Updated: July 29, 2005, 6:05 PM ET

What are the bad teams waiting for?

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Ford By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider
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The NBA and Players Association continue to postpone the NBA equivalent of Christmas Day for roughly 35 free agents on the verge of signing a combined $800 million worth of guaranteed contracts.

I'm surprised Michael Redd and company haven't stormed NBA headquarters in New York by now. I can barely keep my kids at bay for 15 seconds -- while I grab the video camera on Christmas morning -- over a Barbie dream house and some Star Wars action figures.

The latest revision is now targeting Monday as the day when NBA check writing and contract signing can begin. Isn't it just a matter of time before Bucks owner Herb Kohl realizes he might have overpaid a little for an undersized sharp-shooting two guard who shot just 35 percent from 3-point land last season?

You want to know what's even more curious than the procedural delays that keep dragging out the moratorium? The unusual decisions by some of the worst teams in the league to sit back and wait out the free-agent period altogether.

While playoff teams like the Nets keep getting richer, a number of bad teams still have nothing to show for their efforts over the past 25 days. Thirty-five free agents have agreed to terms. The worst five teams in the NBA have landed none of them.

That, in and of itself, isn't surprising. But when three of them have major cap room and the other two have or had valuable trade assets, it makes you wonder … what are they waiting for?

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