One of my favorite websites that gets referenced and linked to quite often in these posts is HoopsHype.com. If you want to know the latest happenings in the basketball world, they do an excellent job of keeping basketball fans informed of everything that is going on in pro basketball throughout the world. Normally, I find myself going to their “Rumors” section as soon as I enter the site. Its like having a basketball news wire right on your computer screen. However, they also have their own articles on there, which I admittedly never pay much attention to. That’s not to say that they aren’t any good, but because they link to so many other articles outside the site, they almost always get skipped over.
That is, until I saw the words: [HEAT] A Wasted Offseason
So instead of looking for a link to a rumor about something like “Bob Cousey Thinking About a Comeback”, I decided to take a look at the article and was subconsciously hoping it would contain enough ill-informed and poorly constructed points about a perceived “wasted offseason” by the Miami Heat to get my blogging juices flowing. There hasn’t been a whole lot to write about recently. Or maybe I’ve just been lazy. But there’s nothing like good old fashioned sports debate to get me back on the keyboard.
Well instead of a crappy article with poorly constructed points, I read a well written article with interesting points that was short… and to the point, so to speak. I definitely would not dare to say that Jerald Hoover, the author, was at ill-informed either. But what fun would it be to just go ahead and agree with everything he wrote, especially when I could not disagree with him more then I do.
Yes, on the surface, Smush Parker is currently the only thing of significance the Heat has to show for its offseason efforts. They have missed on a few free agents, and lost a couple of small forwards. But if we look a little bit deeper into Pat Riley’s master plan (and if we are an extremely biased homer: Me.) then some things just might have fallen into place that we cannot fully appreciate. Again, I’ve been a little lazy recently so I’m going to continue this trend and dissect somebody else’s work instead of thinking of my own post. Here’s some of what the article said:
Had this been the Penny of 10 or so years ago then you would truly have something to work with there. And now there’s talk that along with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Heat are also front running the charge to sign Knick Allan Houston, who retired two seasons ago due to the same type of knee injury Penny had. Houston, now 34 years old, still feels that he has some game left in him. His shooting eye is probably still as lethal as it was, but can he still run up and down the court and cut from side to side and jump with aggression like he would need to?
This would make a lot more sense to me if the Heat were actually counting on Penny to be a key role player. Miami has been an easy target to pick on with the Hardaway signing because it seems to be so ridiculous. But the Heat are not giving Penny any guaranteed money! Unless he’s able to go through camp, go through preseason, and make the squad, he costs them nothing against the cap. Marcus Slaughter has the same deal heading into camp as Hardaway does and yet nobody seemes to be outraged by this. The Allan Houston talk that’s going around is getting similar laughs. (Not necessarily from the HoopsHype article, but its been pretty amusing to the basketball nation.) Well the Heat are going to a WORK OUT that Allan Houston is having in New York. They haven’t signed him or offered him a contract (yet) and everyone already seems to be getting bent out of shape about it already.
Well, except for Marcus Slaughter, maybe. Hoover’s article continues:
And before I forget, would he and Penny be able to endure those infamous three-hour marathon practices?
That might be part of the problem also. Some players, as they get in the late 20s and early 30s (their peak years), are more reluctant to practice like that and have to play an 82-game schedule, not including eight pre-season games and all of the travel. Sure, most guys in the NBA want to win (well, at least they say they do) but the bottom line for each player is … well, their bottom line. Fact remains, each player is paid handsomely and they’d wish to do so for as long as they can. So with that, practicing often as if it’s the fourth quarter of the seventh game of the championship series can cause some early burnout.
Now this is the kind of crap I was actually hoping for before I read the article. That last paragraph touches upon one of the criticisms that Pat Riley has encountered countless times over the years. And its total garbage. For some reason, people always seem to think that NBA players don’t want to play for Pat Riley because of his marathon practices where he, you know, actually expects his multi-million dollar athletes to put in the hard work that he believes is necessary to contend for a championship. I don’t know who these players are that are afraid to come to Miami, but urban legend has it that they are out there, and that Riley is hurting his team and the franchise as a whole because of his practice sessions. Do I think that money is one of the primary motivations for professional athletes? Actually, I think its their biggest motivation. But it’s not the only one. Winning a championship is right after that, and free agents want to play where they can make the big money AND where they believe they can win. Well Riley has a fist-full of rings as a head coach and I’ve never heard of any player worth a shit who wouldn’t play for Riley because of his practices.
So what is Pat Riley’s master plan? Far be it for me to try to get in that man’s head. But there is some evidence to suggest that the Heat have addressed some key issues by not signing marginal free agents (Read: Jason Kapono) to bad contracts and by adding to the roster, by subtracting. Say what you want about the Smush Parker signing, but nobody in their right mind would argue that this isn’t an upgrade over Gary Payton at this point in the Glove’s career.
Speaking getting younger, first round pick Daequon Cook adds youth at the shooting guard position. Dorell Wright at the ripe old age of 21 is expected to play significant minutes at the 3 spot, now that Posey and Kapono are gone. Wayne Simien is expected to return and not have salmonella poisoning this year, giving the Heat depth (and more youth) behind Udonis Haslem at power forward. Shaq, Zo, and J-Will are long in the tooth but Shaq and Zo still make up the best corps of true centers on any team in the NBA. Antoine Walker is still around… and that’s a good thing. What happened to Antoine this summer was unspeakably horrible and I wish him and his family the best. As terrible as it must have been to be tied up and robbed in your own home, it could have been even worse. It will be nice seeing number 8 kicking the ball out of bounds this season and taking more ill advised threes. I’ll take that every day of the week opposed to what could have happened. It’s good to see that he’s ok and hopefully, justice will be served to the assholes that committed the crime.
Are the Heat significantly better now then they were at the end of last season? Probably not. But they are a little younger in key spots after you really look at it and there just might be some hope down the road. On the very same website that the “Wasted Offseason” article appears on, there is a great resource for all arm chair G.M.’s to play around with. This can be found at the HoopsHype - NBA Salaries page. It gives detailed information about all of the NBA team’s salary structures and gives fans a glimpse into their favorite team’s future. In the case of the Heat, its easy to see why they were so handcuffed going into the offseason. Right now, the Heat has $70,603,40 commited to player contracts this season. With the salary cap for the season being set around $55 million and the dollar-for-dollar luxury tax being a little over the $68 million mark, the truth is they never had a chance at any big name free agents in the first place. However, things start to look much better for the Heat in the next few seasons.
The Heat has around $48 commited in salaries for the 2008-2009 season, and close to $43 millon in ‘09-’10, assuming that Miami will choose not to pick up Antoine Walker’s contract for $10 million that season. That season is also the last year that Shaquille O’Neal is under contract with the Heat. So Miami will definitely have some room to make a significant acquisition in the last two years of Shaq’s current deal. A team like the Cavaliers, who have also been handcuffed this offseason, have $62 million committed to player salaries in the 2008-2009 season.
Did we have hopes for bigger things heading into free agency? Absolutely. But there is a plan in place, and the Heat are making decisions based on that plan. Most importantly, they are giving themselves some flexibility in case something big presents itself. There are no guarantees in the offseason or regular season in the NBA. But the Heat are still contenders, in my opinion, in the Eastern Conference and very well could end up making another move before camp opens in less then a month. And with Pat Riley announcing that he will be on the sidelines this season, maybe the Heat ended up being offseason winners after all.
Tags: Miami Heat, NBA, 2007 Offseason, Ben Ellingsworth by Ben Ellingsworth
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