Free agency opens up at midnight on July 1. It appears that it is going to be filled with a lot of two types of players; restricted free agents who might actually be able to join a new team and shooters.
There are going to be lots of shooters. As CBS Sports’ Matt Moore writes, Blazers guard Jamal Crawford and 76ers guard Lou Williams are both set to join the free agent class of 2012.
“Crawford stated his intentions in an interview with Seattle television station KING (via Portland radio station KXL).
‘I’m a free agent, so I’m excited about what’s there moving forward,’ Crawford said when asked about his future. ‘There will be a lot of teams out there with a lot of interest. I’ll sit back after July (free agency begins July 1) and see what happens.'”
Crawford is coming off a disastrous season for both himself and the Portland Trailblazers, but he can still fill it up so there is a decent chance his value hasn’t changed much. Williams on the other hand is younger than Crawford and was the best scorer on a team that almost made the Eastern Conference Finals.
“A league source said that the interest in Williams throughout the league is ‘significant’ and that a contract to land him could be ‘in the Thaddeus Young range.’ Before this past season Young signed a 5-year deal worth close to $43 million.”
The market for both Crawford and Williams will be pretty significant. Teams like Boston will be looking for a third guard, scorer off the bench. The Heat always seemed to be linked to scoring guards, the Nets have a ton of cap space and are not historically very smart with it. The Kings and Timberwolves were both linked to Crawford a year ago so expect to hear their names pop back up.
The point is there is going to be plenty of interest in both of these guys, even if the price is way too high.
