Miami Heat Draft Review and More

This year’s NBA draft didn’t have many potential superstars, such as Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant and, of course, Lebron James.  However it did have many players who could serve as future role players in the NBA.  There were a record setting number of players who came from overseas.  The draft was also very heavy in the point guard position, which was great for the Heat since point guard is their most needed position.

The Heat had the first pick in the second round and decided to trade up to the 28^th pick in the first round.  The Heat traded their 2^nd round pick with a future 2^nd round pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for draft rights for Norris Cole plus cash. 

Norris Cole spent four seasons playing college basketball for Cleveland State.  He is known as a leader, competitor, hard worker, and a tough player.  He has impressive speed and agility which makes him a great scorer and play maker.  He is a competitive defender and averaged a very impressive 2.2 steals per game in his college career.  He also had a great assist to turnover ratio in college with 5.3 assists to 2.7 turnovers.  Cole’s downfall is that he is very skinny. He is 6’1” and 175 pounds.  In order for him to compete against the best NBA point guards, he will need to gain muscle.   It shouldn’t be a problem because the Heat coaching staff will spend the whole year getting him into game shape.  Norris Cole will probably spend the upcoming season on the bench, and then become the point guard of the future.  The Heat will most likely re-sign Chalmers and then add a point guard from a free agency or from waivers.  Cole will probably serve the same role that Dexter Pittman did this past season.  Pittman only played two games this past season and spent most of his time conditioning and getting into game shape.  Pittman had the opposite problem from Cole, because Pittman was considered overweight and had to lose weight.  This year we should expect to see Pittman in the rotation a lot more against the league’s best big men.  Cole should continue to work hard so he can pan out to be the point guard of the future. 

In other news, Lithuanian center Zydrunas Ilgauskas exercized his 1.4 million dollar player option with the Heat.  It was probably best for the Heat to part ways with Ilgauskas after his first season with the team since he averaged 5.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 15.9 minutes which are all career lows.  There is no question that Ilgauskas is no longer in his prime. However, the Heat has a couple of ways that they can deal with this situation.  They could make Ilgauskas the 14^th man on the roster where he would travel and practice with the team, not just play in the games.  He is a veteran with tons of experience which could make him a good mentor in the locker room.  He also has a great rapport with the team’s superstar, Lebron James, since they both came here from playing many years in Cleveland.  If the Heat suffers with a lot of injuries this season and is forced to put Ilgauskas in the rotation, it may not be that bad.  Ilgauskas is old and got run down this season.  If he stays rested on the bench, the once or twice he plays might refresh him.  Ilgauskas is 7’3” which makes him hard to guard. He could hit a mid range shot which is very hard to stop.  If Ilgauskas plays once in a blue moon he may be able to make a lot of shots and use his size to block shots and rebounds.  Ilgauskas is no longer an everyday player but hopefully the Heat can fill that hole with other players such as Joel Anthony, Dexter Pittman, Udonis Haslem, and maybe add a player from a free agency. If the Heat’s roster gets much better and they are able to obtain a better 14^th man, they could move Ilgauskas to another team for a 2^nd round pick, or release him, since they will only have to pay him for a year.  Ilgauskas was contemplating retirement but decided against it.  Physically he should retire since he is unable to play an 82 game season, but mentally he will make 1.4 million dollars and have a chance to win his first ring. Perhaps he shouldn’t throw in the towel just yet.             

The Heat Off-Season Preview

Lebron James and the Heat are continuing to get criticized by local and national media outlets.  The big question is when the Heat bashing is going to end?  At the end of the day it was a productive season. We showed dominance by winning the Eastern Conference finals beating the very talented Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls.  However, the finals didn’t go our way.   The heat blew a commanding 16 point fourth quarter lead in game 2 and they also allowed game 4 to get away.  After game 4 the Heat started to struggle portraying issues that they had in the regular season, such as failure to close out games.  So back to the question when will the Heat bantering end?  The NBA Draft is coming up; however, this is calculated to be one of the worst drafts ever and probably won’t take any attention away from the Heat.  Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams will most likely not be the superstars that the Cavaliers and the Timberwolves need to get to the next level.  This free agent period will also be nothing like last years mainly because Carmelo Anthony was traded to the Knicks during the mid season.  The top free agents will be the aging Tim Duncan he will end up staying in San Antonio, along with another veteran in Jamal Crawford and former Miami Heat Caron Butler who has been injury prone the past few years.  One of the more interesting free agents will be Zack Randolph who broke out in the playoffs for the eighth seed Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies beat the number one seed San Antonio Spurs.  There won’t be much going on this off season to take away from Lebron James and the Miami Heat.  So next year it’s important that the Heat begin their highly anticipated dynasty built around Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Lebron James. 

This off season the Heat should have four goals to help them build a dynasty. 

The 1^st goal should be to re-sign Mario Chalmers.  The Most important position for Heat this off-season is point guard and they must re-sign Mario Chalmers who is the only decent point guard on their roster.  He is a clutch performer who shines in big games.  Mario is also a great defender and excels at hitting his shots from downtown.  Chalmers is a perfect fit for Miami and has done everything the Heat asked from him in his first three years.  Chalmers is up for a raise and look for the Heat to give him a two year deal this summer.  It would make sense for Chalmers to re-sign since he will be a key member in the Heats rotation. 

The 2^nd goal should be to acquire another point guard to go along with Chalmers.  A point guard is the most important position they are the quarterback of the NBA.  It is very important to have two solid point guards on the roster.  The Heat will part ways with veteran Mike Bibby who turned out to be a surprised bust and didn’t play in the deciding game of the NBA finals.  Pat Riley will have a couple options this summer, such as TJ Ford who is a natural point guard. Ford has tons of intangibles and would be a good fit in the Heats rotation.  Starting TJ Ford and ending the game with Mario Chalmers would work.  Another option would be Sebastian Telfair who would be a great athlete and would be a breath of fresh air for Miami.  However I still can’t help to think TJ Ford would work better.  I also like Rodney Stuckey, but I haven’t heard any news on Stuckey signing with Miami. Stuckey is a great scorer, solid defender and 6’5 which would create plenty of mismatches.  Detroit hasn’t been good in a while and they will have to go a different direction.  Unless Stuckey goes somewhere else to make more money, I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to take his talents to South Beach.  Another long shot would be future hall of famer Steve Nash.  Inserting Nash in the system would be very similar to our 2006 point guard duo with Jason Williams starting starting the game and finishing with the legendary Gary Payton.  Steve Nash is an elite facilitator who can hit the three point shot.  James and Wade can create their own plays, however, they struggled in the fourth quarter to create offense.  With the game on the line the Heat would be unstoppable with the ball in Nash’s hand.  It would bring Lebron and Wade closer to the basket and create more opportunities for Bosh to score.  Acquiring Nash is a long shot, because the Heat does not have any trade chips to allow Phoenix to make a move.  However Phoenix is at least three years away to having a competitive team, while Nash may have one or two years left in the tank and no ring.  Phoenix may be better off buying out the contract of Steve to free up ten million dollars of cap space that they can use on younger players to grow their team. If Phoenix buys the contract of Nash, the Heat can give him the veteran minimum.  This would allow the Heat to be the luckiest team in the NBA.  They would still have to compete with New York and Boston to acquire Nash.  The Heat would have advantage because Nash will be able to get a lot of minutes in Miami. Boston most likely wouldn’t have any interest in signing Nash because they have an established point guard in Rajon Rondo and New York already has a veteran point guard in Chauncey Billups. 

The next step is to fill another important position the center position.  This past season the center position was a disaster where the Heat started three different centers, this year and failed to find an every day center.  The Heat have Joel Anthony under contract and he will probably serve as the backup center.  Anthony is a hard worker who hustles every time he is on the court.  Although he doesn’t offer much scoring, he is an elite shot blocker and a great rebounder.  He started some games this season, along with most of the playoffs and all of the finals. He would be better suited coming off the bench.  Joel Anthony doesn’t match up well against some of the bigger centers which is why starting him isn’t the Heats best option.  The Heat shouldn’t re-sign the three stiffs who are Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Erick Dampier and Jamaal Magloire.  Any of the three could’ve been used in the finals to bruise up against the Mavericks big centers such as Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood.  Since they didn’t play, this means we need to dump them and start fresh.   Last year in the 2^nd round the Heat drafted Center Dexter Pittman from University of Texas.  Pittman only played two games this season simply because the Heat are notorious for not playing rookies and sticking with proven veterans.  Next year Pittman will have the opportunity to compete for a role in the rotation.  This season Assistant Coach and former Heat player Keith Askins has been working with Pittman on losing weight and getting him into game shape.  Pittman is a big body who would be able to bruise up against the best.  Pittman is most likely to be a backup center for games where the Heat will take on big centers.  Joel Anthony doesn’t always play well against big centers and Dexter Pittman would be a great alternative.  The Heat also needs a starting center where the will have to hit the free agent market.  The Heat are very interested in Samuel Dalembert who would be a great fit.  The Heat could sign Dalembert to the mid-level exception.  This plan could backfire if another team offers him more money that would be out of the Heats price range.  If Dalembert decides not to take less to play for a contender the Heat could also go after solid rebounders such as; Kwame Brown, Nazr Mohammed or Joel Pryzbilla.  Another option could be to bring back Kurt Thomas.  Thomas started his career with the Heat in 1995.  He played two seasons for the Heat until he was traded in a package deal for Jamal Mashburn.  If the Heat can’t get Dalembert, Dexter Pittman could have a chance to compete for a starting position.  The Heat will also have help with Udonis Haslem, who will back up Chris Bosh and will also have opportunities to end the game at center. 

The fourth step is to fill the team with a lot of depth.  With an 82 game season there will always be a lot of injuries and it’s important to have players on the bench ready to go.  It’s important to re-sign James Jones, Juwan Howard and Eddie House.  Jones is a great rebounder and an excellent 3 point shooter, he is likely to stay because he is from Miami and has a chance to play for the team that he grew up watching.  Eddie House is also a great 3 point shooter he is always ready to go when ever Spoelstra calls on him.  Howard also keeps himself on the bench ready to go.  He earned minutes in the finals and provided great defense and played dirty. 

With the draft coming up this week, the Heat will have the 1^st pick in the 2^nd round.  Whoever we pick will most likely not get a role in the rotation this year but could be a great player in the future.  The draft will be simple for Pat Riley. All he needs to do is pick the best available player and hope he pans out in the future. 

This season is arguably the most important season in the Heat franchise. Riley will be under pressure to acquire the right role players who can play well with the big three.  It took two seasons to win a championship when we had Shaq. I have a good feeling that it will only take two seasons while we have the big three.  Building a dynasty takes time and the Heat can and should only get better in the next four seasons.