Or at least just higher expectations out of rich than we had in Bazz. Which we all should, he's bigger, faster, stronger, and plays defense. i would rather Jrich, TJ, and Rio over Bazz. Rio is legit as a backup. I'm still hoping Jrich can steal that backup pg job. weve got some legit depth.
Haywood and Mike Miller was traded to Portland, Cavaliers got a big trade exemption out of it. They save 28 million in lux tax.
It looks like Chalmers and Bird are still in the trade market. Heat don't want to pay repeater tax. Dumping those two plus Napier saves Arison 30 million or so in taxes.
I really don't like trading Napier for essentially nothing. He still has upside and you're dumping him to save a little bit of money? This is the first bad move of the offseason for Miami IMO. It's not a huge deal, but I don't like it. The Heat let Patrick Beverly go for essentially the same thing, and I fear this will end similarly. I'd take Napier over Ennis and TJ easily.
I don't know if this has much to do with Josh Richardson. I think it may have more to do with Tyler Johnson. It's probably a combination of things. The Heat run a system where several different guys could be running point. We saw that obviously with LeBron but just because he went away doesn't mean the idea went away. So they take Justise Winslow and then during Summer League have him running point basically every game. They take Josh Richardson who is a shooting guard but who ran point for the Vols all last year and doesn't do a half-bad job of it. They have Dwayne Wade who can handle the ball. There's the actual star point guard Goran Dragic. Isn't Josh McRoberts weirdly not embarrassing on the dribble, for a four? I could swear I remember that about him. I do know he's especially good at passing. They had James Ennis trying to run the ball during Summer League, but it just didn't work out. Still kind of shows their mindset. Now Tyler Johnson moves to a pure point guard position and looked like he was making a pretty smooth and natural transition to that spot. There's Rio but depending who you believe they could still be trying to unload him. The only thing that makes me reluctant about it is Shabazz did actually look far better this time around in Summer League. But then so did James Ennis last year and that didn't really translate.
We basically gave him for nothing. According to the restrictions on the second round pick, the Magic would need to have a Top 5 record in the NBA for us to ever see that pick. Really now, we could have come up with much better value than that. This was purely a salary dump move pressured by ownership. Mario and Bird should pack their bags soon.
Per Lebby (he is actually breaking news) Zoran traded to Boston. Goran was notified and is fine with it. This is not about money but about Richardson. They really like him. Given all this, I have to believe Richardson is going to get a guarantee and make the team
Trading Napier and Zoran makes me wonder if they're really deciding to keep Rio and Bird or just can't find takers for them. Obviously it could also be about money, but neither were making much and right now they have Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh, Whiteside, Winslow, Chalmers, McRoberts, Green, Amar'e, Bird, Haslem, TJ, Walker, Ennis, and Richardson. That's 16. Walker would seemingly be the odd man out and then you're already at 15 which is a full roster. If you're trading Bird and/or Chalmers then you need to sign more players, which I guess you could (Boozer maybe would be an option), but the whittling would be done. I guess the other reason could be that deals they've discussed for Rio/Bird could have us bringing back players rather than 2nd round draft picks. If that were the case they would have had to get rid of guys like Napier and Zoran to keep it at 15.
Trading Zoran is a good thing IMO. That's the best possible outcome for the scenario where bringing Goran here meant having to accept his brother and give him a valid chance. The thing I'm not sure they were ever going to be able to do would be to just cut him loose and let him twist in the wind. You don't want to create bad blood with Goran by doing that. In this scenario they get to say that they kept Zoran on roster a year, developed him in Sioux Falls, developed him in Summer League, but he's likely not ever going to play because of the people in front of him on the roster (Wade, Deng, now Justise Winslow, etc) and so his interests will best be served going somewhere he can play. If both Zoran and Goran come away from all this with a positive opinion of how the Heat handled Zoran, that's a big win IMO.
Highly doubt it. If he is, we'd need to get back a starting caliber player. Who could we get that's better than him?
That was my thinking as well. I really like Shabazz and was still holding out hope for him. I hoped he could become that deadly shooter he was in the NCAA. But he was always going to be a defensive liability. I would have liked to get something for him, but I don't think see it as likely that anyone would offer much. I think the team likes and prefers the flexibility of having Dragic and maybe TJ as true PGs and then 3 or 4 other guys who can bring up the ball in different line-up configurations. I expect that the other guys will be Wade, Winslow and Richardson most likely. Rio certainly brings some positives from a basketball side (defense, back-up PG, potentially clutch shooting and experience) but I just don't see how that adds up to $12 mil or so that he'd cost. I see him as an obvious keep from the basketball side and an obvious dump from the accounting side. I would guess that if they like TJ then they have enough other options on the basketball side (possibly everything Rio brings other than experience) to let the accounting side decide the issue (now or by the deadline). I expect that the same fate awaits Bird. If they avoid the repeater tax and the roster ends up: Dragic, TJ Wade, Green, Winslow Deng, Richardson Bosh, Amare, McRoberts Whiteside, Haslem Plus additional minimum guys to round it out they'd probably consider it a win from both the basketball side and the accounting side. (I know there's some debate as to what the actual designated positions would be, but IMO it's academic as Spo seems to favor more of a position-less approach).
Again I'm really not sure why you've got Green at SG and Richardson at SF. Those two should be switched. I'm not sure Richardson has ever played that spot.
That would shock me quite a bit. They wanted him to accept the opt in and he did. This team isn't selling off contributors, they're selling off guys who would be fighting for playing time.
Basically b/c Green and Winslow have been discussed extensively as Wade back-ups/replacements. I see all three as 2 - 3s but it just looks weird to list Deng as the only SF and everybody else at SG. Regardless, Spo is all about position-less basketball so the official designation is academic. I'm not sure why you think it matters who is placed where on a list.
BTW, any hand wringing about the Cavs trading Mike Miller? Lebron pissed off? ESPN's resident Fatman write 3 pieces on it yet? No? gotcha.
Lebron is absolutely a complete jackass phony. But Windy? That guy should lead a kingdom of moron media people with Omar Kelly as his vice president.
With them down to 15 (assuming Richardson signs), do you see this as being it? Barry Jackson tweeted earlier that they were still hoping to move Chalmers, but that they couldn't find any takers. If that's true and they do find someone to take him, I wonder who else they'd add.
I could see them adding another big like Boozer at the minimum if they dump Bird. Does anybody know how much we're over in terms of paying the luxury repeater tax? I'm just wondering if with these last couple of trades if we still need to get rid of both Rio and Bird to get below the threshhold or if we can keep one of them.
I'm starting to share the opinion they just can't find anyone to take Birdman off their hands and perhaps they're just not receiving the right offers for Rio.
I would guess the opposite, honestly. You like what Rio brings on the defensive end, but from the 2014 playoffs on, he has given the Heat little else. I think you can find other players for cheaper who can bring a similar skill-set. Bird, on the other hand, still can give you rebounds and shot blocking, while not being a complete liability offensively. That's still somewhat valuable to NBA teams. Also, according to Jackson, the GM he spoke with said Rio and Napier were available, but he did not think Bird was if I remember correctly.
The note said that although Birdman could also be moved, this particular GM had not been offered him. And then it noted that the team is not inclined to give away Josh McRoberts. Which to me means the GM was offered Rio or Shabazz, and he asked about McBob and was told no. Why would they want to move on from Birdman? He looks on the verge of retirement for one thing, had some health problems and generally wasn't near the player that provided such a catalyst when he was acquired a few years ago. For another thing all he does is steal minutes from Hassan Whiteside. Finally, why would you need Birdman AND Amar'e Stoudamire? Seems redundant to me.
http://www.sportsworldreport.com/ar...rlos-boozer-javale-mcgee-glen-davis-deals.htm This article speculates that the Knicks could trade for Bird. It doesn't claim that there has been any contact or discussions.
I don't mind trading Birdman. Like I said, I think he and Amar'e Stoudamire are redundant on this roster behind Hassan Whiteside. Then you've got Chris Bosh, Josh McRoberts and Udonis Haslem on top of everything. Just not a need. PG: Goran Dragic, Mario Chalmers, Tyler Johnson SG: Dwyane Wade, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson SF: Luol Deng, Gerald Green, James Ennis PF: Chris Bosh, Josh McRoberts, Udonis Haslem C: Hassan Whiteside, Amar'e Stoudamire Am I forgetting anyone?
Both trades work out for all involved, I think. Heat save money and maintain their defensive identity, Napier and Zoran go to situations where they can get more minutes and develop, Magic and Celtics buy low. Just makes a lot of sense. I do think Napier will end up putting a little career together as a guy who boosts a slow offense and makes things happen with the ball in his hands. But he'll do it for teams that are willing to live with his length and athleticism deficiencies on defense - which the Heat were not willing to deal with. Good luck to opposing backcourts scoring on our bench unit. Lol. Winslow, Rio, Richardson are all going to be hi-level perimeter defenders who punch their ticket on that end of the floor. Lock...Down.
I'm sure the knicks would take birdman...for Calderón and a future 2...maybe 2. If he got 2 2's for Pablo Prigioni at 37, Phil is gonna destroy someone for Calderon lol.
That's who I have. (except for Bird of course). "Within a span of 24 hours, the Heat has whittled its roster from 17 to 14 by trading Shabazz Napier to Orlando, Zoran Dragic to Boston and cutting Henry Walker a few minutes ago. That 14 includes two players whose contracts become partially guaranteed Saturday (James Ennis and Tyler Johnson) but does not include Josh Richardson, the second-round guard who will be offered a contract shortly. Johnson and Ennis have received positive feedback from the Heat on their chances of surviving Saturday's deadline, though neither has been told definitively." http://miamiherald.typepad.com/sports-buzz/
I'm good with that. For all the potential Ennis has, he's been pretty underwhelming. His upside is much higher than Napier's was so I guess that's why he stays.
I wasn't arguing why the Heat would want to trade him, but that I think he would be more attractive to other teams than Rio. I disagree that Birdman and Stoudamire are redundant, though. Amar'e is a guy that can bring offense off the bench from a frontcourt player. His defense is pretty bad, though. Bird is the opposite. He is a shot blocker and energy guy whose offense is limited. You could play either depending on the situation, or you could even play them in tandem.
