Free agency begins today, and Donnie Walsh has his work cut out for him. He's making offers to freebies from around the league, all while trying to retain some of his own. Here's what the beat men are saying on each of the players in question:

- The word on Chris Wilcox, via the Post:

The Knicks other free agent, Chris Wilcox, won't be re-signed.

Well, that was easy.

- The number varies depending on where you look, but it sounds as if the opening offer for David Lee was for 4 years, at about $8 million a year. Isola's calling it 4 years, $32 million. Walsh has to see what sort of interest Lee's getting from OKC or Memphis or wherever before starts adding digits to the offer.

- There isn't as much info out there about Nate Robinson, but if the rumor is true that Nate would consider accepting the Knicks' one-year qualifying offer, then he deserves a standing ovation.

- Marc Stein says otherwise, but I would think that the Darko Milicic acquisition makes Marcin Gortat a lot less interesting to Donnie Walsh. Actually, I kind of think I prefer Darko to Gortat, even ignoring finances. Maybe that's just me.

- HoopsWorld wonders if something's afoot in Jason Kidd's negotiations with Donnie Walsh:

In every negotiation you need to have a real threat of loss to get real value, and for Jason Kidd his afternoon's flirt with the New York Knicks may come down to just that, enough of a flirt to get Mark Cuban on a plane yesterday to stand at Jason's door step at 12:01am and sing sweet songs of major contract dollars. Kidd is expected to meet with the Knicks today and will likely field other offers before making a final decision. Mark Cuban has made it clear if it comes down to money he'd pay Kidd his asking price, so we'll see if Kidd's flirtations have more to do with picking a better prospect.

God, I hope so. 

- And in our last bit of free agent news, Marc Berman got bored and sought out his sure thing. Via Mr. Joey, Berman hits up Stephon Marbury for a few choice quips.

That's what I've got for the moment. I'll have my eye on The Fix and TKB all week for updates on the free agent front.

Updates:

-Hahn: Knicks are serious about Kidd, Lee is in Indonesia

- Wojnarowski: Memphis ready to spend quite a bit on Lee.