The bidding for NBA free agents officially begins Friday morning with few top stars available, but a deep summer crop nonetheless.
The shooting guards Ray Allen and Michael Redd are the brightest names on the marquee, and centers such as Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Tyson Chandler and Kwame Brown are expected to be in demand.
The Seattle SuperSonics offer the best one-stop shopping on the market. Nine players became free agents, highlighted by Allen, the franchise player, and the core players Antonio Daniels, Vladimir Radmanovic, and centers Jerome James and Vitaly Potapenko.
"In the last couple of days, we've had renewed discussions about an extension, which has been more of a reaffirmation of the Sonics desire to re-sign Ray," Lon Babby, the agent for Allen, said Thursday.
A season of stalled talks -- the sides were as close as US$5 million apart- prompted Allen to explore free agency. "Let's see what the market will bear," Babby said.
Only a handful of teams have flexibility under the salary cap to sign maximum contracts with players not their own: the Cavaliers, Bucks, Hawks, Clippers, Hornets and Bobcats.
"Unless you're one of the teams that have enough money under the cap, you're looking at guys that are basically role players and possibly starters," said Rob Babcock, Toronto's general manager.
Teams can begin negotiating Friday, but terms of the new collective-bargaining agreement (approved in principle by the league and union) will not go into effect until July 22, the first day players can sign. Maximum contracts are reduced by a year, to six, for teams re-signing their own players and are limited to five years for other players.
The new rule that will allow teams to buy out one player without paying the luxury tax on his salary offers a fresh avenue in free agency. The Mavericks are expected to waive the shooting guard Michael Finley, making him the most serviceable veteran who is expected to be cut. Others include the Knicks' Allan Houston, the Lakers' Brian Grant and possibly Portland's Theo Ratliff. The Suns, whose first priority is to re-sign guard Joe Johnson, are interested in bringing back Finley and reuniting him with Steve Nash.
The biggest buyer on the market will likely be Cleveland. With new ownership and Danny Ferry, the recently installed general manager, the Cavaliers are under pressure to provide the right pieces around LeBron James to keep him happy in his home city.
The Cavaliers have a payroll of about US$21 million, giving them the most room under a salary cap that is expected to be slightly more than US$49 million. Cleveland has been interested in Redd, the pure shooter from Milwaukee, and still hopes to negotiate to keep the 30-year-old Ilgauskas.
But the Bucks cleared cap space by trading Keith Van Horn and appear inclined to keep Redd, especially now that they have strong balance inside with the No. 1 draft pick, Andrew Bogut.
Wizards guard Larry Hughes will garner interest, although Washington would like to keep its backcourt together. A wild card from abroad, the 29-year-old point guard Sarunas Jasikevicius of Lithuania, has spent seven seasons starring in the Euroleague since leaving the University of Maryland. Half-court offensive teams like Indiana, Boston and Cleveland are believed to be the most interested.
The veteran forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim could offer a team like the Nets a chance to bolster its front line. The Bulls seem inclined to re-sign Eddy Curry (his heart condition makes him a risk for other teams), although a young team like Atlanta could go after the Bulls' other 7-footer, Chandler.
Center Samuel Dalembert is a highly regarded restricted free agent, which means the Philadelphia 76ers can match any offer. He clashed with the former coach, Jim O'Brien, but now that Maurice Cheeks is coaching, the Sixers will likely keep him.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed