Ray Allen has been rumored to be signing with the Heat ever since the season ended and the two Heat stars would be happy to have him in South Beach.

2morrow is a big day for #HeatNation..

— Dwyane Wade (@DwyaneWade) July 5, 2012

Allen is set to visit with the Heat today. Allen is scheduled to meet with the Los Angeles Clippers Friday which means we probably won’t find out Allen’s decision until after then.

The Heat can only offer Allen $3.09 million per year. The Clippers can offer Allen the full mid-level exception of $5 million and the Boston Celtics have offered Allen a 2-year, $12 million deal.

Allen would be taking less money to play in Miami but at this point in his career, chasing a championship with LeBron and Wade may be more important to him.

The Celtics have re-signed Kevin Garnett already and also just signed Jason Terry. They’re not rolling over and dying and still believe they have one last run left in them. It’s just a matter of if they can convince Allen of that too.

Taking less money to chase a championship isn’t always something that makes sense to players too. At this point in Allen’s life, it is his last chance to make this kind of money. Signing with Miami doesn’t guarantee him a championship either and he already took less money in his last contract with Boston to do the same thing.

Miami does appear to be the frontrunner however and we will probably know more later today.

LeBron retweeted one of his followers yesterday who tweeted a Photoshopped picture of Ray Allen in a Miami Heat jersey.

RT @abake6: #Heat fans, do yall want to see something really cool? (Cc: @FakePatRiley) twitter.com/abake6/status/…(looks damn good to me)

— LeBron James (@KingJames) July 4, 2012

LeBron also posted the picture on Facebook with a tagline reading: “This looks damn good to me.”

This isn’t the first time LeBron has made his feeling known on Twitter about Allen possibly signing with the Heat.

While watching the Draft my son Bryce ask “Is Ray Allen gonna play for the Heat”. I said “I don’t know, I hope so”.

— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 29, 2012

The Heat can offer Allen just $3.09 million per year to sign with them. The Boston Celtics have already offered Allen a 2-year, $12 million deal.

Allen plans to meet with the Heat Thursday and then with the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday. The Clippers can offer Allen the full mid-level exception of $5 million.

Allen would have to sacrifice money to go chase a championship with LeBron in South Beach but that’s something he did before when he first signed with Boston back in 2007.

Kevin Durant doesn’t think Harden will have to test free agency.

“He not hittin the market,” Durant said in a Tweet response to Nate Jones of Goodwin Sports Management, according to RealGM.

The Thunder are committed to Durant and Russell Westbrook through 2016 paying them max-deals. Harden could possibly receive a max offer from another team if he became a free agent next summer and it would be difficult for the Thunder to match that type of offer.

The Thunder are doing their best to lock up Harden and Serge Ibaka this summer to avoid allowing the rest of the league to determine their values.

When you really look at the numbers, it seems near impossible for the Thunder to extend Harden and Ibaka and avoid the increasingly harsh penalties of the luxury tax.

Harden especially would have to sacrifice a lot of money for the Thunder to reasonably extend him this summer. Harden spoke about sacrifice at the end of the season. Harden also said that he expects to come to an agreement on a deal this summer.

Durant is probably right about this. The Thunder will find a way to extend Harden first above anything else. Maybe it will mean extending Ibaka will have to wait but it really would be hard to imagine Harden and the Thunder not reaching an agreement soon.

Made a very tough decision today…. lockerz.com/s/222071318

— Deron Williams (@DeronWilliams) July 3, 2012

Williams reportedly narrowed down his decision to the Nets and Dallas Mavericks and was meeting with the two teams over the past 48 hours.

The Nets traded for All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson yesterday in a deal that was made to team up Johnson with Williams.

Williams would not have been able to make as much money playing in Dallas, who only could have offered him a deal around 4-years, $75 million.

Jason Kidd has been rumored to sign wherever Williams chose and played golf with him some the past few days.

The Nets re-signed Gerald Wallace to a 4-year, $40 million deal earlier this week. They are expected to try and re-sign Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries now as well.

For Kris Humphries to stay with Nets, he would have to accept the veteran’s minimum salary and that isn’t happening. So consider him gone.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 3, 2012

Brooklyn was the team Dwight Howard wanted to be traded to from Orlando but the Magic have not been interested enough in any type of deal with the Nets.

There were reports earlier today that Brooklyn was willing to offer Lopez, Humphries, MarShon Brooks and three future first round picks to Orlando in exchange for Howard but the Magic were not interested in pulling the trigger on that.

Brooklyn will have most of their money tied up in just a few players especially if they re-sign Lopez and Humphries. The Nets have certainly improved their roster from last season and making sure they kept Williams was huge for them.

Durant deleted that Tweet a little bit later perhaps realizing better the situation that the Thunder are in right now.

Oklahoma City can’t really go after any free agents who are looking for anything more than close to minimum deals. That’s why the only name that we’ve heard come up with the Thunder so far is Hasheem Thabeet’s.

Durant forgot for a minute that OKC is trying to save as much money as possible so that they can extend James Harden, Serge Ibaka and possibly Eric Maynor this summer.

Keeping together the Thunder’s current core is not going to be an easy task for GM Sam Presti and company. Given the current landscape of the NBA, teams would be glad to offer Harden a max-deal and even Ibaka could get close to that.

The Thunder are either going to have to overpay Harden and Ibaka to keep them and have little money left over to build around them or convince them to really sacrifice some cash to stay in OKC.

Or the Thunder can pick between Harden and Ibaka and wait for the rest of the league to determine their value next summer.

Oklahoma City’s best chance to keep the two is to get them as soon as possible. They’re monetary value is only going to rise as time goes on. They’re young enough now too that they may be willing to take a little pay cut for a chance to stay in town and try and win a title with Durant and Westbrook.

So while the rest of the teams in the NBA are busy wooing free agents, the Thunder are simply trying to keep the core they have for as long as possible.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

New York Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire has been fined by the NBA league office for a direct message Tweet he sent a fan that contained a gay slur.

Stoudemire responded to a fan, identified as Brian Ferrelli by the New York Daily News, who Tweeted at Stoudemire to “make up for this past season.”

Direct messages on Twitter can only be seen by the person sending the message and the person receiving it. Ferrelli posted a screen shot of the message sent by Stoudemire.

There isn’t really a precedent for this with pro athletes and with Twitter. Being fined for Tweeting something that you know the entire world can see is one thing but when it is a direct message, the idea is that it isn’t public, even if you are a public figure.

A direct message is not very different from a text message which is something a professional athlete would never be fined for.

What Stoudemire did was out of line for sure but for the league to step in this way may also be crossing the line in a way.

Stoudemire just can’t seem to catch a break these days when he chooses to let his anger out. Whether it’s Tweeting or punching a fire extinguisher, luck is not on his side.

Stoudemire went from an MVP candidate and All-Star at the beginning of last season to something totally unrecognizable since the Knicks acquired Carmelo Anthony.

Good fortune is something Knicks fans are hoping for with this team and Stoudemire. It just doesn’t seem to be heading in that direction.

World Peace of course elbowed Harden at the end of the regular season in what was one of the dirtiest plays in the NBA this season. He never really apologized for the act claiming it was an accident.

During Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night, World Peace Tweeted this about Harden.

No brain All beard

— Metta WorldPeace (@MettaWorldPeace) June 18, 2012

It was right after Harden tried to draw an offensive foul on LeBron James late in the fourth quarter.

World Peace has been critical of Harden as a flopper ever since the elbowing incident. He even suggested that Harden may have flopped some from his elbow.

So we know World Peace is crazy and has something against Harden but saying “no brain” is a little mean. It’s probably harmless because in the end that’s who World Peace is but he just comes off as stupid Tweeting something like that.

Lil Wayne didn’t have a ticket.

The reason was at first unknown why he couldn’t get into the game but for it to be something as simple as not being able to get a ticket is pretty funny.

Lil Wayne’s tweet made it seem like it could have been something else and he finished the tweet saying “Go Spurs.”

Thunder spokesman Dan Mahoney said: “We’d love to have him at a game, but like anyone else, he needs a ticket.”

“Lil Wayne, that’s my guy,” Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said. “I took a picture with him at All-Star break.”