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.