Uncontested Shots – NBA News, Notes, and Observations From a Self-Described B-Ball Geek

San Antonio Rolling the Dyess?

After Rasheed Wallace told his agent Bill Strickland to cancel visits he had scheduled for San Antonio, Orlando, and Dallas because he’d decided to join the Boston Celtics the Spurs had to turn their attention elsewhere.

It appears that GM R.C. Buford and head coach Gregg Popovich have turned their attention to Antonio McDyess.

According to Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski the Spurs have emerged as the leader to land the services of the 14-year veteran from Mississippi.

Wojo reports that the Spurs, along with the Magic and Cavaliers, are the three teams prepared to make offers for McDyess.

What about the baby?

I’m guessing that if the Spurs can get McDyess to sign then they’ll no longer have any interest in Glen Davis.

The question then for Davis is whether or not the Cavs would be interested in making him the type of offer that the Celtics would resist matching after signing Wallace. Magic GM Otis Smith has already downplayed Orlando’s interest in Davis which means the market is slowly drying up for Davis’ services.

It doesn’t appear that Oklahoma City or Portland have any interest in Davis which means the Celtics might end up retaining Davis next season for the qualifying offer (approximately $1.25 million), forcing Davis to re-enter the free agent market again next Summer.

In the meantime the Celtics have turned their attention to veteran Grant Hill and are attempting to sign the former All-Star with their $1.9 million bi-annual exception. Right now it appears that the Knicks and Suns are the Celtics biggest threats for Hill.

Should the Celtics manage to sign Wallace and Hill  and re-sign Davis for the qualifying offer you can put them right up there with the big winners of the off-season—that doesn’t include Eddie House deciding not to opt-out of his deal and return to the Celtics for $2.9 million.

And a rap by little old me Lamar

Nobody knows what’s going on with Lamar Odom. What we do know is that the Lakers and Odom seem far apart in their negotiations. It’s clear that the Lakers are hoping that the market dries up for Odom so they can re-sign him at a reasonable cost.

If the Lakers lose Odom don’t be surprised if they try to use their $2.5 million traded player exception from their Chris Mihm trade with Oklahoma City last season into a veteran big man like Kurt Thomas.

Some reports have the Blazers interested in Odom while others deny that the Blazers would be interested in signing a free agent with a history of violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Either way the Blazers seem to be the team holding up the free agent market from proceeding. They’ve been linked to Odom, Sixers’ free agent Andre Miller, David Lee and Davis. There’s also talk that the Blazers might be more interested in trying to use their cap space in a trade with a team looking for cap relief.

Jason Quick of The Oregonian brought up the name Gerald Wallace and Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer quickly shot it down. According to Bonnell:

“Wallace is arguably their best player. While some cap relief would be helpful, Wallace is an asset you can’t give away without getting real talent in return. What a terrible message that would send to the fans in a season when the Bobcats hope to be in playoff contention.”

One team that is looking for cap relief is the Utah Jazz. Unfortunately for Portland, it doesn’t look like the Jazz are in any hurry to help their division rivals.

Free Agents Avoiding Cleveland

LeBron James impending free agency seems to be the main reason why every free agent courted by the Cavs has decided to sign elsewhere.

While one report says that James told Trevor Ariza that he planned on staying in Cleveland, James’ advisers quickly put out a statement that those reports were untrue.

It’s beginning to look like the Cavs will end up settling for a third or fourth-tier free agent like Chris Wilcox or Channing Frye unless someone like Shawn Marion or Big Baby Davis decides to take the risk of signing a multi-year deal with the Cavs.

Speaking of Ariza

Trevor Ariza was a guest on Fox Sports Radio’s Myers & Hartman on Monday. He spoke to them about his negotiations with both the Lakers and Rockets. Let’s just say that Ariza doesn’t seem thrilled to be heading to Houston. The tenor in his voice is that of regret.

Ariza defended his agent David Lee by saying that no matter how things ended Lee was in a no-win situation. He said there wasn’t really a negotiation with the Lakers. He declined their initial offer and the next thing he knew the Lakers had signed Ron Artest.

Check out the whole interview here.

Ronny Ronny

If you haven’t heard Ron Artest’s tribute to Michael Jackson, please check it out. My favorite line of the song is when Artest raps “I know you’re in heaven, I hope to see you next year.” I can’t figure out if Artest either thinks he’s going to die next year or if he thinks MJ will rise from his death next year.

Artest has decided  to wear no. 37 with the Lakers in honor of the 37 weeks Thriller stayed atop the Billboard music charts. Only two NBA players have ever worn the jersey number 37—Jack Smiley of the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1949 and Nick Van Exel with the Golden St. Warriors in 2004.

Uncontested Shots will run every Tuesday and Friday from now until at least the start of the season. Follow Andrew Ungvari on Twitter.