FanHouse Mavericks

The Orlando Magic will say goodbye to backup center Marcin Gortat, unwilling to match the offer sheet that he will sign next week with the Dallas Mavericks. The price, they have decided, is too high.

The Mavericks and Gortat agreed Thursday to a multi-year offer that starts at the $5.6 million mid-level exception. He made an estimated $800,000 last season, serving as the backup to All-Star Dwight Howard.

Although the Magic liked Gortat – a restricted free agent – they have only nine players under contract for $67 million. The luxury tax, a dollar for dollar penalty designed to control league spending, is expected to start at $68 million next season. The Magic still have to sign at least four players, which makes bringing back Gortat almost cost prohibitive.

The Dallas Mavericks are about to call the bluff of Magic general manager Otis Smith.

A day after Smith said that he planned to match any offer for restricted free agent Marcin Gortat, the Mavs brought the Magic's backup center to town, hoping he agrees to their contract offer that he can sign next week.

According to at least one NBA source, the Mavs offer will start with the mid-level exception of $5.6 million, extending it out at least three years.

Matt Moore set the table on Jason Kidd's impending free agency -- Dallas, New York, Cleveland and Portland figure to be the best options. Though Kidd has publicly said he'd give the Mavericks dibs, you'll be interested to know Kidd will spend Wednesday, the first day of the free agency period, in New York City chatting with the Knicks.

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports that Kidd will meet with Knicks president Donnie Walsh early Wednesday, hoping to get a commitment. NY cannot offer more than the mid-level exception (a starting salary of less than $6 million) unless Walsh works out a sign-and-trade with Dallas, which holds Kidd's Bird rights. But the Knicks certainly have a hole at the point. Chris Duhon, ahem, ain't getting it done.

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.

OK, sure, stacking Josh Howard, Jason Terry and former MVP Dirk Nowitzki around him was no more successful than surrounding him with Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, but you know what they say: 18th time's the charm.

And it's in that spirit that Jason Kidd re-enters the NBA free agency market.

Now that they have landed All-Star Vince Carter and all but said goodbye to Hedo Turkoglu, the Orlando Magic will try to rebuild their supporting cast by targeting a pair of vastly different free-agent frontcourt players.

After losing to the Lakers and their big front line in the NBA Finals, the Magic are expected to make offers next week in free agency to both veteran Rasheed Wallace of Detroit and young Brandon Bass of Dallas, according to two NBA sources.

Wallace, 34, is expected to be pursued by both the Magic and the Boston Celtics, who are competing with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Wallace has played 14 seasons in the NBA, earning a reputation as an often enigmatic, but unselfish player with championship experience.

The NBA Draft started with a no-brainer -- Blake Griffin going No. 1 overall to the Los Angeles Clippers. Then, the fun happened, with Memphis taking Hasheem Thabeet and the Timberwolves' vexing decision to horde as many point guards as they could. A few other teams lucked out when players dropped down the board and into their laps. Check out the grades for the Western Conference after the jump.

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Let me never doubt Kevin Pritchard's slapping skills, but Portland really tossed a curve into their leapfrog gambit by selecting fairly underhyped Spanish forward Victor Claver with the No. 22 pick. Claver has made it clear he won't be in the NBA for at least one more year, perhaps two. And there had been talk his agent had been pushing to be made a second-round pick, where the rookie salary scale doesn't apply.

But the Blazers seem to know Western Europe pretty well, so I'll trust their judgment. Pitt stud DeJuan Blair and Israeli dynamo Omri Casspi were both there for the taking at with Portland's pick; Casspi went one pick later to Sacramento, who Portland leapfrogged a day earlier. Portland had given Dallas two second round picks to exchange the Blazers' No. 24 pick for the Mavericks' No. 22. Dallas ended up taking B.J. Mullens (another lottery projected player) with No. 24.

ESPN.com reports the Blazers have agreed to give Dallas the No. 24 pick, the No. 56 pick and a 2010 second round choice to move up ... two spots, to No. 22. The Kings sit at No. 23. I think it's safe to say Kevin Pritchard has his eye on a player he thinks Sacramento also covets. I wouldn't be surprised if said player was Israeli forward Omri Casspi, who had a marvelous workout in Sactown a few weeks ago.

This would be trivial if Pritchard didn't pull the same move last season. The Kings picked No. 12 last June, with the Blazers at No. 14. Coveting Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless -- who had been reported to be at the top of Sacramento's wish list -- Pritchard worked up a swap with Indiana to move up to No. 11. The silver lining for Kings fans is that Bayless barely got off the bench while Jason Thompson shone.

Mark Cuban is good for basketball and has been quite kind in terms of accessibility. Hey, he's even suggested FanHouse could sponsor his Mavericks in the future! But sometimes he bleats ideas and stances so unbelievably backwards you wonder how he ever got to where he's at.

Take his latest screed against sports blogs, for example. He bemoans the invention of rumors, which leads so-called "real reporters" to chase down dead ends. Cuban's solution to end this vicious cycle of, um, reporting work? To have ESPN create a blacklist of blogs which have reported inaccurate information, and which shall never be taken seriously again.