Heat Interested in Odom

Heat want Odom
(Jul 15 11:55 ET )
The News
The Heat are reportedly working hard at landing free agent forward Lamar Odom, according to Yahoo! Sports.

Our View
Miami is reportedly offering Odom a five-year deal worth $34MM. That proposal does not look to be good enough, as Odom is believed to covet $10MM per season.

Source: PASPN.com

Pacers Finalists for Sessions

GeryWoelfel repots from Las Vegas:

There are 5 teams in the running for still landing Ramon Sessions:
New York Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Clippers
Milwaukee Bucks

Lakers Losing Lamar?

From the Rumor Mill at Yahoo! Sports:

Lakers withdraw offer to Odom

Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, upset that free-agent forward Lamar Odom(notes) has yet to respond to the team's contract offer, has withdrawn the proposal, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times reported that the Lakers offered Odom his choice of a three-year, $30 million contract or a four-year, $36 million deal. Odom reportedly is seeking a contract closer in value to five years, $50 million.

Buss also isn't happy Odom's agent, Jeff Schwartz, has negotiated more extensively with the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat than the Lakers, the Times reported.

Lakers spokesman John Black said talks could still resume in the future.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Jazz still shopping BOOZER

from what I've been hearing it sounds like the Jazz are still entertaining the idea of trading boozer, I assume because his contract is only for 1yr at this point. His contract sits at 12.7 million dollars this year...

What do you guys think about the addition of boozer to the Pacers, and how would we get it done?

Obviously Murphy would probably have to be in the deal, which I don't know how I feel about, with his 11million and change contract. Boozer would help us win now, probably get to the playoffs without a problem as long as he stays healthy, and give us a solid guy to play Center when Hibbert is on the bench other than Foster.

Think about this scenario....

AJ Price/Travis Diener and Jeff Foster to the Sixers for Andre Miller in a sign and trade deal.

Then Murphy to the Jazz for Boozer.

THEN sign a Mr Jamario Moon.

We could sign all of them to a 2-3 year deal and our team would look like this:

PG = Andre Miller / TJ Ford / Travis Diener OR AJ Price (whichever doesn't get traded to philly)

SG = Brandon Rush / Dahntay Jones

SF = Danny Granger / Jamario Moon / Mike Dunleavy

PF = Carlos Boozer / Tyler Hansbrough / Josh McRoberts / Jamario Moon (he plays the 3 and 4)

C = Roy Hibbert / Carlos Boozer

Free Agency Market

With the signing of Dahntay Jones to the Pacers the back court defense becomes much improved. What bearing this will have on the resigning of Jarrett Jack or Travis Diener, both of which I like, I have no idea. Both of these guys are quality players with great personalities that WANT to help the Pacers build a franchise, but how much can they REALLY help?

Here are a few guys I would like to see the Pacers go after in the weeks following:

Jamario Moon-
Moon is a SOLID bench player in the NBA. He can play the 3 and the 4. He has a good shot, but the main reason I think he would fit well with the Pacers has to be his defense. Just like Jones, this signing would make sense for many reasons but defense is at the top of the list. Moon was one of the better shot blocking forwards for the past 2 years. He helped many of my fantasy basketball teams in that aspect. He's also an energetic guy that would add a lot of depth to the Pacers bench.

Joe Smith-
Smith doesn't have the versatility that Moon would, but nonetheless he is a solid player that knows how to score the ball down low, which the Pacers lacked last year. To be honest, I don't know how good his defense is, but it couldn't be worse than what we had down low last year. Smith is a veteran that showed things last year that made your mouth water, but faded towards the end of the year.

Leon Powe-
Pretty much all of the same reasons as Smith. Powe is the kind of guy that gets things done. Barring any kind of serious issue with the knee he injured last year, I think he would be a good fit for the Pacers down low. He only injured his ACL, which shouldn't have any serious impact on his future in the NBA. He would bring energy off the bench and make some big plays when he needs to, just like he did in Boston.


2 other guys that probably won't happen but I'll throw out here just to talk about them:
Lamar Odom-
Enough said, who wouldn't like to sign Odom after the NBA finals this year? It doesn't take much explaining to figure out why he would be good for the Pacers. I don't see the Lakers letting him leave though, and I don't think he really wants to. It doesn't hurt to wish though does it?

Jermaine O'Neal-
Before you say.... "WHAT!" just listen... O'Neal didn't leave the Pacers on bad terms. If you didn't know he was the headline of the trade to the Raptors that brought the Pacers Hibbert and T.J. Ford. O'Neal has always been a solid post defender, whether or not he has a bad shooting game. He wouldn't be the superstar that we thought he was last time, but once again, would be a VERY nice addition to the roster. There is a few things that might be stopping this from happening though. I don't know what O'Neals feelings are about coming back to the Pacers. The biggest thing is the Pacers can't afford a big contract, especially not for him again, but they do have the mid-level exception. If O'Neal would take a contract like that, the Pacers really should jump at the opportunity to grab him in my opinion.



In retrospect I think any of these guys would be great additions to the team. Once again I don't know all the contractual information that I probably should. If you have any information about any of these guys please feel free to post a comment for discussion.




~AS ALWAYS, THANKS FOR READING!~

-SHaFF

The First, but not the Last.

Alright, after setting up this blog over a week ago, it's time for the first blog:


I would like to say a few things about the Pacers. When the Pacers drafted Tyler Hansbrough I let out a pretty long groan... not as bad as the people chanting overrated, but nonetheless I wasn't ecstatic. After checking the summer league box scores, I've come to a different conclusion, yes just from the summer league. Psycho T has something to prove, beyond a doubt. Even with all the criticism about his athleticism and how he's not big enough, he gets it done. In the first summer league game, in which he led the pacers in scoring, he only had 3 points in the first half... but finished the game with 17 and hit 6-7 FT in the 4th quarter, THATS EXACTLY WHAT THE PACERS NEED! Not being able to close out games at the end was ONE of the MAJOR let downs of the pacers last year. Not to mention he has scored over 20 points in the other 3 games they have played so far this year in Orlando. Hansbrough is the type of guy that no matter how big the guy gaurding him is, he finds a way to score. He is just so relentless around the basket, that he won't give up until the ball is in the the hoop, or he's at the line, that's the bottom line. I'm starting to be quickly convinced that Psycho T is going to be an AMAZING fit for the Pacers this year.

On to my man, Roy Hibbert. Now Roy Hibbert is just the opposite of Hansbrough for me. I was hoping so much that the Pacers would somehow get Roy in the draft. I watched him every year he was at Georgetown and he was one of my favorite college players. When they made the trade for him from Toronto, I became giddy... yes giddy. People were a little worried about his game translating to the NBA at first because he wasn't very athletic, liked to throw his hands at anyone coming into the lane, and didn't move his feet very well. Roy looks to have improved on almost all of that. Of course he's not perfect yet, but this year is going to be pretty amazing for Hibbert. I like the Pacers.com headline name yesterday, "HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIBBERT", and that's exactly what he is, hungry. He's looked to have bulked up, which was a major thing last year, not strong enough for the NBA. I might even go as far to say as Hibbert will be a top 10 center in the NBA in only his 2nd season, don't hate on me until you watch him this year. Hibbert has the potential to be a top center in the league for a LONG time to come, and I just can't be any happier that the Pacers got him.