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With the dust having settled after the frantic first few weeks of free agency, news and rumors of signings have slowed down, but there are still a number of useful players on the market. It's debatable which of the unsigned players are the best options, but here are the latest updates on a few free agents that would at least have to be in the conversation:

• Andrei Kirilenko: The Timberwolves are said to be close to finalizing a two-year, $20MM contract for Kirilenko, but that deal hinges on Minnesota clearing salary to clear room for the Russian forward. It's hard to imagine this near-agreement falling apart entirely, but until the T-Wolves officially move Wesley Johnson or another player, Kirilenko remains unsigned.
• Carl Landry: The Bobcats and the Warriors continue to be the two most aggressive suitors for Landry, but there's no guarantee he ends up with one of those clubs. The Bobcats are finding it difficult to work out a sign-and-trade for Landry, and the Warriors' financial restrictions mean Landry could get a larger offer elsewhere.
• Robin Lopez (R): Like Kirilenko, Lopez is stuck in limbo while the the Suns, Hornets, and Timberwolves continue to try to figure out a three-way trade that complies with CBA rules. If the deal eventually goes through, Lopez will be a Hornet, signing a three-year, $15MM contract.
• Brandon Rush (R): Like fellow restricted free agent Alonzo Gee, Rush is seeking an offer sheet from another club, but with the Warriors (or in Gee's case, the Cavs) expected to match any reasonable offer, teams haven't been lining up for the opportunity to have their offers matched. I'd expect both players to eventually end up back with their current clubs, earning about $3MM in 2012/13.
• Leandro Barbosa: The silence surrounding Barbosa this month has been awfully surprising — our rumors page for the former Pacer hasn't seen any action since May. I think Barbosa could be a valuable scoring option off the bench for a contender, if he was willing to play for the veteran's minimum. A team like the Lakers, for instance, would be a very nice fit. If Barbosa prefers a larger role and contract, perhaps a team like the Trail Blazers or Cavaliers would work.
• C.J. Miles: Miles had interest in signing with his hometown Mavericks, but Dallas went in a different direction and now has a full backcourt. Miles met with the Cavs this week and seems to be a decent fit for a team in need of a wing player and with plenty of cap space.
• Carlos Delfino: Delfino has reportedly received interest from a handful of teams, including the Hawks. However, he's disappointed to not have heard from the Bucks, as he told HoopsHype last weekend. Delfino could help a number of NBA teams, but if clubs aren't willing to offer much more than the minimum, I think he could also be a candidate to sign overseas.
• Darko Milicic: The Clippers, Heat, Nets, and Bulls were said to have interest in Darko, but the Clippers have since signed Ryan Hollins, while the Bulls added Nazr Mohammed. I'd guess that narrows Milicic's decision to the Heat and Nets, and I think he'd be a fit for both teams. If playing time is his primary concern, Darko might prefer Brooklyn, where Brook Lopez's injury history means there's a chance he could see solid minutes.
• Kenyon Martin: At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Martin was waiting on Landry's decision. If the Warriors miss out on Landry, Martin seems to be a perfect fit for a team in need of toughness and physicality in the middle. The Warriors have interest in Martin, and I imagine they'd be open to offering a little more than the veteran's minimum if Landry is off the table.
• Honorable mention: Nate Robinson, Willie Green, Derek Fisher, Josh Howard, Jodie Meeks, Tracy McGrady, Andray Blatche, and Shelden Williams. None of these guys appear to be on the verge of inking deals at the moment.

For as many sizable free agent contracts as we've seen signed this summer, the list of the NBA's highest-paid players for 2012/13 includes only one of this offseason's free agents — Deron Williams. Williams is one of 21 players whose cap hit will exceed 25% of the $58.044MM cap in 2012/13. Here's the full list of players taking up at least a quarter of their respective teams' cap space this year:

Kobe Bryant (Lakers): $27,849,149
Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks): $20,907,128
Carmelo Anthony (Knicks): $20,463,024
Amare Stoudemire (Knicks): $19,948,799
Joe Johnson (Hawks): $19,752,645
Dwight Howard (Magic): $19,536,360
Pau Gasol (Lakers): $19,000,000
Chris Paul (Clippers): $17,779,458
LeBron James (Heat): $17,545,000
Chris Bosh (Heat): $17,545,000
Dwyane Wade (Heat): $17,182,000
Deron Williams (Nets): $17,177,795
Andrew Bynum (Lakers): $16,889,000
Paul Pierce (Celtics): $16,790,345
Kevin Durant (Thunder): $16,669,629
Zach Randolph (Grizzlies): $16,500,000
Rudy Gay (Grizzlies): $16,460,538
Derrick Rose (Bulls): $15,506,632
Carlos Boozer (Bulls): $15,000,000
Al Jefferson (Jazz): $15,000,000
Andre Iguodala (76ers): $14,968,250

There are also four NBA players whose salary figure for cap and tax purposes will be significantly less than 25% of a team's cap, but who will still earn salaries among the league's top 25. These amnesty cuts and buyout recipients are currently slated to make the following amounts, paid in part by both their old and new teams:

Gilbert Arenas (FA): $20,807,922
Elton Brand (Mavericks): $18,160,355
Rashard Lewis (Heat): $14,756,739
Baron Davis (FA): $14,750,000

Storytellers Contracts and Sham Sports were used in the creation of this post.

Teams have a variety of avenues to retain their restricted free agents. They can wait for other teams to sign them to an offer sheet and match or negotiate their own long-term deal with the player. They can even convince the player to sign for his qualifying offer, though few restricted free agents have done that throughout the years, as we've documented.

With all the different means available for teams to re-sign their own players, restricted free agency usually tilts in favor of a player's original team, but once an offer sheet is signed, it's basically a 50-50 proposition whether the team will match, as recent data shows. So far this year, five players have signed offer sheets, two of which have been matched. Of the 26 offer sheets signed since 2008, 12 of them have been matched. Here’s a year-by-year look at those offer sheets, with the ones that teams declined to match in bold. 

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Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren't the only updates you'll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you'll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here's a rundown of a few of them:

• Our Free Agent Tracker features up-to-date details on this summer's free agent signings, with data sortable by team, position, contract years, and contract amount.
• We also have free agent lists for both this summer and next summer in text form, which will continue to be modified as players are signed or released.
• Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed since 2007, sorting by player, team, year, and other variables.
• Every Thursday at 4:00pm CT, Luke Adams answers readers' questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of past chats here.
• Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is used or expires.
• We're also tracking teams' amnesty provisions — using our complete list, you can check to see which clubs have used the amnesty clause and which will carry it into next summer.
• The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement.
• Our Offseason Outlook series previewed this summer for all 30 NBA teams.
• Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere every Saturday in his weekly Hoops Links feature.
• Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we explained how the Bulls' signings will affect their cap flexibility, examined the NBA's new maximum salary, and listed the expected first-year salaries for this year's first-round picks.

As we've outlined before, there are a number of different ways to follow Hoops Rumors via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS. If you don't want to follow all the site's updates, you can follow team-specific or transaction-only Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Although we don't have Facebook pages or Twitter feeds for specific players, you can also easily follow all our updates on your favorite player.

If, for instance, you want to keep track of all the latest news and rumors on Carl Landry as he navigates free agency, you can visit this page. If you're interested in whether Jose Calderon might be traded from the Raptors to your favorite team, all Calderon-related updates are located here.

Every player we've written about has his own rumors page. You can find your player of choice by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post where he's discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Landry's page is located at hoopsrumors.com/carl-landry.

In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags we use at the bottom of posts. The latest news on a potential NBA return for Phil Jackson, for instance, can be found on his rumors page, while if you want to check out our Week in Review pieces, those are all available here.

There are still plenty of unsigned free agents on the market, but with respect to Carl Landry, Alonzo Gee, Brandon Rush, Leandro Barbosa, and the other top remaining options, we almost certainly won't see any more $30MM+ contracts signed this summer.

As Hoops Rumors' Free Agent Tracker shows, 15 free agents have signed multiyear contracts worth $30MM or more this offseason, based on reported salary figures. We're not 100% sure all the reported salaries are accurate, but these are the numbers we know so far, and should at the very least be in the neighborhood of the official figures.

So which players saw the biggest paydays this summer? Listed below are the 15 largest free agent contracts of the summer of 2012, from Deron Williams to Goran Dragic. Let us know in the comments section which players you feel are worthy of these massive contracts, and which ones might have been overpaid. Here's the complete list:

• Deron Williams (Nets): Five years, $98.77MM
• Brook Lopez (Nets): Four years, $60.83MM
• Eric Gordon (Hornets): Four years, $58.37MM
• Roy Hibbert (Pacers): Four years, $58.37MM
• Nicolas Batum (Trail Blazers): Four years, $45MM
• JaVale McGee (Nuggets): Four years, $44MM
• Gerald Wallace (Nets): Four years, $40MM
• Ersan Ilyasova (Bucks): Five years, $40MM
• George Hill (Pacers): Four years, $40MM
• Jeff Green (Celtics): Four years, $36MM
• Kevin Garnett (Celtics): Three years, $34MM
• Ryan Anderson (Hornets): Four years, $34MM
• Jason Thompson (Kings): Five years, $30.19MM
• Tim Duncan (Spurs): Three years, $30MM
• Goran Dragic (Suns): Four years, $30MM

Note: Blake Griffin signed a five-year extension with the Clippers that would rank second on this list, but since he wasn't a free agent, he isn't included.

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Last season, under the first year of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the first-year values of the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions were relatively easy to remember — the mid-level for non-taxpaying teams started at $5MM, the taxpayer MLE began at $3MM, and the room exception for under-the-cap teams began at $2.5MM. The bi-annual exception, meanwhile, checked in at a first-year value of $1.9MM.

However, the CBA dictates that these exceptions are set to grow in value annually. Besides the non-taxpayer mid-level, which doesn't increase until next summer, each of the aforementioned exceptions grew by 3% this year. The new first-year numbers are a little harder to remember — $3.09MM for the taxpayer MLE, $2.575MM for the room exception, and $1.957MM for the BAE.

To avoid having to recall those figures and constantly calculate the new second- and third-year values of contracts that use full exceptions, we've put together a chart for quick reference. Here are the maximum contracts, in both years and dollars, that teams can hand out using these four salary cap exceptions (click for full size):

For complete explanations of how these and other cap exceptions work, be sure to check out Hoops Rumors' glossary.

Player Efficiency Rating isn't the be-all, end-all statistic by which to measure NBA players, but it does provide an easy way to at least get an idea of a player's productivity. While the stat is not without its issues, it manages to neatly level the playing field when comparing, for instance, a point guard and a center.

So, with many of this year's top free agents off the board. Let's check in on the remaining available players, sorting them by their 2011/12 PER. Players must have played at least 500 minutes last season to be listed here. Restricted free agents are marked with an asterisk, while the player's PER is in parentheses. Here's the top five at each position:

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10:35pm: A league official has corrected the earlier information sent out, tweets ESPN.com's Marc Stein. The amnesty deadline for this season is actually at 11:00pm central time today, rather than at 4:00pm CT. That allowed the Nuggets to amnesty Chris Andersen, and gives teams about 25 more minutes to cut players using the amnesty provision. The lists below will be updated to reflect any last-minute decisions.

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