Cleveland Cavaliers- The Cavaliers number one priority was obviously to resign LeBron James. James obviously loves the city of Cleveland, but he made it clear that he would sign with the team who he felt was best suited to win an NBA Championship. That meant that the Cavaliers would most likely have to bring in a high profile free agent to play with James in the future if they wanted James to continue playing for his hometown team.

The Cavs were unable to bring in any of the top free agents and therefore were unable to re sign LeBron James. What people might not know is just how close they came to accomplishing both of those goals though.

On Tuesday, the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers agreed to a sign and trade deal in which the Raptors would sign Chris Bosh and then trade him to the Cavaliers. In return for Bosh, Toronto would receive Anderson Varejao, J.J. Hickson, Delonte West, and possibly Anthony Parker from Cleveland. Both teams agreed on the trade and the only thing left was Chris Bosh’s approval of the trade. Bosh refused to be traded to the Cavaliers though, stating that he wanted to play with LeBron James but he didn’t want to play with him in Cleveland. Chris Bosh felt that Cleveland was too small a market and that he wanted to play in a major market such as Chicago, Miami, New Jersey, or New York.

Less than 24 hours after Bosh refused the trade to Cleveland, he agreed to sign independently with Miami. Bosh’s decision to play alongside Dwayne Wade in Miami was no doubt one of the biggest reasons why LeBron James decided to sign with the Heat. I also can’t help but believe that if Bosh had agreed to be traded to Cleveland that LeBron James would have signed with his hometown Cavaliers. Like I said the Cleveland Cavaliers will be remembered as one of the big losers of the 2010 NBA free agency period but they actually came very close to entering next season with Chris Bosh and LeBron James on their team.

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New York Knicks- The New York Knicks have posted a record of 61-103 during the past two seasons and even with all this losing New York has been very conscientious to spend as little money as possible. New York pointed to the 2010 NBA free agency period as the moment they would make their move and recruit LeBron James and the other high profile free agents available to the Big Apple.

The Knicks didn’t land LeBron as they hoped they would but all was not in vain. Amar’e Stoudemire signed a 5 year $100 million contract to play in Madison Square Garden. Stoudemire (who previously played for Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni in Phoenix) becomes arguably the most talented player New York has had since Patrick Ewing. He is dynamic, extremely athletic, and has the capability to score 40 points on any given night. While it would be silly to think that his presence alone makes New York a contender to win the Eastern Conference it does give this franchise something to show for their efforts. It would have been disastrous for the Knicks if they were not able to sign anyone after going to such lengths to save cap room in order to make moves during this free agency period.

New York insists that they are not done yet and that they are determined to bring in other big time talent to pair with Stoudemire. The Knicks in particular, hope to acquire Spurs point guard Tony Parker through a trade this offseason and are already targeting Carmelo Anthony as someone they will make a strong push to sign during the 2011 free agency period. Stoudemire is good friends with Anthony and sources have said that Anthony would love to play in New York City.

New York also signed point guard Raymond Felton who formerly played for the Charlotte Bobcats.

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Chicago Bulls- The Bulls went into this free agency period with a sizable amount of cap room and had dreams of signing LeBron James or Dwayne Wade (Wade is originally from Chicago) to play alongside Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Wade actually had two meetings with Chicago’s management and at one point it looked like a strong possibility that he might return home to play with the Bulls. Neither player signed though, in the end James and Wade ended up teaming up with Chris Bosh to form a “Big 3” in Miami.

Chicago didn’t walk away from free agency empty handed though; they greatly improved their team by signing Carlos Boozer formerly of the Utah Jazz. Boozer is a two time NBA-All Star and averaged 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last year for Utah. Chicago also signed Kyle Korver, who is a very cerebral player and an excellent three point shooter. The addition of Boozer and Korver to the Bulls along with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah will make Chicago a team to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.

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New Jersey Nets- The Nets like everyone else came into this free agency period hoping to land one of the top free agents. New Jersey needed a new influx of talent more than anyone else, the team finished last season with a record of 12-70 (worst in the NBA). As a reward for the Nets awful play they were rewarded with the most balls in the NBA lottery and as a result had statistically the best chance to land the number one pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. Unfortunately for New Jersey they didn’t get the first or second pick in the NBA Draft, instead they got the third pick. Instead of bringing John Wall or Evan Turner into the fold they picked Derrick Favors out of Georgia Tech (a much less surefire choice than Wall or Turner would have been).Derrick Favors does have the potential to be an excellent pro player though.

To put it simply the NBA Draft wasn’t very kind to the Nets but free agency hasn’t been kind either. New Jersey did meet with LeBron and pitched to him the idea of why he should join the Nets. At the end though they were never in serious contention to land James, nor where they able to land any of the other top free agents available.

Yes, it has been a tough offseason for the Nets fans who were hoping to see John Wall run the fast break along with a couple talented new additions to the roster. Thus far that has not happened though and it will be interesting to see how New Jersey picks up the pieces.

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Miami Heat- To say that the 2010 offseason has been a success for the Miami Heat would be an understatement. Miami’s front office did what many thought would be impossible they signed three of the NBA’s best talents to contracts that were each over $100,000 million.

At this time last week, Dwayne Wade had just finished meeting with his hometown Chicago Bulls for the second time and there was talk of them coming away with an agreement. New York, Chicago, and Cleveland meanwhile seemed to be the three definite frontrunners to land LeBron James. Finally, Chris Bosh seemed destined to follow Wade or James. At the time it looked like Miami could possibly end up being one of the big losers in free agency.

The Miami front office (especially Pat Riley) came through big time though and sold Wade, Bosh, and James on why they should play in Miami. In addition to that they negotiated the contracts and crunched the numbers so that all three could play together. If Miami didn’t resign Wade or make any noise in free agency then they would likely not make the playoffs next season but now Vegas has them at 8-5 odds of winning the NBA Championship next season.