Miami Heat Thread

Ok. I wanted some changes to the team, but maybe Riley is right, no move is the best move the Heat made. We kept Beasley and Wright who have trendous upside in potential and probably we'll be able to add a few more key pieces this offseason along with Wade. Boozer and Amare trade would have been fun one for us, but Boozer might be heading to Miami this offseason anyways, so potential line is O'neal, Boozer, Beasley, Wade, Chalmers or Bosh, Boozer, Beasley, Wade, Chalmers.

There's no way you get bosh and boozer. Keep on dreaming. I think no move means Wade is on his way out but thats just me.

Damn it NovU, do you know how old is that article?

Posted on Monday, 07.20.09

...if the Heat are going to get Boozer, it only means that they are going to lose Wade, and would you really believe Boozer after what he did in Cleveland and almost did? in Utah?

The Heat can afford to sign both Boozer and Wade.

Ok. I wanted some changes to the team, but maybe Riley is right, no move is the best move the Heat made. We kept Beasley and Wright who have trendous upside in potential and probably we'll be able to add a few more key pieces this offseason along with Wade. Boozer and Amare trade would have been fun one for us, but Boozer might be heading to Miami this offseason anyways, so potential line is O'neal, Boozer, Beasley, Wade, Chalmers or Bosh, Boozer, Beasley, Wade, Chalmers.

There's no way you get bosh and boozer. Keep on dreaming. I think no move means Wade is on his way out but thats just me.

Perhaps. Now that we're barely hanging onto 8th seed right now, I am starting to worry a bit. That was why I wanted Riley to shake up the team a bit before the deadline, but I admit that we probably have more options this way, by taking a bit of risk.

I think if any major FA lands in Miami, its Amar'e, since he already lives there part-time. LOL @ Wright having "tremendous potential"

Hehe. Wright's been good for us. Most of Miami fans want to retain him.

This team is pathetic without Wade. They well could be one of the worst team without him. No playoffs for the Heat this year if he doesn't come back soon.

Hey now, Joel Anthony has been the leagues best shot blocker for months now.

The team is pathetic with Wade, of course they're going to be horrible when their top player, scorer, play-maker, and defender is out. He's probably spent all season looking forward to not having to play with any of them again.

Half the roster will be revamped anyways, but I am bit disappointed in Beasley as we didn't really give up on him by not trading him before deadline. With absense of Wade, he was supposed to be the man, but he just is inconsistent and not reliable.

Another loss... 4th straight loss and counting. At least we have Wade back for now, but we're out of playoff picture currently at 9th. Just disappointing how considering how this team started this season so strong...

They're only half a game out though so things aren't too dire just yet.

Heat suspend Alston indefinitely

Rafer Alston’s future with the Miami Heat is in serious doubt.

The 11th-year point guard has been suspended by the team, which made the announcement about two hours after beating Atlanta on Saturday night. Alston was not at the arena for the game, with the Heat saying he was inactive for personal reasons and coach Erik Spoelstra only saying more details would likely be released Sunday.

“Rafer Alston, while having made contact with the team via text message, has made himself otherwise unavailable to the team. As a result he has been suspended indefinitely,” the team said in a release.

Not exactly the kind of thing they were hoping for when they picked him up. The Arroyo/Chalmers duo at point guard isn't too shabby though.

When Rafer came to Miami, I immidiately thought it was an upgrade over Arroyo and Chalmers, but apparently he wasn't Alston from Houston days. Whatever is going on with him, I hope to see him back with more motivation.

i hope bosh leaves toronto so we can get him! we can afford to sign 2 max contracts + we have money for bench! i hope riley can sign prince or another1 solid sf, and i hope we resign o'neal for vet min and haslem, wright!

Another blockbuster freeagent(player option) that probably needs own thread, but...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miam ... 8866.story

While maximizing cap space has been the Heat's ultimate goal, Anthony is cheap enough labor that the Heat might be willing to pay the $1 million qualifying offer.

More than likely, it means Anthony will bypass his opt-in and shave away a bit of the team's impending cap space.

I don't know how he's not getting maximum offers from teams, but I'd love to see him back in Heat uniform next season.

Miami's coup was a 'surprise' built on long-coveted goal of James, Wade and Bosh

The three played together for the first time that summer in Japan at the World Championships. For the first week, they were sequestered without family or friends in Sapporo, Japan, in an attempt to build chemistry. But it wasn't just the players. Working as an intern for Team USA and getting to know the players was Nick Arison, the son of Heat billionaire owner Micky Arison.

Now, Nick Arison is a rising executive with the Heat. He was part of the team that recruited all three players this summer.

Los Angeles-based management company Creative Artists Agency decided to get into the basketball agent business. Seeing how influential they could be in the summer of 2010, CAA bought the agencies that represented James, Bosh and Wade. Bringing them all under one roof gave CAA huge control of the market and took down any barriers the three would have with negotiations.

The Knicks got most of the attention for moves to position themselves for James, especially when they traded away their best players for pennies on the dollar in an effort to clear the books. But Riley was just as passively aggressive in not spending, at one point last summer getting into a public battle with Wade, who was frustrated at the lack of additions to the roster.

It was a risk to mess with Wade as he headed for his own free agency, but Riley had been watching and doing research. He knew the three wanted to play together, and he knew he had a glamour destination to offer, a history of success and Wade. Riley crunched the numbers and thought he could get close to clearing three maximum salary spots to sign all three, or at least get so close that he could sell it.

Riley really put the plan into action last November. During a Cavs visit to Miami, Riley arranged a get together with Michael Jordan and James. Jordan, who was in town to do some Nike work with Wade, at the time did not own a majority of the Bobcats.

During the meeting, Riley talked to James about how more modern players should pay homage to Jordan. Riley always had led this effort, retiring Jordan's No. 23 in the rafters at AmericanAirlines Arena even though Jordan never played in Miami.

The Cavs knew about it, and while it seemed like it could be classic tampering, they decided not to make an issue of it -- mostly because the meeting technically wasn't about free agency.

After the game, and after seeing Jordan and Riley sitting together courtside, James made an emotional statement on the court that he was going to ditch jersey No. 23 out of respect to Jordan. In fact, he felt all players should stop wearing No. 23.

It was controversial and got headlines. Riley probably didn't care so much about the statement but how his conversation obviously influenced James. It likely gave Riley confidence that he could win James over by playing to his emotions when it came time for free agency.

That was why Riley was so amped up before his presentation to James in Cleveland a week ago. He packed up his seven championship rings, had his salary-cap specialists create displays to show how Florida taxes could save James money and brought along Alonzo Mourning to make an emotional pitch about how the team backed him up as he recovered from a kidney transplant.

It was also made known to James that the Heat would take care of his friends the same way the Cavs did -- special treatment at the arena, changing practice and travel schedules to allow for money-making late-night parties in various cities, and perhaps even hiring a James associate in a high-paying position in the organization.

This was nothing new for Riley. He made the same accommodations for Shaquille O'Neal and, to a lesser extent, Wade in recent years.

Wade flew with Bosh to Akron to meet at James' house in the last week of June. Still under contract with the Heat, Wade got the other two to the brink of a deal to join up.

All the players still met with teams just to make sure they wanted Miami. Wade and James were interested in Chicago, where there was a chance two of them could match up and play with rising star Derrick Rose.

James did talk with Bosh about the chance of playing in Cleveland, but Bosh resisted, and James seemed to be more attracted to teaming up with his friends than staying home.

The Bulls' chances were diminished for two central reasons. Wade wasn't willing to go to his own hometown. And the Bulls made it clear James' friends would not be given the privileges they were given in Cleveland or the high-paying jobs.

Bulls got balls.

Sounds like being in LeBron's entourage is not all that unlike...well, Entourage.

I rate the Bulls for not bowing to James, nor should they

Quite gutsy Paxson. Not sure how credible those two reasons are though.

Riley definitely was a genius with the Cap Room as benji already stated before. Props to Riley for making all this possible.

yeah, Pat did great job this summer! at least now i can be happy about my team. we did best job on FA market and with supporting cast like Haslem, Miller, Ilgauskas, maybe Matt Barnes and neither J-Will or Dooling we'll be the strongest team in the NBA! just need to build a chemistry, and things would be fine! can't wait for 2010-2011 to begin!

Penny to Miami?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba,256465

Not this again.

Penny Hardaway wants to re-join the Heat, ruin some memories

Nope. Big-time nope. I mean, I like Penny Hardaway as much as anyone except one of my high-school friends, but this is a husky pair of Bad Idea Jeans.

Harsh. In all seriousness good luck to him if he wants to give it a shot, far be it from any of us to say he doesn't have the right to try. But they don't need him and I don't like this chances.

Joel Anthony is back.

Initially people were asking how we were going to build a team while affording the Big 3's salary. But look at our roster now. Solid from top to bottom. All sacrifised, starting from the Big 3 and now look who are willing(or joined already) despite the sacrifice they should make. A ring over money. That's what this team is about right now. Just look at Mike Miller, Haslem, and Ilgauskas. They all could have made more but decided come to Miami. The roster definitely is looking better than most of peoples' expectation.

However, PG position is looking really thin despite the possibility of Jason Williams rejoining the Heat. I'm starting to believe Lebron James might actually play more PG position as the Heat.This article here pretty much sums it up the plan with Lebron, I assume.