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…

Have you noticed that every time you take a dump on the toilet, there’s that tiny little nugget that refuses to be flushed down?

On Wednesday night, the Utah Jazz will have the opportunity to flush down more than a few NUGGETS in Denver as they look to advance in the second round of the 2010 NBA playoffs on Wednesday.

That’s right, after dropping the first game of their best of seven series with the Denver Nuggets, the Utah Jazz came back with a vengeance, winning the next three games to put themselves in the position to eliminate the Nuggets in front of their fans in Denver.

And while the Utah Jazz are obviously riding on some momentum heading to what could be the clincher of the series, the Denver Nuggets are frustrated, infuriated and discombobulated. In case you haven’t heard, there’s some sort of dissension going on within the Nuggets camp following their 117-106 loss to the Jazz in Game 4 and trust me, this is not something those guys would want to have heading to their do or die game this Wednesday.

It turns out that Nuggets guard J.R. Smith had something to say about their loss to Utah and as always, he made his comments public through Twitter.

Apparently, Smith is sick and tired of watching Carmelo Anthony take all them shots. And while he had no problems whatsoever when Melo took more than half of their team’s field goal attempts in Game 1 to score 42 points, he probably couldn’t…

Because the Nuggets know how big getting the 2-0 lead is before they leave Denver and play the Jazz at the Energy Solutions Arena.

That’s why the Nuggets should keep their feet on the gas in Game 2 of their first round series in the 2010 NBA playoffs. The Jazz are a different team in front of their adoring fans in Salt Lake City and surely, the Nuggets don’t want to hand the homecourt edge to those guys right?

The Denver Nuggets are determined to get that 2-0 lead in Game 2 that they already know what they should do come game time, hold the Utah Jazz under 100. Sure, they gave up 113 points to Utah in their 126-113 win in Game 1 but after watching the game in their film session last Sunday, the Nuggets know the scoring barrage has to stop.

”I told Chauncey (Billups) we can’t give them 100 points,” Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said on Sunday morning. ”I think our record is pretty good when we hold teams under 100 points. I think that needs to be our focus.”

K-Mart has a point, the Nuggets are 30-3 this season when they hold opponents under 100 points. And when it comes to holding the Utah Jazz below the century mark, they know who they need to neutralize, Jazz point guard Deron Williams…

We already know who are the starters, now it’s time to familiarize ourselves with the reserves.

The 2010 NBA All-Star Game is just around the corner as the NBA’s midseason classic will officially shift the attention to hoops with football season officially over. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade lead the East as they take on Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony of the West.

As far as the reserves are concerned, we have a few first-timers. Four first-timers come from the Eastern Conference; Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford, Charlotte Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace and 2009 Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls.

Completing the East reserves are Toronto’s Chris Bosh, Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Boston’s Paul Pierce.

Rondo is the second All-Star from the Draft class of 2006, joining the Blazers’ Brandon Roy, who earned his third All-Star selection this year. Horford joins the Thunder’s Kevin Durant as the first All-Stars from the Draft class of 2007 while Rose is all alone as the first All-Star from the class of 2008.

Derrick Rose will have a very busy weekend in Dallas. He and his fellow sophomores will take on the rookies in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on All-Star Friday and as the reigning PlayStation Skills Challenge champion, he’ll likely defend his title on All-Star Saturday.

Another first-timer on the East is Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace. With…

It’s that time of the year when the NFL concludes its season for the NBA to pick up the slack.

And just like every other year in sports, the NBA will pick up the slack with a bang, kicking off the second half of the season with the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. Yes, it’s the East All-Stars going up against the West All-Stars once again as fans voted in who they feel are the five best players in each conference as All-Star starters.

Leading the East All-Stars this year is leading vote-getter LeBron James. The reigning league MVP got 2,549,693 votes this season, becoming the first player in balloting history to draw at least 2.5 million votes on three separate occasions.

James is making his sixth All-Star appearance and will start for the Eastern Conference for the sixth time in his career. Joining James in the East are Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson , the 2001 and 2005 All-Star Game MVP.

Among active players, Garnett’s 13th All-Star selection ranks second to Shaquille O’Neal who has 15. Dwight Howard of…

These fans could care less who they get to the NBA’s midseason extravaganza.

How come? Well, Tracy McGrady COULD START for the Western Conference All-Stars in Dallas. Yep, T-Mac. Boy, is he playing awesome this 2009 NBA basketball season eh?

In what is slowly turning out to be a complete and utter joke, some NBA fans are on the verge of letting a dude who haven’t played a single game this season become an All-Star in Dallas, where the 2010 NBA All-Star Game will be played.

Ain’t that funny? Tracy McGrady could join Kobe Bryant in the Western Conference backcourt. That is a slap in the face to every other guard in the Western Conference. They don’t even have to be better than McGrady this season since the guy HASN’T EVEN SUITED UP FOR A SINGLE FREAKING GAME THIS YEAR.

If you ask me, there’s this one guy who should get the vote to be a starter in the Western Conference All-Star roster, Brandon Roy. That dude, just like last season, is ballin’ this year and even without Greg Oden for the second straight year, Roy is doing just enough to keep the ship afloat.

Another dude who should get the start alongside Kobe Bryant is Chauncey Billups.

Chauncey Billups is the prototypical point guard and it is because of his leadership that the Denver Nuggets have become one of the elite teams in the West, not to mention help Carmelo Anthony become one of the prime candidates to win league MVP this season.

For a guy like him to get the boot in favor of a dude who is…

SportsCenter will be a little busy in a few days.

Because in case you didn’t know, the 2009 NBA basketball season is here. And since we already have the NFL season underway and the MLB playoffs starting to heat up, it’s certainly nice to be a sports fan at this time of the year.

And as far as the NBA season is concerned, the Los Angeles Lakers will try to defend Kobe’s first ever title without Shaq, hoping that last June’s successful run to the title will be the first of successive championship seasons. After all, teams coached by Phil Jackson are known to win titles by threes. But do they have enough this season to win it all again?

With the departure of Trevor Ariza, mercurial stalwart Ron Artest should quickly fill that hole. At this point of his career, Artest just wants to win a title so hopefully, he won’t be a distraction to this Lakers team like he once was with the last few teams that he played for.

Back to back titles would virtually be a wrap if the Lakers could get steadier production from big guys Andrew Bynum and Josh Powell. The team’s Jekyll and Hyde play is still a concern but as long as Kobe Bryant keeps this team together, they will still be in the position to win a world title.

If there’s one team that can challenge the Lakers this season, it would have to be the very team they played in the conference finals last season, the Denver Nuggets. After acquiring a true floor leader in Chauncey Billups, the Nuggets tied their franchise record of 54 regular season victories back in the 2008-09.

Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony will continue to…

It’s down to a best of three.

The 2009 NBA Playoffs rages on as the remaining four teams in the postseason inch closer to the biggest stage in basketball. That is of course, the stage where you play for all the marbles, the NBA Finals.

And as far as the 2009 NBA Western Conference Finals is concerned, we just saw the first blowout game of the series.

Take it anyway you want but the Denver Nuggets, after three close finishes in the first three games of the series, have finally blown the Los Angeles Lakers away, winning Game 4 decisively, 120-101.

Is this a sign that the Denver Nuggets have finally figured out how to beat this Los Angeles Lakers team? They let two games get away from them, making stupid plays and two pathetic inbound passes, has Denver figured out how to make this Lakers team tick?

Denver’s win in Game 4 tied the Western Conference Finals to two games apiece. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the Lakers STILL have homecourt, having won Game 3 in Denver.

Nuggets fans can talk about how their team…

Yep, they really need to do something as simple as inbounding the fucking ball right.

The Denver Nuggets have advanced to the Western Conference Finals of the 2009 NBA Playoffs with a whole lot of momentum, dispatching the Hornets and the Mavericks convincingly to be proclaimed as the team playing the best basketball in the postseason. Despite that, they fell behind to a Lakers team playing nonchalantly the last few weeks.

After three games into the 2009 NBA Western Conference Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers have taken a 2-1 series lead, taking back the homecourt advantage after the Denver Nuggets snatched it away from the Lakers in Game 2.

Perhaps what’s more daunting if you’re rooting for the Denver Nuggets is the fact that in the two games the Nuggets lost, that being games 1 and 3, they let the Los Angeles Lakers come away with the victory in games they clearly had under control after failing to simply inbound the basketball.

You read it, it seems the Denver Nuggets can’t inbound the basketball, failing to inbound TWICE in the series that equated to two disappointing losses.

You see, in Game 1, Denver’s backup point guard…