Personnel Schtick

Avery Johnson coaching in Detroit? Now that's funny.

Midnight Tuesday night (EST) kicked off free agency. Now comes the fun part, if you're really into financial hypermathematics and lots of rumor sifting.

The latter, sure. The former, not so much. So let's go rumor-diving.

- The Boss was in New York Tuesday night. Camped out on Jason Kidd's front doorstep, one hopes. Resigning Kidd is Prime Cause No. 1 this offseason. Everything depends on which way he jumps. If he's of the purely mercenary persuasion, Dallas has the edge. If his ambitions lie in other directions, we have a problem. (Update: New York's talking a multi-year deal; no concrete offers have been made.)

- Oh, the problem of the Bass. He's free now, the league knows he's a big tough guy who can give you solid minutes. Looking at the characteristics of the classic power forward, he suits all the way down. We can offer him up to the mid-level exception amount and still have the exception itself to work with. Is that going to be enough? Word around the campfire is he wasn't thrilled with being a sometime bench guy the way he was this past season.

- Rasheed Wallace as a Mav? Tempting . . .

- There's been a major climate change in the Chicken Fried State -- Yao Ming's broken foot isn't healing. Rumor has it the MDs might insist he take a season off. The horrifying words "career ending" are floating around. Houston minus Ming and with a perpetually injured Tracy McGrady . . . suddenly Ron Artest is back in the bank. And the Mavs want.

- According to the Morning News, the Mavs have made an offer to Marcin Gortat. He played for Orlando last season, backing up Dwight Howard. In a game where Howard didn't play, Gortat managed 11 points and 15 boards. Assuming he's starter material this would fill any Dampier-shaped holes left by a trade. However, the Magic have the opportunity to match the offer and Howard's gotta sit down sometime. (UPDATE: Fisher says he's onto something interesting there, involving multiteam swaps, getting Gortat, and keeping the MLE. Something to keep an eye on.)

That's all the news I got right this second. I'll check back later. Happy 4th and have a good weekend.
-BJ