song playing in the background.  Pierce went on to play the second half of his life in leading the Celtics to victory. 

Then it hit me all at once.  The best floppers in the league are typically the Euro type of player.  Ginobili, Gasol, Kirilenko, Divac (sure he’s retired but he’s the best of all time and deserved mention) are just a few of the great tradition of soccer/basketball players.  Pierce can now join the club.  In fact, Pierce solidified his spot on the club after faking an eye poke when Kobe’s bicep hit him later in the game and then he was ’scratched’ by another Laker.  It’s amazing the guy can walk let alone play a basketball game. 

After watching the USA mens soccer team play they should bring in Pierce and give him a shot.  It couldn’t hurt could it…

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Normally I wouldn’t put who the product was by in the title but in this case the name Tim Grover brings incredible credibility.  He has the endorsement of Michael Jordan as a trainer and it doesn’t get better than that.  Michael Jordan had a long history of incredible health and conditioning despite being the most fiercely defended basketball player of all time and Grover played a large role in that.

With Jump Attack, Grover has compiled a proven program to assist in making athlets jump higher, get quicker and be more explosive.  This program has triggered workout/training companies throughout the world who use identical techniques.  Grover has worked with Pippen, Barkley, Olajuwon and AROD and now even has his own facility where athletes pay a great deal to work with the best.  That why I figure Jump Attack is a good buy and an excellent product to try.

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The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers…dream series for basketball purists like myself.  Sure the NBA wants this to happen to bring some needed excitement and nationwide attention to the league.  In all honesty though these are the two best teams from each conference and it is very fitting. 

Funny story though first that I think of every time I hear the team Boston Celtics.  We are playing a nice family game of ‘Catch Phrase’ where you pass around something with a word on it that you have to describe without saying the word.  For example, the word might be ‘black cat’ and you’d say ‘this is something that you never want to cross in front of you because they are bad luck’.  Make sense?  Good.  Anyway we are playing a game of Catch Phrase and my wife has the controller.  She says “This is a team that plays basketball in New York”.  I’m thinking that it has to be the KNICKS but really a whole slew of teams ran through my head in about a 3 second span.  I was thinking college teams and everything.  She wasn’t on my team so I kept my mouth shut but her sister pipes in almost immediately and says “Boston Celtics”.  My wife says “great job” and goes on to the next one.  I have to stop the game because I don’t believe what happened.  “This is a basketball team that plays in New York”= “Boston Celtics” without hesitation.  It was amazing.  I check the game piece and make sure they are right and they were.  It was hilarious.  Two people of the same mind I guess.

It would have been more fitting if she would’ve tied these two teams together because they are tied together in all of our minds.  While I was growing up it seemed to always be the Lakers and Celtics and Bird and Magic.  Now we have Kobe vs the BIG 3 of Boston.  I’m very interested to see which team flinches here.  Boston has home court advantage and needs it desperately.  Ray Allen will have an opportunity to really step up and score for his team.  Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom will go up against KG with Odom trying to pull the Big Ticket away from the hoop as much as possible so Gasol can go to work on Perkins.  I love it.  That first game will be crazy.  Derrick Fisher will give Rondo fits and vice versa.  Fisher is a great defender while Rondo is a great athlete who has an incredible knack for getting steals and deflections.  Fisher is going to play off of him and let him shoot whenever possible and the Celtics hope they go in. 

I wish Thursday was today cause i’m dying to get this series started.

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