Free Agency: Day 2

The only Hawks news came from Sekou Smith, who was tracking the hows and whys of Josh Chilldress' visit to Milwaukee. The Hawks say they'll match anything MLE and less, and with Childress perhaps not wanting to take a chance of having to be in Atlanta, he might head back to Greece if he doesn't get a deal the Hawks won't likely match or a sign/trade.

The Hawks should become more active once some of these front line free agents find homes, leaving the next tier, glamour-wise--not necessarily production wise--, for the Hawks to deal with, including their own free agents, who have had to wait their turn as well.


What we learned on Thursday:


Ron Artest/Trevor Ariza

Artest, despite the emtpy protests of his agent, did indeed leave Houston, not for Shaq and the King in Cleve-land, but to help Kobe and Pau try to repeat in LA. We're not sold on the big win boost that the Lakers are already being ordained with for next season by replacing Ariza w/Artest. Artest hasn't played more than 70 games since 2003-04 and never a full season, while Ariza played every game last year. And while Artest has been more productive than Ariza to a small degree last season, it remains to be seen if Artest continues to decline and Ariza continues to improve, especially if it's over the same (5) years.

Hedo Turkoglu

He is still on track for Portland, though Ric Bucher reported Thursday night that Turk's wife liked the city of Toronto and that could play a factor in Hedo's decision. Our bet is that, if Kevin Pritchard wants Turk for the 5 and 50 that's being discussed, he'll find a way to get him into a Blazer.

Marcin Gortat

Gortat has reportedly decided to sign his full MLE offer sheet with the Dallas Mavericks. The Magic will be able to match or work out a sign and trade, but it got many free agent watchers talking about the old Jon Koncak offer sheet the Pistons signed before the 1989-90 season, which of course, the Hawks matched. The full MLE should be something in the order of 5 years, 33 million dollars.

Jason Kidd

Kidd has discussed a 3 year offer from the Knicks, which is stunning considering they have been playing the 2010 card (otherwise known "Waiting for LeBron) and any sort of infringement on the cap space was heretofor thought of as being taboo. The HHB still expects Kidd to stay in DAL, where he can continue to play with Dirk and JT, but it might be interesting if he and the Knicks think that having him in the Big Apple could help in luring the King to the Knicks.

Rasheed Wallace

Once thought to be a done deal to the Celtics (might still be), the San Antonio Spurs popped in and seemed poised to offer as much as the C's. The Celtics on Thursday rolled out the red carpet (may not actually be red) for Rasheed.

Here is the updated list of free agents for 2009 with their corresponding PER (Hawks players in bold; Attempted to highlight in the team's colors that the free agents choose---fancy!)

Free Agents (restricted)	PER
David Lee (RFA)	19.07
Nate Robinson (RFA)	18.95
Paul Millsap (RFA)	18.77
Andre Miller	18.71
Charlie Villanueva	18.64
Chris Anderson	18.16
Ramon Sessions (RFA)	17.65
Marcin Gortat (RFA) Ben Gordon	17.20 17.02
Jason Kidd	16.95
Hakim Warrick (RFA)	16.91
Antonio McDyess	16.63
Lamar Odom	16.60
Brandon Bass	16.49
Mike Bibby	16.38
Drew Gooden	16.34
Marvin Williams (RFA)	16.04
Shawn Marion	16.02
Allen Iverson	15.89
Ron Artest	15.64
Trevor Ariza	15.51
Grant Hill	15.26
Rasheed Wallace	14.91
Hedo Turkoglu	14.82
Von Wafer	14.79
RFM	14.79
Anderson Varajao	14.62
Rasho Nesterovic	14.15
Zaza Pachulia	14.14
Joe Smith	13.85
Raymond Felton (RFA)	13.80
Shelden Williams	13.78
Chris Wilcox	13.37
Jarrett Jack (RFA)	13.10
Wally Szczerbiak	12.18
Anthony Parker	12.16
Solomon Jones (RFA)	12.08
Robert Swift	11.50
Theo Ratliff	11.22
Glen Davis (RFA)	10.77
Raef Lafrentz	10.40
Channing Frye	10.09
Mario West (RFA) Ime Udoka	10.00 9.57
Stromile Swift	6.80
Malik Rose	5.28