Is the 2010 Free Agent Market a Mirage?

Is the 2010 Free Agent Market a Mirage?

YES.

Great, now where do we go if we have trouble getting a great free agent in 2010?

Forget free agents I say, if we get a high draft pick this summer I say we trade it for a established talent.

If we get the talent, the free agents will come to us

really great stuff, Net Income. this really is the reality of the situation. i believe a lot of GMs have and are going to continue to sell to their fans the idea of “clearing cap for 2010” when in reality, they are just protecting themselves financially.
i think most, if not all of the big 2010 free agents might resign this summer while the getting is still good…. the funny thing is, as great as those players are, the GMs of those teams are going to have to atleast give thought to the idea that the guy might not be worth the money if the country is plummeting into a depression. imagine Miami telling Wade or Cleveland telling LeBron, theyre not worth max money….. i know it sounds crazy, but 18-20 million a year is a whole lot when the cap is at 45 million in a year or two. the financial security of ur owner is gonna matter a lot more for your team…

this franchise is going no where

absolutely a mirage….agree with muwu also

Rest of Year Starting Lineup:

Devin Harris – PG
Vince Carter – SG
Bobby Simmons – SF
Yi Jianlian – PF
Brook Lopez – C

2009-10 Starting Lineup:

Devin Harris – PG
Ben Gordon – SG
Caron Butler – SF
Ryan Anderson – PF
Brook Lopez – C

2010-11 Starting Lineup:

Devin Harris – PG
Ben Gordon – SG
Caron Butler – SF
Dirk Nowitzki – PF
Brook Lopez – C

That’s the best I can think of… we have no shot at a max free agent

Thorn said the other night (at a season ticket holder event) that if the pick was in the “10 to 18” range, they would consider trading it…the draft is that top-heavy.

(Of course the last time they sold a pick, Kevin Martin, Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, Beno Udrih, Chris Duhon and Sasha Vujacic were on the board.)

I still think that the Nets should make a serious run at Marvin Williams in free agency. The top players in 2010 will resign with their current teams for nothing more than that they will make more money (plus I can’t imagine that Lebron or DWade would not lose a ton of money trying to sell their mansions in Miami or Cleveland in this market) this summer rather than waiting for the cap to fall even further.

Williams I believe is 23, continually improving with lots of upside, and is a restricted free agent on a team undergoing continued ownership group lawsuits. Plus they committed big money to Josh Smith last year, will need to commit to Al Horford in 2 years and will also need a PG and a Center after this season. So they may be very hesitant at matching offers.

Pairing Williams with DH, Lopez, Yi and Anderson, along with Boone, CDR and the future first round picks in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and this team will have a very young core of players – none of whom would be making max type money.

jim thats ur fantasy team right?

@jim and andy

Well we can keep Harris and Lopez

Trade VC picks Yi or whatever, somehow pick up Caron (how hard is it)

sign ben gordon as free agent

sign dirk as free agent

its not exactly a dream andy

@ Jim
Think of chemistry. Those 5 players for 2010 season are all capable of scoring 20 ppg. Do you think any of them would share the ball? Especailly Harris, Gordon, Butler, and Lopez, who are all young and trying to make the big bucks? Nowitski would have no problems sharing the ball because at his age he doesn’t care about anything but winning. (Not my opinion, he said this)

We already have a nice core for 2010. I think were good even without a big name coming here.

Correction: Butler is not young.

You’re right this is much better:

Devin Harris-PG (Injured) 19 pts, 6 asts, 4 rebs
Vince Carter?-SG (washed up) 15 pts, 4 asts, 5 rebs
Bobby Simmons or similar?-SF (?) 7 pts, 4 asts, 3 rebs
Ryan Anderson/Yi-PF (yawn) 12 pts, 7 rebs, 3 asts
Brook Lopez-C (nice) 18 pts, 9 rebs, 3 asts

i guess its a lose/lose situation

this team isnt making the playoffs for YEARS and YEARS and YEARS and YEARS …

Good blog. Bottom line is that this team is notgoing to be built by signing high priced free agents. That is a risky strategy anyway. How has the Elton Brand signing work out so far? Philly was in excellent salary shape, now, not so much.

Who do u think will be on the nets wish list this offseason?

Ben?
Hedo?

who?

Nets can let the Swift and Simmons contracts expire over the next two years to be in excellent shape. Then resigning the talent they have should not be a problem. The Nets will need to lock up Lopez before another team gets a shot at him. I expect that Thorn will stay flexible and look for an opportunity to upgade at SF.

thats y we shouldev traded vince but rod and kik work in slow mo, btw ur roster jimmy is little bit unrealistic

@ Ryan 243

I completly agree with you. Marvin Williams is a very, very good player. He’s not great at anything, but he’s good at everything. Plus, he’s very young and has a high upside. He doesn’t hog the ball much which means Brook and Devin can do their thing. He’s very athletic which makes him very good defensively. Also, he won’t be asking for max money. Anybody think a 4/$36 million contract will get it done? If so, I’m more than ready than giving up that type of money.

Having cap room only means you have the ability to sign a player that can help you. The question is will our GM reconize what we need (my guess yes) and will the coach use them appropiately (1 out 2 aint bad). Maybe we should draft Kenny George. He’s 7’7 “everyday” and 21 years old. It not about height and youth, it’s about talent. The biggest mistake any team could make is paying big $ to players you can’t win with like Arenas, Carter, AI and Marbury. Mostly guards and SFs. Their just not as important as big men and even then it might not work out like Brand. I like a guy like Chandler.

great breakdown NI.

i think we are in great position. i mean look at the start of last year when we had kidd and rj and a bunch of dead weight. now we have young talent, a bunch of picks and cap space. i mean what else could we ask for?

right now i rather be in our position than say the knicks. yea we may not be exciting to watch and are struggling and may not make the playoffs, but we are building with our pieces. we are not using fools gold. the knicks may look good now, but come 2010 they dont have much and with the economy maybe players stick it out until ’11 or they decide to stay home, take more money and play on a better team. they could get shut out and are pushed back for years.

with us, if we are shut out it is not the end all for this franchise. we have devin and brook as our main 1-2 punch. hopefully Yi continues to develop and becomes a legit consistent PF. who knows who we will draft between now and then, who knows what we will do this summer or via trades.

we have pieces to improve quicker than other teams. one thing i hope we do is get more athletic. easier said than done, but i want more athletic guys. in the draft i would like to take the best perimeter player available. we desperately to get another guard in here who can create his own shot. vince isnt going to be here much longer and that would leave just devin as the guy who can consistently get his shot and can create for others. i think that is a big need for us, well we have many needs but i think we need to get athletic players and playmakers asap

Yes. Yes, it is a mirage. Let’s hope this is realized sooner rather than later so we don’t throw away players for cap space that won’t buy us anything come 2010. Thank God Carter wasn’t thrown away at the deadline/

I don’t get this 2010 free agency myself. If acquiring someone in a trade who will turn a free agent next season, then I would be happier that they didn’t make that trade. The reason is because that newly acquired player will mostly end up leaving. As for Vince Carter, I am glad that he wasn’t traded afterall. After hearing that Amare Stoudamire is out with an eye injury, it makes even more glad that the trade didn’t happen, because they would have been screwed big time.

Guys lets look at the big picture .Lets get a high draft,a

more qualify head coach,and the big tickets will follow

You heard it from me first LEBRON IS BUYING THIS TEAM,

He can get a good deal now the economy is going to improve the

franchise is going to have a great future.We have a young

team with lots of talent and no matter how hard THE MEDIA

DISCOUNT OUR TEAM one day they will play the role of

hypocrite and give us the respect that we will deserve.

you hear the media talking about the KNICKS " what a

wonderful season they are having, last time i checked

they were in their usual spot UNDER 500.

I think that Marvin Williams could be had for a relatively affordable 4 or 5 year deal. I would give him 5 years to be honest, as it might keep Atlanta from matching. The big thing is that he is not the main guy and is not a ball hog. Adding him to the core of Devin and Brook along with Yi, Ryan and our draft pick could really cement our future, while not destroying our cap flexibility in the future. I still think that Boone is the best back up center for this team, in the sense that you do not need or want a high priced player backing up a future star like Brook. In the draft, if we had the top pick I would say you have to take Blake Griffin (we would have the girliest sounding front line of Blake and Brook) but would probably be devastating. If not a top pick, I would look for a pure scorer like Jodie Meeks or Jack McClinton – both of whom could be similar to Ben Gordon (at a fraction of the cost).

ok i tought so much about this is this is what nets need to do this summer sign ben gordan trade vince carter with a pick of golden state and cdr for caron butler and we need to lose alot of games this season so we can draft griffin hes really nice and this will be our starting 5
pg-harris off the bench dooling
sg-ben gordan off the bench hayes
sf-butler off the bench hassal
pf-griffin-yi-anderson
c-lopez-boone
and this summer we must try to trade or release simmons,najera,swift,ager or even yi or anderson for a young good back up sg or sf

@nets12345

You couldn’t be more wrong. Gordan isn’t coming to this team, nor should he, because this team doesn’t need another player who likes to shoot but doesn’t like to pass becaues we have that in Devin. Secondly, why would Washington take VC for Caron. Butler is younger and is more talented. The Wiz have a chance of making the playoffs with the addition of 1 or 2 more quality players, and a healthy Arenas. The only team VC is going to is a team that is already contending and is playing for now, not the future. And obviously I would love to have Griffin, but I doubt we can get him. Instead, this team needs to get Marvin Williams. He is a very nice, young player that will really help this team, especially their future plans for the future. With Williams, we will have a solid pg, sg (assuming carter isn’t traded), sf, pf, and center with nice players off the bench such as ryan anderson, bobby simmons, keyon dooling, and jarvis hayes. The Nets this year are missing two important things: a consistent sf and pf. Simmons has been erratic/injured the whole year, and Yi had been erratic early in the year, and when he showed signs of being very reliable he got hurt. Also, to a lesser degree, the bench has hurt the team in some games and it would be nice to add another reliable guy off the bench, preferably a big who can back up Lopez because Boone isn’t cutting hit. Again, this team does not need LeBron, especially since this isn’t going to prolly happen. What this team needs is a quality sf, and marvin williams fits that role.

netfan12345

I like that idea

but we should forget about Griffin, try to showcase/deevlop YI a little more next season, then sign DIrk in 2010-11 to be the final piece to a potential championship caliber squad

so we’d have

HARRIS / GORDON / BUTLER / YI / LOPEZ next season

then

HARRIS / GORDON / BUTLER / DIRK / LOPEZ the following season

we just need to make sure we play as a TEAM b/c each of those players can average 20 points and many can average 5-10 assts / rebs

and also: we would probly have to send a similar package for Caron as we were going to for Amar’e, including picks, expirings and Ryan and/or Yi

@ jason

no, buddy, i politely disagree w/ u

m-will is somewhat talented but we dont need another mediocre small forward

you think we can be contenders with Devin VC williams yi and lopez its not happening , imo

we need several veteran stars

if we get a good coach aka jeff van gundy or similar we can make god damn sure ben gordon doesnt hog the ball

and u are so upset that ben gordon shoots too much? he is the shooting guard not the PG … at least he hits his shots and doesnt take too many wild ones like VC … and hes pretty young still right?

he isnt great on defense, but hes about as good as vc

the nets have liked gordon for a LONG, LONG time hes coming here next year baby!

screw marvin williams the guys mediocre i dont care how young he is

Butler might be a possibility but not for Yi…
You don’t trade a 7 footer as talented as him this early.

Ben Gordon is a pipe dream..this guy is gonna ask for 10 mil annual…no way nets sign him….I would think VC stays even after the summer into the next season.

I don’t see much changes coming for the nets…

idk … i heard that players makin 25 mil wil be makin 5 mil come THIS offseason as well as next.

We can sign ben for about 6 mil annual.

D-Lighting, B-Gords, C-Butts, R-Son, and B-Lo will be enough to get us into the second round next year.

if we want butler we’d need to trade Yi, picks, and CDR, etc etc other young talent good contracts

I think we need to build the team around Brook. He has the tools to be dominant. He has the great shooting touch and he’s a beast around the basket. If he can come up with a consistent post move, he’ll be dominant by his 3rd season. We should see if we can’t get David Robinson to come in and be a coach and mentor Brook. Sometimes you have to get lucky and we got lucky with Brook. He’s a true big man and he’s agressive and wants to learn.

Devin and Brook should try to develop that chemistry where they always know what the other is doing. Devin needs to work on his mid range jumper. If he gets that down he’ll be almost unsoppable because he can’t get to any spot on the floor and get open for a jump shot.

If Yi can develop into a 15 – 8 guy I think we’ll be in the playoffs for years.

man you guys are really out there with these trades/fa proposals.

when our young players, yi and brook more specifically, grow they will score more consistently and that is great for us. we do not need scoring, we need defenders. that is why gordon is the wrong answer. he was stupid and turned down offers from chicago and he obviously thinks he is worth basically max dollars and he is not.

why spend all the money on gordon? what has he done in this league? has he carried the bulls anywhere? hes a nice player, but i dont wana open up the bank for a one-dimensional player.

whether 2010 is a bigger pipe dream now because of the economy or not, we’ve had the plan to be flexible in 2010. we’ve come so close that we are one year away from it and we are going to sign gordon to big money and years and bring aboard butler?

its nice to have names in your lineup, but ya gotta have the right names. i like the idea of marvin williams. young player who is athletic and that is something we really need to focus on. with the economy he will come cheaper than he normally would have. he doesnt need the ball like gordon does to be effective so we can play though lopez and harris and marvin can still make an impact on the offensive end through open shots and he can run the break.

bottom line is that i dont think rod and kiki are goina get off the 2010 track now. even Yormark said they are focusing on 2010. lebron and wade may sign extension before then, but there is still talent out there and rod/kiki want a piece of it. if a FA can be signed cheap you gotta do it even though it will go past 2010.

i think marvin williams is worth going past 2010 for, i really dont want to do it for gordon. i might be alone in that boat

Gordon is not that good. TRhere’s a reason why he had to take Chicago’s QO last summer. He’s nothing but a great 6th man. An elite 6th man, but a 6th at best and after all.

marvin williams is only 22, bring him in at 4.5-5.5 million a year for 4 years, probably scare away the hawks, he is a nice piece that would move us in the right direction, sicne we want to build around devin and brook, he is a player that doesn’t hog the ball and works well on a team that is already dominated by johnson and smith.

trevor ariza is also a nice young fa pickup at sf this summer

Ariza is a terrible shooter. I have been saying for the past 2 weeks that Marvin Williams would be the perfect FA signing. Ben Gordon is undersized and is strictly a shooter who plays no Defense. And he is looking for big money. SIgn a young player who is well known as a team first player.

Marvin is 22 yrs old (plays both the 3 and the 4) is listed as 6’9’’ which is great size for a 3. This year he is averaging 13.7 points, 6.5 boards and 1.4 assists. And he is shooting .454% from the field and .367 from behind the arc while 81% from the line. He made $5.6m this year on his rookie deal. And if you like Hollinger his current PER is 15.76 which has increased every year of his career.

Ben Gordon is 25 (is a 2) listed at 6’3’’. He is averaging 20.8 points, 3.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds. He is shooing .455% from the field (he has roughly double the total shots of Williams), slightly better from behind the arc at 41.5% and 86% from the stripe. He made $6.4m this year. And he has a PER of 16.89 which is down from last year.

To compare the two on stats alone is misleading (even though the numbers are not that far apart – especially when you consider the disparity in shot attempts between the two). I would always take the younger player with more height and more athleticism. Especially because the 3 is a true need for us, the 2 is not – and BG Is going to command more money.

Question:

Who is VC’s successor?