Dime's rundown of 2008 Free Agents

[evildallas]

Top of their list:

The Josh Twins (Atlanta)

[LL Cool Scott]

According to several NBA personnel men, Josh Smith should command around 8 - 10 million a year, and Josh Childress is estimated to command around 6 million a year. My guess is we sign Smith for 5 years 50 million, and do a sign and trade with Childress for a big man.

[evildallas]

I think Josh Smith will be more costly than that. 5yr/50M is 8.2M starting salary with 10% raises (low end of the estimates you posted). 10M starting salary with the 10% bump is 5yr/61M. I'll be surprised if doesn't get an offer from elsewhere in that neighborhood based on the development he's shown.

What might happen though is that he doesn't get the offer sheet he wants to sign (trying to squeeze as much as possible out) and the few teams that have cap space look at other options. Then it becomes a matter of working out an equitable deal between the team and him.

[LL Cool Scott]

Hey - I agree that he's worth FAR more than 50 mil. But I've read articles quoting front office execs (most recently in the Eli Manning SI edition) claiming that he might not even get offered as much as the 45 mil he turned down. I hope they're right and I hope we can resign him for far less than his talent should dictate, because it would be crushing to see us lose a talent like him.

[evildallas]

I'll be amazed if all teams exhibit fiscal responsibility this year and low ball the free agents. Josh is my favorite player. I hope he gets enough to stay here and be happy, just not fat and happy. I want him to remain hungry to be the best he can possibly be.

[JoshB914]

If we get Smoove for just 10 million a year, I will be thrilled.

[tontoz]

If we get Smoove for just 10 million a year, I will be thrilled.

Seriously, especially since the cap should go up a lot when the NBA gets a new TV deal.

[Skyhawk1]

Last off-season was a nice indication of how the market has changed for player. Many players didn't get what they wanted. I think thei coming off-season will be even harder for those players for one reason, there's going to be many players in the RFA situation. Deng, Iguodala, Okafor, Gordon, the Joshes, and some others. It's not like there's 5-10 teams out there to throw money at those players. And if you take a look at the performance of some players this season, you'd think they regreted not signing for what they were offered last year. I think M. Bibby could make J. Smith stock skyrocket. I hope we can keep him for 9-10 M a year, otherwise I think we'll just regret it later.

[conleyorbust]

The FO guys quoted are probably talking about what they'd offer Smith. I think that Philly is gonna go hard after Brand, if they can't get him than Stef is gonna have to think long and hard about how Smith can fit in there and what that would be worth (a lot of redundancy b/w the shotblocking of Dal and Smith and Smith isn't the go-to scorer they need).

I don't see Memphis as a player for Smith... I think they want to cut costs. I don't know who else is gonna make a play for him