Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
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Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
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The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
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AFP/Getty ImagesJoe Dumars isn't waiting.
That essentially makes 2009 NBA free agency a one-man game, at least when it comes from a management perspective.
For seemingly everyone else in the league, it merely will be a spectator sport.
With the league-wide focus clearly on the Summer of 2010, when the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and numerous other top-tier contributors can enter the market, the league's personnel machinations figure to be subdued this summer.
Except in one zip code.
In Auburn Hills, Dumars appreciates he has no time to waste, not after it went so sour this past season, be it with the disinterest of Rasheed Wallace, the abject incompatibility of Allen Iverson or the inability of Richard Hamilton to get past the trade of friend and backcourt partner Chauncey Billups.
So, being no fool, Dumars is rushing in this summer, with a free-agent bankroll of nearly $20 million, an amount of cap space eclipsed this offseason only by the perennially do-nothing Grizzlies.
He started things off Tuesday by canning head coach Michael Curry after one season.
"We hope," Dumars said, "to get at least two players out of this free agency. We've targeted that all along, to add two good players to this team."
The approach could be Ben Gordon and Hedo Turkoglu. Or Shawn Marion somewhere in that mix.
About the only ones bidding against Dumars will be those players' current teams, trying to maintain their own free agents. And, even then, not so much.
Otherwise, there figures to be minimal outside pressures, with the bulk of the league, even the scant few other teams with 2009 cap space, preferring to wait for the Summer of 2010.
For now, Dumars will find himself in a holding pattern, because while free-agent negotiations can begin July 1, signings cannot commence until July 8, when the salary-cap and luxury-tax figures for the 2009-10 season will be announced.
Once allowed, figure on Dumars striking quickly, as he did in 2002, when he immediately targeted Billups in free agency and set the Pistons on a course for the 2004 NBA title and NBA Finals consecutive appearances.
As for how 2009 free agency might otherwise play out, we offer a primer.
The heavy hitters
Memphis, Detroit, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Sacramento are positioned to make bids for top-tier free agents.
In most cases, though, that cap space is illusory.
Atlanta, for example, is listed with upwards of $18 million in cap space. That, however, would mean bypassing the option to retain Mike Bibby, Marvin Williams and Flip Murray. More than likely, the Jamal Crawford acquisition will be as big as it gets this summer for the Hawks.
Others, such as Memphis, Oklahoma City and Sacramento have no need to make big offers, since they're not going anywhere and might gain a better sense of their direction by next summer's free agency.
The trade component
July 8 is not just the start of free agency, but also is the first day since June 30 that teams can make trades.
In many cases, those two elements could wind up being paired together. While most teams lack the cap space for outright free-agent signings, there is the ability to negotiate sign-and-trade transactions.
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Because top-tier 2009 free agents could find their landing spots otherwise limited, they could choose work in concert with their 2008-09 teams to create deals that benefit all parties.
Then there are the issues of roster duplication, which has the Clippers looking to move Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby or Zach Randolph, or the cold reality of the economy, which figures to again have Hornets center Tyson Chandler back in play.
Trades, not outright free-agent signings, could define this summer.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
