Well last year around this time the Miami Heat were in the NBA finals and they won the NBA title led by the amazing performance of Dwyane Wade. This season the Heat were inconsistent all season long and lost to the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs.
Yesterday I was talking with my basketball buddy Robert and we started discussing about the Miami Heat. We talked about how Pat Riley only built that team for one championship run by bringing in older players, which was a VERY COSTLY move hence COSTLY!
Miami is $9.5 million over the cap and won’t be able to do much in free agency, so they will have to rework the team through trades and the draft. The Heat only have one draft pick and will be selecting at number 20, as for who they will choose well that depends on a lot of things. I honestly don’t know where to begin at but I guess I’ll start at Point Guard. With Gary Payton considering retirement and Jason Williams having one year left on his contract, Miami may look for a new floor general to groom for the future.
That person could very well be Javaris Crittenton who is a young talented PG but only played one year of college ball, and will take a couple years to develop into a PG that can lead an NBA team. Next let’s look at Small Forward Eddie Jones and James Posey are free agents so this position is wide open like a Bruce Bowen jump shot. Thaddeus Young could still be available around then, to me he is a Lamar Odom type player, like his college teammate Crittenton he only played one year of college ball, and will take him a couple years to develop his skills before he’ll really be effective. They could go with more experience with a player like Derrick Byars, who sort of reminds me of Shane Battier he could help fill the void right away.
There have also been rumors that the Heat want to trade for Ron Artest, which could be a good thing if they could get him. The Heat may want to look at a versatile player to play mulitple positions to fill needed voids. Dwyane is having two major operations on his knee and shoulder and could cause him to miss some games early in the season and who knows if and when he’ll get his full strength back. So a player that I think could step in is Morris Almond a four year college player, who is very underrated to me. He’s no Wade of course but he is capable of carrying some of the load.
Maybe the Heat want to start grooming a new big man in the middle, Shaq is on his last leg and may only play 2 more years, Alzono Mourning has one year left on his contract. So a player to look at for the Center spot is Aaron Gray who was a solid four year college player, and should be a solid pro. Now he’s no Shaq or Zo but I think he can give you a Chris Mihm type performance. The only position that should be solid for a few years is Power Forward, Udonis Haslem and the declining Antonie Walker are on board until 2009, and the young Wayne Simien has one year left on his rookie contract.
The Miami Heat is also a team that likes to bring in a lot of rookie free agents and try to find steals, so they may give some looks to players like DJ Strawberry, Jared Jordan, Curtis Sumpter, Russell Carter, Dashaun Wood, Sue Yue and other potential prospects that may not get drafted. Overall the Miami Heat have a lot of work to do to get a youth movement going or else this team will be on the decline real fast and it’s already started. A lot of Eastern Conference teams are getting younger and better quickly.
