It's pretty clear that no one gives a flip about Cleveland or Miami's rosters outside Lebron/Wade. And that evidently, these two players win by themselves. The popular phrase is "Wade/Lebron took his team to the blah blah blah all by himself". So them combined means the $^*(#&$#^ for the rest of the league. So everyone else on those teams were merely window decoration. But window decorations have their level of scrubiness. Bosh's window decorations seem to be crappier than Wade's who happen to be crappier than Lerbon's. Probably because Bosh's scrubs can't play defense... Stats for those not informed. Spoiler 2008 Miami: 26th defense, 30th offense. Wade played 50 games of superstar basketball and Miami got the #2 pick. His support cast played no defense, nor offense for that matter. 2009-2010 Miami: 11th/6th defense, 20th/19th offense. Wade provided the same offense, but his support cast played very nice defense. Still no other offensive help. Leading to 1st round exits. 2008 Cleveland: 11th defense, 20th offense. Lebron had no help besides some defensive bigs in Z and Varejao. Cleveland got worked by the Celtics 2009-2010 Cleveland: 7th/3rd defense, 6th/4th offense. Ferry brought in help and spent a ton of money. Lebron finally had some people to work with, and the results support it. So how much do good scrubs cost? Varejao is a scrub, but a good one. And Cleveland keeps giving him big contracts. Big Z is a scrub who anchored the Cleveland defense, and he gets paid like over $10 mil. Jermain O'Neal, despite being ridiculously overpaid, anchored a top 10 Miami defense inside. And he's gone and replaced by superstar Bosh, who hates being a center. Which brings us to the question of: Can you find "good" scrubs with basically no money? By popular opinion, scrubs should be scrubs, and they shouldn't cost much money. Hence, Cleveland/Miami scrubs should be replacable by 2nd round picks and vet min players. And the only reason they pay them more, is because they're idiotic. Do you agree?
Look at the Boston's big 3 when they first got together. The supporting cast was: Rondo, Perkins, James Posey, Eddie House, Leon Powe. Perkins was on his 2nd deal @ about 5 million per. Rondo and Powe were on their rookie deals ~ 1 million per. House and Posey signed on for cheap dollars. So yes, you can get a real good supporting cast for basically no money. At least you can find cheap veterans that can play well in FA for close to nothing.
You are calling between $1M-$5M each "no money." True, that is cheap for an NBA player, but the Heat will be forced to sign guys to $500K-$1M. Those will be 2nd rounders and D-leaguers.
I think if they were to have the "big three", there would be all sorts of "hanger-on'ers" that would sign for less to play at MIA. And the type of players they would need (eg. lane cloggers, outside shot specialists, towell-wavers) are just the type of player that can be had for cheap. And a name to keep an eye on... Mikhail Torrance, 6-5 PG that signed to play with the MIA summer league team. Heart issues aside, he could be just the type of player that makes that team.
Oh you'll be surprised. There will be no shortage of vets who decide to take the minimum to chase a ring before they retire.
Wonder if a number of so-called "scrubs" are not turned off by the Three Divas in Heat and would rather seek employment elsewhere if available.
The Vets you speak of will be garbage type players like T-mac Michael Findley Mikki Morre AI Starbury Basically players with severely demolished speed that no other team wants a part of. Cast offs. players that have zero self worth because they just want to ride coattails.
Exactly. And with a lockout looming, nobody but those who will be out of the league otherwise would be willing to sign a one-year deal. And who of any value would actually be willing to sign a multi-year deal for $500K per year?
My guess is since all the Heat can offer to players after D'LeBosh is the minimum contract, they will try and get these guys on board: 1. Serviceable center that can hold their own against Dwight Howard Kurt Thomas: He may be old and Dwight will still get 20/10 on him but he's as serviceable as you can get at this price. And his ties to Pat Riley might sway him to come. 2. Serviceable point guard that can keep his TOs low and get the ball to D'LeBosh Shaun Livingston: The kid is brittle and taking a flyer on him to be healthy for an entire season might be a high risk but I think he would benefit greatly from playing with the Heat. Play there for a couple of seasons, win a ring or two, and get a pay raise in a couple of years when he's still relatively young (27). 3. Your prototypical utilty swingman that will do anything Matt Barnes: Isn't this obvious? The guy is the jack of all trades, has been playing for peanuts for the past few years, and is the jackass that every championship team has/needs. 4. Role playing forward who can jack threes Tim Thomas: He might be stupid to think he can get the MLE (and he just might because teams with caproom might be dumber than him) but this situation would be the perfect way for him to halfass without anyone caring, come in and make some threes, and get a ring. 5. The 3-point specialist Steve Novak: Every team needs one and every team seems to have a white guy fulfilling this role (Kapono when the Heat won it all, Matt Bonner in SA, etc.) 6. A big body that can absorb 6 fouls like no other DJ Mbenga: There's no reason for him to be here other than the fact that the Heat would need a big body...absorbing 6 fouls like no other 7. Shooting guard that can spell DWade for 8 minutes a night Flip Murray: I liked Ricky Davis in this role but I doubt he would have lasted long here. Flip can spell Wade 8 minutes a night no problem. So to shape the whole team out: Chalmers/Livingston Wade/Murray James/Barnes/Novak Bosh/Thomas Thomas/MBenga It's definitely not a team that would elicit but these players are realistic enough (i.e. would consider taking the minimum contract) for the Heat to acquire.
Well, the Celtics only needed to add James Posey and Eddie House to their big three because they already had Perkins, Rondo, Glen Davis and Leon Powe. Miami has Chalmers and Beasley, so like the Celtics they'll need to add about three quality players. They'll have to start with center. Big men like Shaq, Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, Jermaine O'neil, Brad Miller and Kurt Thomas might all consider taking the minimum to chase a ring. Then I'd be shocked if they don't bring back Haslem. A big rotation of any of those centers + Bosh + Beasley + Haslem is solid. As for swingmen, they wouldn't need much. Obviously Lebron and Wade are going to get most of those minutes. Some of the names you mentioned may be possible here. Like Michael Finley or Tracy McGrady. Trenton Hassell, Ime Udoka, Larry Hughes and Quentin Richardson are all possibilities as well. Hell, who knows. Maybe Al Harrington won't get an offer he likes and come play for a year in Miami. Otherwise, it's probably not a big deal if they get an undrafted rookie here. I'm sure they can find a quality defensive specialist that can decently fill in. Point guards? Well, they have Chalmers and Lebron and Wade will do much of the ball handling. So, again, a decent defensive back up will probably suffice. But Nate Robinson, Earl Watson, Rafer Alston, Carlos Arroyo, Earl Boykins and a few others are possible. None of those are great, for sure. But they're all decent enough as back ups.
Repped. I didn't even think about guys like Novak and Livingston. They actually could fill the role there. But I would think Mbenga could do better than the minimum. Not much better, but better.
If they can't get MBenga they can turn to Joel Anthony and tell him "Look, we want you to re-sign for less than what you were making with us last year but if we win it all, you get a ring and you can pawn that sucker for all we care"
I think they'll only be short on roleplayers for this first season. Next offseason, they'll have more draft picks and probably some kinds of cap exception to use to pick up more quality scrubs.
Tmac Maurice Evans B.Miller Big Z Big Ben Jermaine O'Neal Rafer then sign Luther Head and Novak as their 3 pt specialist.
They should go for young "scrubs" who know they will score a big contract after playing for an elite team.
That's what I thought after his stint with the Warriors but he got less than $1 mill with the Suns and only $1.6 with Orlando. Teams aren't exactly lining up to acquire his services. But if that's the case, there's plenty of swingmen out there that would want to coattail their way to a championship. Hello, Marquis Daniels?
