ESPN is reporting that Wizards’ forward Antawn Jamison signed a $50 million deal that will keep him in Washington for the next 4 years.  As you probably remember, Gilbert said he would take less money to keep Antawn in town.  Now that Jamison’s deal is done, Antawn expects Gilbert to put his money where his mouth is:

“He said he’d take less money if they got me, and they got me.  So I think everything will get worked out with Gilbert.”

Now that Jamison’s deal is done, Ernie Grunfeld can focus all of his efforts on trying to make a deal with Gilbert in the little time he has left before he heads off on his trip.  No one’s really sure how these negotiations will go since there’s no precedent for Gilbert representing himself, but if it’s any consolation, Jamison thinks the deal will get done sooner rather than later:

“Once he heard that I had reached a deal, he congratulated me, and I said ‘I can’t wait to congratulate you tomorrow.‘”

Does Antawn know something we don’t or is he just exceedingly optimistic?  We’ll see tomorrow.

When is Gilbert going to sign his contract?

Ivan Carter has a great article up today about Gilbert’s upcoming free agency.  The free agency period starts tomorrow (July 1st) but as Carter mentions in the article, the flight for Gilbert’s scheduled trip to Asia leaves at 9 a.m. which doesn’t give Ernie Grunfeld much time to negotiate a deal before he leaves.  Sure, he could try to work something out in those first nine hours, but I can’t see how trying to set up negotiations at one in the morning would help him in negotiations.  After all, Gilbert is going to want to get one last Halo session in some sleep before he leaves.

So the chances are looking pretty slim that Gilbert will be signing a contract before he jets off to Asia.  The chances are even slimmer that he’ll sign a deal while he’s on his trip:

“Right now, I’m just sitting back waiting to see what is going to happen,” Arenas said. “I have a number in mind, a number I feel I’m worth and we’ll just have to see what they come with. I guess we’ll find out” tomorrow.

And if the sides don’t reach an agreement before he heads to China?

“Then it will have to wait until I get back,” Arenas said.

In other words, if you don’t hear anything about Gilbert signing a contract by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, you’ll probably have to wait until mid-July before you hear anything more about contract negotiations, barring a change of heart from Gil, which isn’t entirely out of the question.

Who’s going to sign him and how much is his contract going to be worth?

No one can say for sure, but Ivan assures everyone that this won’t be a minor deal:

According to a league source familiar with the situation, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld plans on soon offering Arenas a lucrative long-term contract, one that could cover up to six years and could be worth more than $100 million.

However, whether Grunfeld and the Wizards are willing to meet the three-time all star guard’s wish for a maximum-level contract — one that would cover six years and pay him over $124 million — remains unclear.

The issue of whether or not he gets the max could end up being the sticking point in negotiations.  Gilbert is listed as the best available unrestricted free agent available by ESPN, so his services will be in demand.  The problem is, outside of the Wizards, there aren’t a lot of teams with the cap space to make a run at Agent Zero:

Arenas has turned himself into a max player over the past few years and, despite recent knee troubles, will likely cash in on his newfound celebrity status. While he continues to maintain publicly that his first choice is to re-sign with Washington, it’s possible that, given his eccentricity, he could change his mind.

The biggest issue for Arenas is the same one that plagues all the free agents: Who else has the money to pay him? I can’t see the 76ers or Grizzlies spending the cash. The Clippers would have interest, but Arenas already spurned them once.

Ivan seems to reiterate those thoughts in his article:

One team that could potentially make a run at Arenas is the Philadelphia 76ers, but they already have a point guard in Andre Miller and likely will look to add a forward this summer with the $11 million they have available. [...]

The Los Angeles Clippers could target Arenas, who is from the Los Angeles area, but they just drafted a scoring guard in Eric Gordon and would have money to make a big offer to Arenas only if Corey Maggette and Elton Brand choose to opt out of the final seasons of their contracts.

Of the four teams (Washington, Memphis, Philadelphia, and the LA Clippers) that can give Gilbert the money he’s looking for, it only looks like two are really interested in making a run for him.  Memphis has a glut of point guards that they can build around and Philadelphia has a much greater need for inside presence that a guard.  The Clippers could make a run at Gilbert, but they’d have to let go of their two best players to make it happen.  I don’t think either side would find that appealing, for the Clippers, that’s probably too much to give away to get Gilbert, and Arenas probably isn’t interested in joining a team that wouldn’t be competitive.  So by process of elimination, that would seem to leave Washington as the only reasonable choice, unless he wants to take a significant pay cut.

Will his new beard help him in negotiations?

Of course!  How can you say not to a guy that looks like this?

With the free agency just a few days away, most players hitting the open market would be gettting together with their agents, trying to figure what options they have, what teams will be interested in their services, stuff like that.  Since Gilbert is going to be representing himself in free agency, he has to find other ways to occupy his time.  So what does he do to get ready for arguably the most important off-season of his career?

Take his kids to see The Lion King.  No really.

If Gilbert is intent on finding a new team next year, he has a weird way of showing how focused he is on doing that.

(HT: Gilbert4SpaceJam2)

The draft is coming up in a few hours.  Everyone’s going to be focusing on the big names like Rose and Beasley, but don’t forget about the players that can help you out in the second round.  Like this guy:

I mean, who would want to take that guy in the first round?

Here’s some other stuff you can check up on as you keep track of how many times Jay Bilas says “upside” tonight:

- Gilbert talked to the Washington Times about his thoughts on the draft.  Here’s what he said about Beasley:

I balled with Beasley in the summer. He can score, can connect on a jump shot, can juke. … I don’t know why he’s compared to (Denver Nuggets All-Star forward) Carmelo (Anthony). He’s a scorer. He’s a big body post up who can score; that’s Carmelo right there. Real quick jumpers. One’s just more mobile.

- Also, I’d highly recommend reading this piece from TruthAboutIt on the Wizards and constancy.  He sums up why I feel it would be a terrible idea to let go of Gil this off-season:

There are those ready to just let Gilbert Arenas walk for nothing. But to me, that seems to be a path towards greater uncertainty than there would be in sticking with the zaniness of Agent Zero. During this past season, I’ve been frustrated with the antics of Arenas just as much as the next guy. I’ve wondered many times if he “gets it” or if Gilbert is too into himself now that he can willingly get instant gratification on the attention he seems to crave. Has his swag turned into a lallygag?

But it’s more than constancy. It’s more than just resigning Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas, and then having Ernie Grunfeld using his mastery to fill the gaps. How can Wizards fans be reasonably ready to pull the trigger on throwing Gilby from the train? He drops buckets with a killer instinct and has made himself a better player, a better man, by doing what others have said he couldn’t.

As a youth, I was so entrenched in the constancy of losing with the Bullets that I’m more than willing to ride the constancy of a four-year playoff run. The Wizards are closer to a championship with the services of Gilbert Arenas than without him….in my humble opinion. Today’s constancy can easily be tomorrow implosion. It’s a good wave, ride it until safely guided into shore, or until the white caps come crashing down. Either way, it’s better than bailing out on a promising crest.

- Of course, we’re going to leave with Gilbert’s draft video.  Not the most dramatic thing ever, but cool in its own way.  Ric Pitino knew what he was talking about here:

In his first two years in the league, Gilbert made a name for himself in Golden State as he paired with Jason Richardson to form one of the most electrifying backcourt duos in the NBA.  In their two years together, they had lots of high-flying dunks, but this one will probably be the most remembered:

Certainly, that dunk will go down as the best dunk from that combo, but I think that this dunk that isn’t mentioned nearly as often is worthy of the number 2 spot: