As I was catching up on the week's news I noticed that the undoubtedly redoubtable Sean Meager (while filling in for the vacationing Casey Holdahl at O-Live) pointed out that the Columbian's Brian Hendrickson came up with an amazing list of potential Free Agents who could take up some of that yummy, yummy cap space in 2009. Brian himself admits that not all of them will be available but it's still fun to peruse. Since the list is a few days old I'm going to go ahead and borrow it from him more or less wholesale, deleting only players that will almost certainly be extended automatically because they're still on rookie contracts. I assume Brian won't mind too much if we discuss his work. In exchange for piggy-backing on his research I've finally rectified a long-standing wrong and added his blog to the permanent links in the sidebar. You really need to read everything this guys says.
Here's the list. The question for the day is, assuming our core stays more or less the same for the next couple years, which one or two of these guys (depending on salary expectations) would you be mostly likely to pursue in 2009 and why?
POTENTIAL UNRESTRICTED FA's
Ron Artest, Sacramento
Chucky Atkins, Denver
Brandon Bass, Dallas
Marceo Baston, Toronto
Mike Bibby, Sacramento
Elton Brand, Los Angeles Clippers
Ronnie Brewer, Utah
Keith Bogans, Orlando
Jackie Butler, Houston
Jason Collins, New Jersey
Marquis Daniels, Indiana
Jared Dudley, Charlotte
Nick Fazekas, Dallas
Jeff Foster, Indiana
Adonal Foyle, Golden State
Steve Francis, Houston
Kevin Garnett, Minnesota
Drew Gooden, Cleveland
Adrian Griffin, Chicago
Grant Hill, Phoenix
Juwan Howard, Minnesota
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Dallas
Allen Iverson, Denver
Bobby Jackson, New Orleans
Damon Jones, Cleveland
Solomon Jones, Atlanta
Jason Kidd, New Jersey
Raef LaFrentz, Portland
John Lucas, Houston
Corey Maggette, Los Angeles Clippers
Stephon Marbury, New York
Shawn Marion, Phoenix
Donyell Marshall, Cleveland
Andre Miller, Philadelphia
Paul Millsap, Utah
Steve Nash, Phoenix
Steve Novak, Houston
Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers
Zaza Pachulia, Atlanta
Anthony Parker, Toronto
Eric Snow, Cleveland
Damon Stoudamire, Memphis
Wally Szczerbiak, Seattle
Jacque Vaughn, San Antonio
Antoine Walker, Miami
Rasheed Wallace, Detroit
Chris Wilcox, Seattle
POTENTIAL RESTRICTED FA's
Andrew Bogut, Milwaukee
Andrew Bynum, Los Angeles Lakers
Raymond Felton, Charlotte
Ike Diogu, Indiana
Channing Frye, Portland
Francisco Garcia, Sacramento
Joey Graham, Toronto
Danny Granger
Jarrett Jack, Portland
Linas Kleiza, Denver
David Lee, New York
Sean May, Charlotte
Jason Maxiell, Detroit
Rashad McCants, Minnesota
Chris Paul, New Orleans
Nate Robinson, New York
Wayne Simien, Miami
Charlie Villanueva, Milwaukee
Hakim Warrick, Memphis
Deron Williams, Utah
Antoine Wright, New Jersey
POTENTIAL OPT-OUTS
Carlos Boozer, Utah
Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
Brian Cook, Los Angeles Lakers
Jamal Crawford, New York
Eddy Curry, New York
Travis Diener, Indiana
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland
Jerome James, New York
Mike James, Houston
Mehmet Okur, Utah
Quentin Richardson, New York
Hidayet Turkoglu, Orlando
Have fun! Oh, and if you don't like any of them, tell us what type of player you would like to see.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)