Upon Further Review

Prize Horses: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh (who has been lost in Canada), and technically Kobe Bryant falls into this category as well because he has an early termination option (ETO) though an extension is inevitable if not imminent.

No Small Consolation: Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, Amar'e Stoudamire, Dirk Nowitzki (ETO), and Yao Ming (ETO)

You lost out on the above and decided to overpay these solid-but-not-an-all-star-if-on-good-teams players: David Lee, Rudy Gay (restricted)

Aging/Falling Stars: Paul Pierce (ETO), Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson (who likely will retire), Manu Ginobili, Michael Redd (ETO), Ray Allen, Jermaine O'Neal

So you may now understand why teams seem to be ransoming this year, or in the case of the Knicks seemingly the last decade, to get a shot at these free agents. It's become so ridiculous that trades like the one involving the Knicks as well as the Rockets and Kings happened the other day. Because the Rockets don't appear to be resting hopes on the summer free agency, which is probably smart, they were able to come out like bandits. They acquired Kevin Martin (a very good player from the Kings), Jordan Hill (high ceiling rookie PF from the Knicks), the right to swap picks with the Knicks next year, and their 2012 first rounder. What did they give up for this haul? Their best bench player in Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey (a little cap space). The Knicks got a huge expiring contract in McGrady and a backup point gaurd. The Kings got cap space and Carl Landry, which wasn't enough but I can only assume that they didn't think that Tyreke Evans and Martin fit well together on the floor. If the Knicks don't get any of the big three, people are going to look at this deal in a few years and think Isaiah Thomas was behind it.

Having that said, my Bulls (stuck with 'em even after Jordan left) had a similar strategy. They made good moves to gain cap space and can now for sure offer a max contract this summer. With a little more maneuvering they may be able to do a little more. Its easy to look at the dream scenarios starting with luring LeBron out of Cleveland or getting Wade to come back home, but right now I don't see either leaving their current teams. What I may like even better than landing either of those two however is to go after two free agents in Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson. In terms of a gaurd, I think Joe Johnson would look perfect in the Bulls backcourt. His prolific shooting would look great next to Derrick Rose and though he doesn't have the clutch reputation that LeBron and Dwayne may have, he is definitely a better shooter. Given that the Bulls don't have great shooters, he would look great, especially if Deng is still playing SF. As for Bosh, he would provide the stud big that the Bulls have possibly never had, and unlike Amar'e Stoudamire and David Lee, he plays defense. As a second option for a low post scorer to compliment Noah's defense and energy, I would go with Boozer. Rose should be an attractive court mate for many of the free agents and hopefully they can land one or two.

As for other sporting news, Shawn White continues to live up to the hype and defy gravity, he's been one of the Olympic highlights for sure. I admittedly watched parts of the ice skating and really what makes watching it great is Scott Hamilton. He gets super excited when skaters do something well with Bill Raftery-like reactions, and he's equally funny when he dogs on skaters for having bad form and such. The competition was good as well, its always nice to see an American win, and Plushenko spiced it up by essentially saying he should have won because he executed a quad after trying to act like gracious loser. As for Tiger's press conference, I didn't buy it - didn't seem geniune, though not perfect Bill Simmons probably writes it better than I do.