NBA free agency is rolling along with what seems to be signing after signing. It was no shock at all when Kevin Durant resigned with the Golden State Warriors, but what was interesting was that he took less money so Golden State could also resign Andre Iguodala. Durant signed a two year deal worth $53 million dollars. At the start of free agency it looked like Iguodala would be finding a new team as he didn’t even have a meeting scheduled with the Warriors. First Golden State got Stephen Curry signed to the largest deal in NBA history five years at $201 million dollars. Then they got the Durant deal done. Then they had enough money left to bring Iguodala on a three year $48 million dollar deal.
The Utah Jazz saw a couple of their now former players sign contracts with new teams yesterday. George Hill who drew a lot of interest on the free agent market signed with the Sacramento Kings. Hill got a three year deal worth $57 million dollars. Scaramento also added Zach Randolph formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies.Randolph joins the Kings on a two year $24 million dollar deal. Gordon Hayward also found a new home. Hayward had also drawn a lot of interest from teams, but in the end he signed a four year $128 million dollar deal with the Boston Celtics. While the Celtics where able to land a big free agent in Hayward they did lose a player as well. Amir Johnson will be leaving the Celtics as he signed a one year $11 million dollar deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Paul Milsap signed a three year $90 million dollar deal with the Denver Nuggets and it looked like it was going to end up being part of a sign and trade, but it doesn’t appear that Milsap was included in the deal and he just signed with Denver. Here how the trade played out. The Los Angeles Clippers sent Jamal Crawford, Diamond Stone and a 2018 1st round pick that they got from the Houston Rockets along with cash to the Atlanta Hawks. The Clippers received Danilo Gallinari from the Nuggets and signed him to a three year $65 million dollar deal. The Hawks then sent a 2019 2nd round pick that they acquired from the Washington Wizards to the Nuggets to complete the trade.
Gallinari will join the Clippers front court that features All-Stars Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, but will have to find a way to replace point guard Chris Paul. Gallinari will help fill the 3-point shooting void left by Crawford and J.J. Reddick. Reddick joined the 76ers as a free agent on a one year $23 million dollar deal. Interestingly Crawford is looking for either a buy out or to be waived by Atlanta and is interested in rejoining the Clippers.
So who’s the biggest name left on the free agent market? Looking at the list of players available it just might be Derrick Rose. Rose is a former league M.V.P. who just can’t seem to shake the injury bug. There where rumors that Rose’s former head coach Tom Thibodeau was interesting in adding Rose to the Minnesota Timberwolves roster, but nothing has happened yet. Rose played in 64 games for the New York Knicks. He averaged 18 points and 4.4 assists per game last season. Rose missed the end of the season with an injury, but reports are that he’ll be ready to go for training camp.
Now what I’m interested in is if someone will take a chance on 40 year old Vince Carter and give him a 20th NBA season. Carter has spent the last three seasons with Memphis. Carter played in 73 games while putting up per game averages of 8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists playing an average of 24.6 minutes a game. Carter is an 8-time All-Star and was Rookie of the Year way back in the 1998-99 season. Maybe it’s just me, but I hope that a team finds a spot for Carter on their bench and give him that 20th season.
I’m looking for some help here because this just kind of confused me. With the full schedule of baseball games yesterday I do my best to keep up with all of them, but sometimes I’ll get a little behind or just miss something. When I miss out on a game I like to try and catch the highlights while I’m channel surfing. Now ESPN isn’t my first choice for highlights of any kind, but they happen to be talking about the game I didn’t see yesterday and I wanted to catch up.
The game I just missed out on yesterday was the New York Yankees hosting the Toronto Blue Jays. Now I hadn’t heard a final score to this game or which players had done what. The highlights came on and as there turned out to be just one highlight from the game that ESPN bothered to show. I’m sure you know what the highlight was. It was Aaron Judge’s long home run. Now oddly when the host introduced the highlight they mentioned that the story of the game was Aaron Judge. They showed the home run and then cut to the final score. Now after listening to them introduce the highlight and talk only about Judge I thought he had hit multiple home runs or had driven in a ton of runs. As it turned out the Blue Jays actually won the game 4-1, but you wouldn’t of known that by listening to the host. Judge was 1 for four with that long home run, but struck out in his other three at bats. Now I get the whole East coast bias with ESPN and Judge is having an M.V.P. caliber type of season; so far, but I keep going back to the fact that Toronto won the damn game.
Maybe they could’ve shown Kendrys Morales driving in two runs to make it a 4-0 game and putting it away for Toronto. Maybe they could’ve shown one of the six strikeouts J.A. Happ recorded on his way to getting the win. Hell they could’ve shown Happ striking out Judge. Maybe they could’ve shown Roberto Osuna striking out two of the three batters he faced in the 9th inning on the way to his 20th save.
Again this is a situation where it might just be me, but maybe someone can explain it too me. Feel free to leave your comment for me. Thanks!
You can listen to Sports Time radio on BlogTalkRadio.com or find the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com
Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime
Sports Time Radio 