Soon to be available

Next summer’s crop of NBA free agents was already a highly-anticipated one, but it got a whole lot tastier on Wednesday when a host of teams failed to lock up young stars.

A list of potential free agents already including such names as New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams and Orlando Magic centre Dwight Howard, could now also be joined by the likes of New Orleans Hornets shooting guard Eric Gordon, Indiana Pacers centre Roy Hibbert, Nets centre Brook Lopez and Portland Trail Blazers small forward Nicolas Batum.

Each team had until midnight Tuesday to reach an agreement on new deals or they would allow their young stars to become restricted free agents on July 1.

The Minnesota Timberwolves locked up Danilo Gallinari, avoiding the same fate.

Gordon, who was acquired by the Hornets in the Chris Paul trade with the Los Angeles Clippers, is expected to draw the interest of many NBA teams including his hometown Indianapolis Pacers. He and the Hornets were in negotiations on a four-year deal right up until the Wednesday deadline, but were unable to come to terms.

Gordon told Yahoo! Sports on Monday NBA commissioner David Stern was the ultimate decision-maker on whether he would get a new deal, not general manager Dell Demps.

“In terms of my contract extension, Dell Demps indicated that it’s out of his control and NBA commissioner David Stern has the last determination on the contract extension,” Gordon said.

Gordon was among the 20 finalists named by USA Basketball for the American Olympic team this coming summer.

As for the Pacers, they’ll have their hands full this summer when both Hibbert and guard George Hill hit the market. It really wasn’t a huge surprise that Hibbert failed to come to terms with the Pacers as he and his agent have indicated that they would prefer to leave negotiations until after the season.

Meanwhile, talks between Hill and the Pacers fell apart on Tuesday and the former San Antonio Spur seemed rather unimpressed by the turn of events.

"I thought it was going to happen after hearing they wanted to keep me here," Hill said. "I think everything my side did was reasonable. You never know how that is going to go. “It's a business and both sides came to the conclusion that we didn't meet up where we wanted to meet. We just have to see what happens."

Things seemed to get a little testier in Portland where Batum’s agent Bouna Ndiaye and Blazers interim general manager Chad Buchanan both addressed their inability to strike a deal.

"They say they love him, but they didn't offer him something fair, so that's it," Ndiaye told the Oregonian. "We tried and there's no deal. On July 1 we're going to look at the market first before we come back to the Blazers, that's for sure."

Sounds like an unnecessary bit of rhetoric, but Buchanan fired back with, “We love Nic and we've told him that. But a deal has got to be fair for both sides. They have every right to ask for what they feel is his fair value and we have to look at everything from our perspective.”

Each one of these teams has an opportunity to match whatever offers are made to the aforementioned players, but the one that appears most likely to switch teams is Lopez.

The Nets centre was not offered a deal from New Jersey as the team hopes to keep cap space open to take a run at Howard next summer.

Last season, Lopez led the Nets in scoring (20.4 ppg) and was second in rebounding (6.4) but he has yet to play in 2011-12 after fracturing his foot in a pre-season game.

The Nets say they like Lopez’s work ethic but are trying to keep their options open.

“As I told him, it’s not an indication we’re not going to bring you back, but it just allows me the flexibility,” general manager Billy King told the New York Post. “I couldn’t in good conscience guarantee it at this point.”

The Nets are playing with fire here. If a team can get an offer to Lopez well before Howard makes his decision, he’ll be gone.

And if Howard chooses to sign somewhere else, the Nets will be left holding the bag.