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First official day of free agency open thread

By Mike Prada

I don't even think there's a real point to this post, but tomorrow officially opens the free agency period.  The official 2007/08 salary cap is 55.63 million, and the luxury tax threshold is 67.8 million.  The Wizards apparently are just under 60 million in total salary, according to Ivan's article.  Contracts can be officially signed starting tomorrow, so I guess player movement should pick up a bit.

Post any free agency comments here.  I'll leave you with this nugget from the end of the article linked above.

According to team sources, the Wizards and unrestricted free agent shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson have reached in impasse in negotiations. The Wizards have offered a four-year, $15 million contract, but Stevenson is seeking closer to $18 million over four years, according to sources. . . .

I'm going to sleep on that news and consider it tomorrow, but in the meantime, feel free to post your reactions and any other random free agent thoughts of any kind here.  

Update [2007-7-11 14:4:44 by Pradamaster]: Here's more Stevenson stuff, as well as a new name we haven't heard about yet. Per Ivan's blog:

If you read today's Post (and once again, I know you did) you'll see that I had an item mentioning that talks between DeShawn Stevenson and the Wiz had reached an impasse as of last night. According to my sources, the Wiz have offered a four-year deal worth $15 and DeShawn wants something closer to four-years, $18 mill or five years, $20 mill.

Neither side has said anything crazy about the other and it's obviously possible that a meeting of the minds can take place. The wild card in all of this is DeShawn's leverage via talks with other teams. So far, he's had nibbles but I think everyone is waiting to see what goes on with the Wizards because it's been no secret that Ernie's priority has been to keep DeShawn. Stay tuned.

Something to chew on: I saw free agent shooting guard Devin Brown out here yesterday. His agent, Derrick Powell, has a bunch of guys playing in the summer league, including Wiz pg Brian Chase. I hear that Powell and Ernie rapped last night but I can't say for sure that the team has serious intentions for Brown, who put up 11.6 points per game on 42 percent shooting in 58 games with the Hornets last season. Again, I'll keep you posted.

To the question of DeShawn's leverage, I have to ask, who's nibbling? Again, I'd be shocked if nobody was nibbling at all, but I'm surprised that we haven't seen rumors of other teams interested in Mister 50.

As for Devin Brown, that's actually a pretty nice cheap alternative. Check out their numbers from this past season.

Note: WS is Win Shares, a stat extensively used in baseball that, admittedly, is still being tinkered to work in the NBA. Here's an article that describes how it's calculated. RR refers to Roland Rating, a stat popularized by 82 Games.

Brown actually has a leg up in pretty much every category on that list. DeShawn's true shooting percentage is a bit higher, but I imagine Brown's will improve if he's paired with Gilbert Arenas. I don't really know much about Brown's defense though, so I imagine Stevenson has a leg up there. Still, if the options are Stevenson for 4.5 million or Devin Brown for 2-3 million, give me Brown every time.

One last item for now. Not only is this the first official day of free agency, but it's also Mr. Writer/Youtubesman's 19th birthday. The site has grown considerably since Jake started posting on the main page at the end of the season, so I hope everyone can wish him a happy birthday.