The New York Knicks have had the 2010 NBA free agency period in their sights for quite a while.

LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, among other superstars, were set to become free agents, and the New York Knicks are supposedly the ultimate free agent destination before the 2010 NBA basketball season starts.

The reality is, the New York Knicks failed to land LeBron James and couldn’t get Wade or Bosh either. The back up plan was to get Stoudemire and Johnson, but that failed, too. The Knicks ended up with only one big-name free agent, Amare Stoudemire. Stoudemire is a great player, but it is definitely not what the Knicks had anticipated.

The question now is, is Amare Stoudemire that much of an upgrade over David Lee? It’ll be interesting to see what he gets, but we’ll guess it’ll be somewhere in between $8-$12 million a year (especially if scrubs like Drew Gooden and Amir Johnson are getting $5-6 million a year).

Lee is only six months younger than Amare, and let the record show that while we like Lee, he posted 20-11 and 16-11 the last two years mostly because the Knicks had nobody in the frontcourt. Somebody has to collect those rebounds and score those garbage points. This is not to say Lee will be a bust at his next stop, but if he goes to a team with actual talent, we expect that scoring to be cut in half and then you basically have Troy Murphy without the range.

With the addition of Raymond Felton, the Knicks got a…

In case you didn’t know, yep, Amar’e Stoudemire is the latest big name free agent to switch teams.

The NBA is making some huge headlines already with still months before the new 2010 NBA basketball season begins. While the world awaits LeBron James and his decision on where he’d be playing come October, Amar’e Stoudemire already made up his mind after only a few hours when the free agency period officially opened.

The 6′11” power forward Amar’e Stoudemire and the New York Knicks have completed a five-year contract worth nearly $100 million, which means the Phoenix Suns are left with nothing but an aging Steve Nash and an overpaid forward in Hakim Warrick.

The New York Knicks and Stoudemire’s agent Happy Walters worked out the contractual language, a source said, and Stoudemire finalized the deal in an afternoon meeting with Knicks owner Jim Dolan.

“All done,” Walters said in a text message.

Stoudemire emerged from the meeting with Dolan and Garden officials, and met an assemblage of media with a Knicks cap and bold declaration: “The Knicks are back,” he said. Stoudemire became the Knicks’ primary power forward target on Friday, and the team is still trying to recruit LeBron James(notes) to join him.

Prior to committing to play for the Knicks, Stoudemire called Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony to tell him he was…

Five – time All Star Chris Bosh is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract with the Toronto Raptors.

You read it, leaving more than $17 million on the table, in order to join a free-agent class that could also include LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Amare Stoudemire before the 2010-11 NBA basketball season kicks off.

Chris Bosh has said he expects to earn the NBA’s maximum salary on his next contract, and whether he returns to Toronto or joins a new team is anyone’s guess.

”Nobody knows, not even me,” Bosh said as the Toronto Raptors cleaned out their lockers. ”That’s something only the future holds. Everybody keeps looking for answers. There are no answers right now. There will only be answers when it’s time.”

”I wish I knew” Chris Bosh added. ”I’d let everybody know so that everybody would leave me alone.”

With so many big names on the market, Bosh knows plenty of people will be asking questions.

”The possibilities are endless,” he said. ”You can say, ‘He’s going here, he’s going there, what do you think, what’s your opinion?’ It’s good barbershop talk.”

A seven-year veteran, Bosh averaged career highs with 24.0 points and 10.8 rebounds this year. His season ended two minutes into an April 6 game at Cleveland when he was accidentally elbowed in the face by Antawn Jamison. Bosh suffered two facial fractures and required nasal surgery.

The injury dealt a fatal blow to Toronto’s playoff hopes…

Whichever team wins Game 1 will take control of the series.

Although that is not necessarily the case since we saw quite a few Game 1 winners who have eventually lost their respective best of seven affairs in the 2010 NBA playoffs like the Portland Trail Blazers and just recently, the top seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, but STILL, winning Game 1 of a seven-game series is STILL huge, especially when you’re up against the Lakers.

On Monday night, the Phoenix Suns will try to take control of the Western Conference Finals by beating the Los Angeles Lakers on their home floor in Game 1. That is, of course, easier said than done since the Lakers are STILL the defending NBA champions and they are STILL a team built to win that very title again but if there’s a team that can dethrone the Lakers, it would have to be the Suns.

The Phoenix Suns are clicking at the right time after a regular season full of doubt. Hell, they came this close from dealing their franchise player, Amar’e Stoudemire before the trading deadline for crying out loud.

Who would’ve thought that Amar’e Stoudemire would still be a Sun playing this deep into the postseason with an opportunity to win the Western Conference and reach the NBA Finals again since Charles Barkley lost to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls back in 1993?

The Pacific Division rivals couldn’t wait to meet each other to play for the Western Conference championship. Both the Lakers and the Suns made quick work of their second round opponents, sweeping the Jazz and the Spurs respectively to face-off against each other in the playoffs again.

However, while the Suns should be the sentimental favorites in…

Yep, the Suns are having some sort of identity crisis lately.

Well, at least in their two losses to the Blazers in their first round matchup of the 2010 NBA playoffs anyway.

In case you didn’t know, the Phoenix Suns and the Portland Trail Blazers are now tied at two games apiece heading to what would be a pivotal Game 5 at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Despite the fact that the Portland Trail Blazers played the first three games of this series without their main man Brandon Roy, they still managed to win a couple of games over a very hot Suns team that has been riding on all sorts of momentum heading to the playoffs. They even won the first one on the road, shocking the Suns after winning Game 1 in Phoenix before beating the Suns again in Game 4 to tie the series.

But perhaps the reason why Phoenix lost games 1 and 4 was the fact that the Suns were having some sort of identity crisis in both losses. The Suns got outworked by the Blazers in both games, giving up too many second chances. In Game 4 specifically, the run and gun tempo that made the Suns such a delight to watch turned into a crawl, a pace to Portland’s liking.

In Game 5, the Suns know that they can’t afford to give this game away and let the Blazers take a…

Ah, the Western Conference. Some people still say this is where it’s at.

And with good reason too because in the West, it doesn’t matter what seed you are because any one of these Western Conference teams can go on and win the NBA championship. In the 2010 NBA playoffs, it’s more or less the same story.

Heck, Kevin Durant, the youngest player ever to win the scoring title this season, will be playing from the no.8 seed with the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder. You see, these guys could go on and advance to, probably the second round of the playoffs. The problem is, they will be on a head-on collision with the no.1 seed Los Angeles Lakers.

That’s right, it’s the defending champions for the Oklahoma City Thunder. That’s probably why NOBODY expects them to get past the Lakers in the first round other than them Thunder players and their mommas.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Kevin Durant and the season he had but when you pit him against Kobe Bryant? They don’t call him the Black Mamba for nothing.

The no.2 seed Dallas Mavericks take on the no.7 seed San Antonio Spurs…

If they do, then you can bet your ass the Knicks will be the team to beat next season.

After getting the services of multi – time All – Star Tracy McGrady this 2010 NBA basketball season from a three team trade with the Houston Rockets and the Sacramento Kings, the New York Knicks were able to clear enough salary-cap space for the Knicks to possibly sign two maximum-salary free agents this summer.

That’s right, the New York Knicks could recruit LeBron James by giving him the option of choosing which other free agent he wants from the likes of Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki.

However, getting LeBron James out of Cleveland won’t be easy since the Cavs, who own the league’s best record, bolstered their lineup with the addition of former Wizards forward Antawn Jamison. If Cleveland advances to its second NBA Finals stint in four years with LeBron, the odds of him leaving his home state figure to be diminished.

Sorry Knicks fans.

The New York Knicks aren’t the only team to clear cap space. The Chicago Bulls, a team featuring point guard Derrick Rose and a better core group of players than…

The trading deadline passed and he’s still a Sun.

Yep, in case you didn’t know, Amare Stoudemire will be playing for the Phoenix Suns at least for the remainder of the 2010 NBA basketball season.

There have been a lot of rumors circulating around the Phoenix Suns trading Amare Stoudemire to either the Miami Heat or the Cleveland Cavaliers, but since no deal has been made after the NBA trading deadline a few days ago, you have to wonder what the deal is between Amare and the Suns organization.

Will the Phoenix Suns still give their somewhat strange rebuilding process a green light and trade Amare Stoudemire as they continue to let go core pieces of their team like Shawn Marion and Shaquille O’Neal?

For now, All – Star forward Amare Stoudemire remains playing for Phoenix with a somewhat unclear path ahead.

With Stoudemire still on board, the Suns are still in the playoff hunt as long as they stay healthy. As long as history doesn’t repeat itself and we don’t see another late – season collapse, the Suns should feel good about playing past mid-April, giving them a better than 90 percent chance of reaching postseason play.

The Suns could have just taken the best deal available…

Of course, all them trades that happened a few days ago will have a huge impact on who these sportsbooks favor.

The trade deadline this 2010 NBA basketball season has come and gone and while the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t get Amare Stoudemire like they wanted, they still were able to score Antawn Jamison from the Washington Wizards and Sebastian Telfair from the L.A. Clippers.

”We are very excited to have an experienced all-star player of Antawn’s caliber and character join us,” said Cleveland Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry after making the deal. ”He has the ability to add a special, unique dimension to our team with a strong inside presence and the ability to stretch teams defensively, while impacting the entire court.”

As it stands, online sportsbooks have Cleveland as the odds-on favorite at -110 to win the Eastern Conference and +225 to win the NBA championship. The trade was consummated on Feb. 18 and Jamison made his debut a day later and since then, the Cavaliers are 0-2 straight up and against the spread.

After a game against the New Orleans Hornets on Tuesday night, LeBron James and the rest of the Cavs will hit the road for a two-game Atlantic division swing with games against the Boston Celtics and the Toronto Raptors.

Let’s look ahead to that road trip…

How about that, this was one of those trades that really CAME OUT OF NOWHERE.

With all kinds of attention on Amare Stoudemire’s next destination before hitting the trading deadline this 2010 NBA basketball season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to pull off a fast one, acquiring Antawn Jamison from the Washington Wizards in exchange for Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Yep, you read it, Antawn Jamison will now be playing alongside LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal in Cleveland. Wow. With the talent the Cavs have right now, winning anything less than the NBA championship at the end of the season will be an utter disappointment.

With Antawn Jamison on board, the Cleveland Cavaliers now have a prolific forward who can open up the floor for LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal. Jamison can hurt you with both his inside and outside game and with him on the floor, the Cavaliers have that other huge threat offensively which is a huge problem considering that you already have freaking LeBron James to deal with.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are sending Zydrunas Ilgauskas to the Washington Wizards and this year’s first-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Clippers to acquire Jamison in a three-team deal.

The Washington Wizards will also receive Al Thornton from…