The news from free agency - Derek and Rashard

Rashard Lewis is going to Orlando for an extremely large contract, and Derek Fisher has been released from his contract by the Utah Jazz so he can move to a city which has specialists for his daughter's treatment.

Fisher first: I'm not sure of the salary cap implications of this move, but Fisher did NOT say he was retiring (although he's 'thinking about it'), and seems amenable to playing in one of the few cities with specialists in his daughter's rare cancer. The Jazz lose a major rotation player and 'glue guy', but are well positioned to survive the blow, especially if his salary comes off their books, or at least is reduced. Selfishly, I hope Derek continues to play and returns to the Lakers - he is revered in LA by the fans and it is always good to have a player you feel like rooting for on the local team - as opposed to, say, Kobe.

As for Lewis, his move to the Magic kingdom signifies at least these two things: Grant Hill is not returning to Orlando, and neither is Darko Milicic. Grant wouldn't come back to sit the bench (and as blogged before, has several other offers), and they will need to renounce Milicic's cap hold of $6.8 million to make Rashard the offer. The only real question is whether Seattle will try to get Darko or something else back from Orlando by making it into a sign and trade, or whether he leaves for nothing. (Darko should have some suitors, but only a few teams, such as the Hawks, will have the cap room to offer him over the mid-level exception - he may not get quite the payday he was expecting). Rashard should help Orlando spread the floor, but he's a bad defender, indifferent rebounder, and unless Dwight Howard refines his post moves, I don't expect this to make Orlando significantly better.

In Seattle, the obvious plan, from trading Ray Allen and losing Rashard, is to blow it all up and start over, which is why I wouldn't be surprised if they don't simply let Rashard go (and save the cap space, rather than taking on a big contract in return). It's certainly beginning to look like Kevin Durant will be playing on a terrible team his rookie year - but he shouldn't have to fight anyone for shots! Unless new Seattle GM Sam Presti has some tricks up his sleeve, it sure looks like Durant may score more, but win a whole lot less, than Greg Oden for the foreseeable future.