I hate watching the game way after the fact though. It's too fun to keep track of Heat twitter during the game. Though they need to step up their game with respect to Hassan Whiteside. Nobody has any damn memes ready for him. He's too new.
Barry Jackson wrote a blog today talking about how Hassan Whiteside could have a big impact on the direction the Heat go in FA over the next couple of years. He said if he continues on this trajectory, the Heat will not be able to go over the cap with his Bird rights because he would command a higher percentage than 108% of the league average (about $6.5M). That would obviously leave them with less money than they expected to have, but if they trade McBob, that could change. He also said (obviously) if Whiteside pans out they won't be focused on bigs and instead would shift their focus to point guards and wings.
This team becomes thoroughly uncompetitive when Whiteside leaves the floor. 25-1 run for Detroit to end the quarter. You want to keep the kid's ego in check? Impersonate an NBA basketball team while he's on the bench. - posted via Tapatalk -
Knocked that lead down from 21 to 9 in 5 minutes. Without the kid. Keep it going! - posted via Tapatalk -
Bouncing back from that horrific 1st Q. Keep it going. On another note, I haven't seen the Pistons play in a while...Drummond a great battle for Whiteside, and vice-versa. That is one hell of a 21 year-old.
Can't win with this Guard play, simply can't. 38 combined minutes by the 3 main guards for 0-3, 1 pt, 7 assists. DJ Agustine alone produced more than that in half the minutes. Guards can't create, can't score, can't facilitate. On the defensive side, they allow opposing guards to regularly have strong nights. Can't win that way. Specially when the 3 ball is an extinct species this year.
Another frustrating thing is the low amount of minutes whiteside seems to get, I know he fouls alot but at this point you need to let him work through them, the team just seems to go down the drain once he's out.
Well. That was a sh-t show. Man I know with Wade out I should have patience but now I kind of understand those NBA fans I see that seem to want to fold up the tents and play for a top 10 pick at the first sign of trouble.
He got low minutes but I'm not sure it mattered. In the 1st quarter it's true that the big run the Pistons made coincided exactly with Whiteside going to the bench...but I didn't think Whiteside would have put any stop to that run. I thought tonight Hassan played with relatively LOW energy level. He looked almost sluggish at times. Birdman came out and showed the young man up as far as what it looks like to play with energy. That said, a low energy night for Hassan Whiteside involves 11 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks in 24 minutes. Jesus. But I guess we don't really need reminders anymore just how good he can be. We just need the damn team to play some strong basketball. I just looked at the team and thought...they're just not good enough, period. Norris Cole is an effing tragedy. Danny Granger doesn't play well until it's over and even then he's as inspiring as an empty toilet paper roll. Tyler Johnson has energy but obviously he's not consistent yet. James Ennis might as well have just got on the floor and sat down cross-legged and done some Jeff Bridges chants for his 10 minutes. Mario Chalmers and Shabazz Napier could've been his rhythm section for all the good they did playing basketball. Sometimes I think the only players actually worthy of NBA contracts on this team are Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Luol Deng, Hassan Whiteside, Chris Anderson and maybe Mario Chalmers and Shawne Williams. Maybe. You can't win with that. You give James Ennis more time to figure out obviously and I guess there's no reason not to keep Napier kicking around but I wouldn't play Napier. Is Carlos Arroyo still around?
Recorded the Heat game and that first quarter was an absolute freaking trainwreck. Sheesh. Worst Q of basketball I've seen in a long time.
Third quarter defense was just as terrible as the first quarter. lol Just gave up wide open practice shots..
Appreciate the heads up - I'll watch it anyways... don't get all the Heat games up here unfortunately so I'll take what I can get.
Very odd performance. Rio took 2 shots? Bosh goes off against double teams and NOBODY else hits a shot? It's very simple. For this team to win without Wade, they have to play great defense and grind out a win by attrition. Wade is the only guy that draws the defense with his dribble and attracts defenders with penetration. As for a trade...deadline is on Feb. 19th, 3pm. They gotta be in the market for a guard. At full strength..this team has some possibilities, especially if they can add a guard to the rotation.
Bosh was something else that 3rd quarter. Damn. Just can't seem to get a consistent TEAM contribution...
Will they be at full strength for the duration of the season though? Will Wade be healthy enough come playoff time to keep this team from a quick exit? I don't have a lot of confidence in that happening. Because of that, I'd go the other way at the deadline and see what you can get for Deng and maybe Bird.
You keep suggesting this, but even if we tried to tank, there's no guarantee it'd work. The Heat is currently tied for the 17th best record in the league with Charlotte, meaning there are 12 teams behind them in the standing. We need to be in the Top 10 to keep that pick. Even if we traded Deng and Bosh, I think it's unlikely we end up poor enough to guarantee a Top 10 draft pick. It's too late to tank, even though we never would've done it anyway. The best thing to do now is stay afloat until Wade comes back and see if you can make a run.
Calderon would be perfect for this team. 42% from three, and he is a great FT shooter? I'll take him in a heart beat.
Right now the Heat are in the worst position for an NBA team....Not good enough to win it all as constructed, Not enough trade chips to go get another all star caliber player to help your team, Not bad enough to tank. The best thing the heat have going for them is Bosh is under contract, financial flexibility and Pat the Rat is still there.
He's owed $9 million in 2016 though at age 35. We need to be real careful with the 2016 cap because we can't sign Whiteside using Bird rights, he has to fit under the cap.
Actually..in a great position for an NBA team. A great Talent in Bosh under contract....a great Big Man that is currently cheap and going to be cheap "relatively" in 16', and then a pile of cap space for 16' and some for 15' with some work. They quietly added an all-star big man without using any of their 16' cap space. You knick fans are just gonna have to face it. We are charmed. We make the Patriots look like a hard luck case.
Nice story on Whiteside in SI COM http://www.si.com/nba/2015/02/04/hassan-whiteside-miami-heat-erik-spoelstra-dwyane-wade
I know it's been a rough stretch, but I disagree with this, even if we're just talking this season. When Wade comes back you're looking at a starting lineup that features 3 guys who are among the top 5 at their positions. Two superstar players and an anchor in the middle. Could the supporting cast be better? Of course. But in the East right now these three guys can and I think will do some damage come playoff time. If they commit more to defense and get a decent step up in play from any one else, just one guy who becomes reliable (ideally a wing), they're a legit threat to make the ECF.
Hard to believe we're talking about this on February 4th, but tonight is as close to a must win for the Heat as you can get, right? Minnesota is 8-40 and they have to win to salvage a 2-2 road trip, and yes, I'm presuming a blowout loss to SA Friday night. Have to win this game
No. There's no guarantee it would work, but so what? Would it suck to miss the playoffs and still lose our pick? Yes, but is that so much worse than getting the 8th seed in the East only to get embarrassed in the playoffs? At least if you do it my way you are picking up assets for the future in trades. And what would the upside be? Winning the lottery and ending up with a big time young player; getting a top 10 pick that turns out to be a good player; trading that top 10 pick for a valuable player moving forward. To me, that potential reward is well worth the downside to doing it. If you trade Deng and/or Birdman (I never advocated trading Bosh) and Wade misses many more games, it should not be any kind of a long shot that the Heat end up as a bottom 10 team. They have been playing like a bottom 10 team even with those guys lately. Listen, I trust Riley either way. Will "tanking" probably hurt or help the Heat in a major way going forward? Probably not. But if it were me, I would do what I could to better prepare this team for the future rather than focusing on trying to make the best out of a crappy season.
This is the Harden I love. Only one or two 3 pointers. Just drive to the basket at will. Jimmy Butler can't do a damn thing about it. Damn near 30 points and its not even halftime yet.
Up 15. Keep the foot on the gas. Don't start shooting threes. Keep giving it to Harden and Motiejunas.
