Welcome to a Subdued Free Agency Period

The summer of 2009 doesn’t hold a lot of promise for free agents: “The summer before the Summer of LeBron will not be quite so glorious. A variety of factors — including a poor economy, weak season-ticket sales, a declining salary cap and the LeBron sweepstakes itself — could conspire to make this an unhappy off-season for most free agents. Only four teams are expected to have significant salary-cap space, and not all are expected to use it. Most teams can spend their so-called midlevel exception — about $5.6 million — but most of them probably will not.”