FanHouse Anthony Parker

For awhile Friday, it sounded like Hedo Turkoglu was trying to become an NBA double dipper, playing for two different teams at the same time. Or like one of those traveling salesmen who quietly kept different wives in different cities.

And maybe he thought since the teams -- Portland and Toronto -- are in different countries, he might be able to slip by. You could just imagine that sly smile of his as he nodded yes to both teams.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Either Turkoglu got cold feet or several news organizations got it wrong.

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.

With the draft less than a week away, it's time to start firming up the draft boards. When the draft begins, the Steelers will have multiple needs, although thankfully there is no position where the Steelers don't bring back a projected starter with some experience.

The Steelers bigger need is to plan ahead for 2010, when free agency could rip apart much of this past year's Super Bowl champs. With that in mind here are four plausible draft classes for the Steelersn as prepared by friend the Steelers draft nut, all of these include no trades. Every player is projected to go in a round where multiple draft experts still have them available on the board. There are a few spots where it is noted that it is less likely that player is still on the board when the Steelers pick in that round, but none of these are absurd stretches. Which of these classes would you prefer and why?

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Nathan Jawai of the Raptors is the first indigenous Australian player in the NBA. His story is unique, having grown up playing rugby, not basketball, he is very quick on his feet for a big man. In this video he talks to us about dangerous encounters he experienced in the Australian Outback, including swimming nose-to-nose with a crocodile, one of nature's most vicious killers. We also hear from Anthony Parker, Nathan's teammate.

Check out the video after the jump.

NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

I became a Raptors fan last season. They went about re-building their roster the right way, bringing on a brilliant GM and letting him orchestrate a rather unique plan that basically consisted of flooding the roster with as many foreign guys as possible.

There was more to it than that, of course; Bryan Colangelo also had the balls and foresight to trade Charlie Villanueva for T.J. Ford, which not only defied conventional "never trade big for small" wisdom but also seemed like a huge risk given Ford's injury history. Plus, he found diamonds in the rough in Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa, undervalued veterans who were playing in Europe that every other team in the NBA had a chance to sign but didn't.

So what happened? The team quit being "Chris Bosh and some other guys" and actually became a team. Ford had a breakout year, the Euros (Garbajosa, Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon) all found a productive niche and Parker started every game he played. The team survived a mini-scare when Bosh missed time with a knee injury and managed to win without him, which was just unheard of in the past. By the end of the year, they had claimed their first division title with a convincing 47-35 record. But if things were so peachy, why am I down on them this year?

The Raptors were ushered out of the first-round of the playoffs on Friday -- at the hands of their nemesis Vince Carter, no less -- but the team has to feel good about their season. Considered a sleeper just to make the playoffs entering the year, the Raps exceeded everyone's expectations by winning their division and securing home court advantage.

What was even more impressive was how they won this year: no longer solely dependent on Chris Bosh, they held their own early in the year when he went down with injury. For basketball purists, the team was literally a joy to watch: the offense flowed with constant ball movement, with players embracing their roles. Guys like Jose Calderon, Morris Peterson and first-overall pick Andrea Bargnani could have justifiably griped about not starting but instead quietly helped fortify one of the strongest benches in the league.

GM Bryan Colangelo deserves a lot of credit, as well, for having the foresight to see that guys like Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa, who were established stars overseas and freely available to any team in the NBA, could make the transition and emerge into legitimate NBA starters. Colangelo also deserves a huge pat on the back for the Charlie Villanueva for T.J. Ford swap last offseason, a move that initially left many scratching their head but eventually looked like a stroke of brilliance when Ford put up career numbers (14 points, 7.9 assists) in just under 30 minutes a game.