Is there a limit to how much the Pacers spend to resign Roy Hibbert?

 a max contract or close to 1

Projecting the cap to $62 million, if the Lakers waived the rights to every single free agent, they’d have about $25 million in cap space (accounting for minimum cap holds).  Retaining Bryant would take the Lakers out of free agency, at least on a major scale.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the challengers for the eighth and final playoff spot in what is shaping up to be a challenging Western Conference.

Plus there are long road trips and far many more games than you play in college. It can be grueling, especially for a rookie who is trying to learn the NBA game.

“Dwight has a lot of that in him. He just needs to bring it out and make guys pay every single day.”

The Cavs are back in action Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena against Washington. They also open the regular season against the Wizards at The Q (Oct. 30).

Heck, just ask current Atlanta Hawks point guard Devin Harris how easy that transition was the first time, when he replaced Nash on the Dallas Mavericks. A solid point guard in his own right, Harris was never able to sufficiently fill the void Nash left and ended up being traded to the New Jersey Nets – and that was before Nash won two Most Valuable Player awards.

Update: Ollie’s agent Bill Neff confirmed to HOOPSWORLD Thursday afternoon that an agreement has been made between Ollie and UConn for him to be their next head coach. Neff said the conditions were not ideal but he knows what he’s getting himself into.

It was a surprise when the Toronto Raptors took Terrence Ross eighth overall at the NBA Draft in June, but after hearing head coach Dwane Casey’s explanation, the pick made sense for Toronto. Casey had scouted Ross personally before last year’s lockout-shortened season got underway and the young wing had exceeded expectations during his sophomore season at Washington.

Taking a look at each NBA players’ “True Shooting Percentage,” which takes into account field goals, free throws and three-point shots, we start to find a little more value in Harden. Last season he ranked fourth in the NBA, trailing only Tyson Chandler, Steve Novak and Manu Ginobili with a .660 TSP. The next chart down is number of wins added, where Harden (10.0) ranks third among shooting guards behind Dwyane Wade (12.8) and Kobe Bryant (12.7). Now we’re starting to see why Houston thinks Harden has a great deal more upside than he has shown in his first three seasons.