Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
The news isn't good on the NBA officials' front. The league has locked the refs out and it appears they're ready to go the route of replacement refs. We think that's a bad idea, but if it's going to happen, here's offering some help to the new guys.
Keep your eyes out for these players, the top-five foulers in the NBA:
Argentina, which won the Olympic gold in men's basketball in 2004 and took home bronze in 2008, is ... having a bad summer. Manu Ginobili is not playing with the team due to injuries. (Injuries aggravated by last summer's Olympic run, we should note.) Andres Nocioni is out. Carlos Delfino didn't have a contract until a couple weeks ago, so he demurred from national service. It's up to Luis Scola and Pablo Prigioni and ... it hasn't gone well at FIBA Americas.
Canada, meanwhile, lost Samuel Dalembert due to an internal spat early last summer. Steve Nash still won't give up his summer for a team on the third tier of international competition. There is one current NBA player on the Canadian roster: Joel Anthony, who lost his starting job on the Heat to a decrepit Jermaine O'Neal. Yet, here's Canada, 2-0 and through to the quarterfinals after blowing out Mexico and the Virgin Islands.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle? From now till the regular season starts, we're going to throw our own Top Fives at you.
Since this is the first one, and it's the middle of the offseason, how about five players who look a lot better in August than they do in December, a lot better in the summertime than in winter? Here are five players who have had better offseasons than regular seasons in their NBA careers.
Overrated might be too strong a word here -- but it's time for these guys to start earning earning their money.
All has been fairly quiet on the Lamar Odom front for the past week or so -- too quiet, in fact, for those hoping that the Lakers would re-sign the heart and soul of their championship team to a new contract. Sure, there were reports leaked that Odom personally called team owner Jerry Buss to try to reopen the negotiations, (as well as a rumor that Kobe Bryant made a similar call to try to get the two sides talking), but nothing concrete for the hand-wringing masses of Laker fans to be able to hang their hats on.
Until today, that is. The L.A. Times is reporting that the two sides once again began talking on Wednesday. But with the Lakers likely offering less than they did at the beginning, is a deal any more likely this time around?
There's still some tidying up to do this free agent season. We still need to find out about Lamar Odom, David Lee, Andre Miller, Drew Gooden and a few more interesting names out there.
But there's already plenty in the books, so let's take a look:
Wallace is a perfect fit in Boston, playing alongside veterans Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. If Boston stays healthy, they'll likely have the best interior defense in the league: Kendrick Perkins, Garnett and Wallace.
This is going to put Danny Ferry way behind in the 2009-10 Executive of the Year race.
Certainly he didn't just re-sign Anderson Varejao, the limited power forward, for six years and up to $50 million.
But apparently that's what he did, according to Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. And in the meantime, Dan Fegan is the early leader in the clubhouse for best performance by an agent in the offseason.
Rasheed Wallace is one of the last major free agent names to make a commitment, and if the reports turn out to be true (thanks to Hedo Turkoglu, you can never be too sure), he'll be suiting up to start the 2009 season as a member of the Celtics.
Our own Matt Steinmetz thinks that makes Boston the favorite to take home the title next year. But to me, that seems -- to put it as politely as possible -- a bit overly-optimistic.
The Cavaliers are going all out to try to win a championship next season, before LeBron James can even think about becoming an unrestricted free agent in the magical, mystical summer of 2010. They've already traded for Shaquille O'Neal, and are rumored to have interest in the services of the recently freed Charlie Villanueva.
The team's heavy activity this summer would lead you to believe that minutes on the court will be in short supply for Anderson Varejao in the coming season. And that might be a big reason why he opted out of a contract which would have paid him $6.2M, when it's pretty unlikely that any team would offer him much more than that once he hit the open market.
Not everyone is waiting for 2010 – the mother of all free agent summers – to try to improve their team by throwing big money at the seasoned veterans.
Even in hard economic times, the top players like Carlos Boozer, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Kidd will leave teams and get their financial reward in other places. The squeeze will be on the lower-level free agents who must settle for minimum or various exceptions.
What hurts this class is that only seven teams really have major room under the salary cap to make something happen, and they usually aren't the NBA's biggest spenders. Unless the free agents stay with their current teams, only Memphis, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Atlanta, Portland, Toronto and Detroit have major room.
Although there has been plenty of dancing and unofficial talks the last few days, the real dealings can't start until 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Here is a breakdown by position of the five most intriguing – and unrestricted – free agents.
The Orlando Magic already finished two rounds of playoffs on the road, clinching the first in Philadelphia and the second in Boston.
They better do this one at home.
The Magic take a 3-2 lead into Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final Saturday night at Amway Arena against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, well aware that they might be pushing their road luck if they are forced into a return to Cleveland for Game 7.
"We don't want to go back and play in their arena again,'' said Magic forward Rashard Lewis. "They feed off that crowd there.''
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Argentina, which won the Olympic gold in men's basketball in 2004 and took home bronze in 2008, is ... having a bad summer. Manu Ginobili is not playing with the team due to injuries. (Injuries aggravated by last summer's Olympic run, we should note.) Andres Nocioni is out. Carlos Delfino didn't have a contract until a couple weeks ago, so he demurred from national service. It's up to Luis Scola and Pablo Prigioni and ... it hasn't gone well at FIBA Americas.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle? From now till the regular season starts, we're going to throw our own Top Fives at you.
All has been fairly quiet on the Lamar Odom front for the past week or so -- too quiet, in fact, for those hoping that the Lakers would re-sign the heart and soul of their championship team to a new contract. Sure, there were reports leaked that Odom personally called team owner Jerry Buss to try to reopen the negotiations, (as well as a rumor that Kobe Bryant made a similar call to try to get the two sides talking), but nothing concrete for the hand-wringing masses of Laker fans to be able to hang their hats on. 
There's still some tidying up to do this free agent season. We still need to find out about Lamar Odom, David Lee, Andre Miller, Drew Gooden and a few more interesting names out there.
This is going to put Danny Ferry way behind in the 2009-10 Executive of the Year race.
Rasheed Wallace is one of the last major free agent names to make a commitment, and if the reports turn out to be true (thanks to Hedo Turkoglu, you can never be too sure), he'll be suiting up to start the 2009 season as a member of the Celtics.
The Cavaliers are going all out to try to win a championship next season, before LeBron James can even think about becoming an unrestricted free agent in the magical, mystical summer of 2010. They've already traded for Shaquille O'Neal, and are rumored to have interest in the services of the recently freed Charlie Villanueva.
Not everyone is waiting for 2010 – the mother of all free agent summers – to try to improve their team by throwing big money at the seasoned veterans.
The Orlando Magic already finished two rounds of playoffs on the road, clinching the first in Philadelphia and the second in Boston.
