{"id":5133,"date":"2010-06-30T17:45:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T22:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=5133"},"modified":"2010-06-30T17:36:26","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T22:36:26","slug":"the-top-nba-free-agents-after-the-big-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/the-top-nba-free-agents-after-the-big-5-5133\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top NBA Free Agents After The Big 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It may be hard to believe given all of the hype surrounding LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, and Amare Stoudemire, but there are actually more than just five free agents in the NBA this year. In fact, this is quite probably the best free agent class ever, and it would even be a pretty good class if those five were sticking with their teams. Beyond those names that are hogging all of the headlines and the attention, here\u2019s a look at 10 very good players who will likely be looking for a new home this summer:<\/p>\n

Carlos Boozer – Boozer wouldn\u2019t have had much of a market last summer because of injury issues, but he\u2019s coming off a very strong, healthy year and he has real value. He\u2019s in a good position here – he\u2019s not one of the big names, but teams have more money than they can spend on those big names, so Boozer is going to be well positioned to cash in as a consolation prize. He\u2019d be a good fit in New York if they can\u2019t land one of the big fish. He\u2019s easily the third best power forward available behind Bosh and Stoudemire.<\/p>\n

Paul Pierce – The fact that Pierce chose to opt out of his contract shows that things aren\u2019t necessarily all rosy in Boston. It could also be a timing issue as well – he\u2019s 32, so he knows that this is perhaps his last best time to cash in with a big, long contract. He\u2019s theoretically on the open market, but I really can\u2019t believe that the Celtics can afford to let him go.<\/p>\n

Ray Allen – Allen\u2019s free agency is every bit as telling as Pierce\u2019s is. The story is the same here – he\u2019s 34 years old, so the window on a last big deal is small. It might even be too late for him. He\u2019s fit and durable, he knows how to win, and he can still shoot the lights out, so he could upgrade a lot of teams.<\/p>\n

Rudy Gay – Gay scored 20 points and six rebounds a game last year and he\u2019s only 23, so he has a world of upside, and a team that lands him could happily have him on board for years. Teams who really want a SF will obviously be dreaming of James, but Gay could be a great second option.<\/p>\n

Luis Scola – Scola got a chance to shine last year when Yao Ming was injured and he stepped in to replace him. Scola is 30, and he doesn\u2019t have a real depth of high performance, so teams could be a bit nervous about giving him a massive deal. He\u2019ll still be attractive, though, and he\u2019ll find a place to play.<\/p>\n

David Lee – Lee is the best player the Knicks have by a long shot. Really, he\u2019s the only really good player that the team has. He\u2019s coming off a season in which he averaged 20.2 points and 11.7 rebounds. There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and the demand for big power forwards is always strong. The biggest problem Lee has working against him is that he plays for Mike D\u2019Antoni, so teams could discount some of what he has done because of the benefits of playing in a wild open style.<\/p>\n

Shaquille O\u2019Neal – O\u2019Neal is way over the hill, but he still wants to play, and even as a shadow of his former self he still puts up numbers that top guys can\u2019t match. More significantly, Shaq is a one man PR machine who sells a lot of tickets and jerseys. He\u2019s not likely to be interested in joining a lousy team, but I could certainly see him accepting a bench role for a contender.<\/p>\n

Brendan Haywood – Haywood isn\u2019t a great player, but he\u2019s a big center who can be a strong backup, or who can put up his share of double-doubles in a starting role. Haywood isn\u2019t ever going to be a star – if he was he\u2019d have done it before he turned 30 – but he\u2019s a valuable piece in a position of need for many teams. There isn\u2019t a team out there that wouldn\u2019t add another center at the right price.<\/p>\n

J.J. Redick – I have hated Redick since his college days, but I wouldn\u2019t mind having him on my team. He\u2019s a brilliant shooter who is particularly dangerous when he gets in his rhythm. What is most useful about Redick is that he hits the floor hot – he doesn\u2019t need time to warm up and find his range before he is useful like a lot of shooters do. That makes him very valuable off the bench late in the game – he\u2019s a great momentum changer.<\/p>\n

Raymond Felton – The Bobcats are coming off a pretty good year, and a lot of the credit for that belongs to the man who was running the point. Felton isn\u2019t an elite level point guard, but he\u2019s a competent one who avoids a lot of big mistakes. He\u2019s also only 26, so there is room for him to get better. He\u2019s an upgrade for several teams out there, though I still think that Charlotte will try to find a way to keep him around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may be hard to believe given all of the hype surrounding LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, and Amare Stoudemire, but there are actually more than just five free agents in the NBA this year. In fact, this is quite probably the best free agent class ever, and it would even be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":5134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[2070,2067,1334,2066,2071,2069,18,2065,846,1555,2072,2068],"class_list":["post-5133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-brendan-haywood","tag-carlos-boozer","tag-david-lee","tag-free-agents","tag-jj-redick","tag-luis-scola","tag-nba","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-paul-pierce","tag-ray-allen","tag-raymond-felton","tag-rudy-gay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5133"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5136,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5133\/revisions\/5136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}