Top stories of the Week: Free Agency Fireworks, Pierce's departure, and the Mystics' poor showing at WNBA All-Star returns

It goes without saying that this was a busy week for basketball fans in the D.C. area. Let's hit some of the top stories.

1. NBA Free Agency is in full effect

We have a lot of stories on it, where a lot of players are supposedly interested in signing up to play in the nation's capital. Click here to get to our NBA Free Agency section to check it out. If there's one common denominator to the free agency stories, it's that a lot of Pacers players seem to have interest in the Wizards, like David West, C.J. Watson, Rodney Stuckey, and Chris Copeland.

2. Thanks for a great 2014-15 season, Paul Pierce

The Wizards offered him more than the full midlevel exception, but Pierce has decided to return to his hometown of Los Angeles where he will play for the Clippers, NOT the Lakers because ... he is a Celtic at heart. Even though he is gone, his impact and absence can still be a good thing for Washington going forward.

3. The Mystics aren't where they could be in WNBA All-Star early returns

If the WNBA All-Star Game started today, no Mystics player would be in the starting lineup. Ivory Latta is currently fifth in voting among all Easter Conference backcourt players. Emma Meesseman is fourth among all Eastern Conference frontcourt players, just one spot away from being an All-Star starter. Here are early returns for Eastern Conference backcourt players:

And the same for frontcourt players:

If there's one thing that I am pleasantly surprised about, it is that Meesseman has received more votes than Latta. So perhaps it's a sign that more league fans are noticing or realizing that she is the Mystics' best player by many metrics. But still, she isn't going to start in the game if it was today.

In the Western Conference, Tulsa Shock guard Skylar Diggins leads all players with 11,099 votes, but she will not play in the game due to a torn ACL in a game last weekend against the Seattle Storm. Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore has the most votes among all frontcourt players with 7.783 votes. You can read more from the league's site.

To vote, you can do it on the league's website, Facebook, or Twitter, just like the way we did it during the NBA All-Star Game voting to get John Wall in the starting lineup. Just write the player's name and #WNBABallot, and you have a vote. The limit is 10 votes a day, just like the NBA All-Star Game. If nothing else, feel free to retweet what John Wall did not too long ago in order to get Latta and Meesseman some votes.

Make sure yall send Mystics @IvoryLatta12 and @EmmaMeesseman to the WNBA All-Star Game! Go vote #WNBABallot

— John Wall (@JohnWall) June 30, 2015

We'll put out more RT's too for all of their players, including Dolson and Lawson who also showed up in the rankings.

Remember that RT's work in these All-Star votes, NOT FAVORITES! IT'S THE SAME WAY WITH NBA ALL-STAR VOTING TOO!

And so you know, that #WNBABalltot tweet happens to have more RT's than any other in the last week after I ran a quick Twitter search with the #WNBABallot hashtag. So John, please create a Wall effect for the game!

Starting lineups will be announced on ESPN's SportsCenter on Tuesday, July 14 at some yet-to-be determined hour. The WNBA All-Star Game will be held on Saturday, July 25 at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

That's all I have. Enjoy your Fourth of July weekends everyone and Happy Birthday Uncle Sam!