You gotta love free agency. 5 different teams enter bidding wars for a chance to land 1 guy. Teams destroy their futures or receive newfound hope when going all out to secure stars or potential stars.

Were only 3 days in and although contracts can’t be signed until July 11, teams have been ferocious at play to receive verbal agreements from their targeted players.

Hawks Surprise All, Trade Johnson

The Brooklyn Nets and the Atlanta Hawks have verbally agreed to ship Joe Johnson out to Brooklyn for the Nets expiring role players contracts according to foxsports.com.

These are very intriguing moves from both teams as Brooklyn has been in desperation mode to retain Deron Williams and Gerald Wallace. While the Hawks have only just hired new General Manager Danny Ferry in the last week.

Atlanta must now be fed up with being an average playoff team as they have removed Johnson and former GM from the franchise, signaling rebuilding mode. If Josh Smith still wants out that would further dig the hole in the Hawks roster.

Whereas the Nets are looking a better franchise already. They have reached terms with Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace, top players at their positions and are still in the running to bring back Deron Williams.

You could see this as the Nets moving their pieces to Atlanta which gives them a chance to sign Dwight Howard. Apparently Dwight Howard and Josh Smith are great buddies so who knows what will happen.

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Howard Free Falling

The Atlanta, Brooklyn trade has made Dwight Howard once again look like a fool. As recently as Saturday Dwight Howard restated his desire to the Orlando Magic GM that he wanted to be traded to the Nets according to nj.com.

No trade was ever imminent with the Nets but now that they are off the list as potential suitors for Howard it remains to be seen which team will become his new #1 priority.

With Atlanta now holding the Brooklyn Nets pieces does it make them Orlando’s preferred trading partner? Josh Smith, also friends with Dwight may be enough to convince him that Atlanta doesn’t look so bad anymore?

The Atlanta Hawks are certainly not done with free agency and may consider Dwight Howard as a possible player to build around.

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Red Hot In Houston

Every player on the Houston Rockets is available for trade and they have certainly been making some noises that they will part ways with anyone.

They’re desperate to try and entice a superstar to go live in Houston as they are looking to leave the middle of the pack in the west. Their first move in the off season however has been idiotic.

The Houston Rockets have offered the Chicago Bulls restricted free agent Omer Asik a 3 year $25 Million deal according to nba.com. This is Omer Asik who averaged 3 points 5 rebounds and 1 block a game for the Bulls.

Asik is a role player, exactly what Houston are trying to get rid of out of their roster but obviously they don’t see that. Plus he will get paid more per season than Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Bulls won’t match that offer because it doesn’t make financially any sense so Asik will be in a Rockets uniform.

The current Houston roster looks nothing like what it will be next season as there are still plenty of deals to make.

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Lamar Odom Back Where It All Began

The Los Angeles Clippers have given Lamar Odom a helping hand by taking him on the roster for next season.

Odom, looking to reshape his career at age 33 has been dealt to the Clippers by trade via the Dallas Mavericks according to espn.com.

The Los Angeles Clippers was were Odom was drafted to in 1999, but he left years later in strange circumstances to the Miami Heat. It clears more salary cap space for Dallas as they look to sign Deron Williams.

For the first 2 days in free agency the Mavericks have been extremely quiet. There was plenty of lead up talk that the Mavericks would be very active but no news has emerged on possible players joining Dallas except for Williams and Steve Nash.

The roster needs filling so more moves are on the way, likewise for the other 29 teams.

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Are there any surprise moves you didn’t see coming this off season?

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