Dumars4Ever
04-30-2007, 01:14 PM
Mercury said this in the Heat/Bulls series thread:
Considered starting a thread on the end of the Heat's run (brief as it was)... if you look at their salary commitments it doesn't look good for them... Shaq & Walker are locked up thru 09/10...
They don't have an early draft pick... and they have untradable players... unless you want a complimentary player like Haslem or Fatoine.
DWade is in for a long painful career in Miami.One of the Heat's beat writers breaks things down here (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basketball/heat/sfl-sppersonnel30apr30,0,7286416.story?coll=sfla-sports-heat). Not sure why he didn't mention Udonis, who I think has about 3 years left at about 7-8 million per year. Barkley last night said that other players around the league would want to play with Shaq and Wade, and yet he also said they needed to get more athletic to compete on the boards--how exactly are they going to do that? Shaq is old and Udonis isn't that great, so where's the rebounding help going to come from?
It seems clear that Shaq is far more likely than not to wear down in the second half of playoff games for as long as he's still in the league. Big Ben certainly had something to do with that in the Bulls-Heat series, but Father Time seems like a bigger factor to me. Shaq's ability to stay healthy during the regular season and in top shape for the playoffs just isn't going to improve from the not-so-good level that it's already at.
What prospects do they have of upgrading their roster to a large extent? JWill's contract expires after next season, but Antoine's sure doesn't--as the Heat writer says, the most optimistic description of Toine as a trade asset is that he "could be dealt in bad-contract swap." It certainly doesn't look like Shaq + Wade + role players is going to be enough for them to win anything, but that's the heart of the problem of building around two superstar salaries. When those two guys aren't enough to get it done, you're stuck with no options outside of trying to find some better role players.
Considered starting a thread on the end of the Heat's run (brief as it was)... if you look at their salary commitments it doesn't look good for them... Shaq & Walker are locked up thru 09/10...
They don't have an early draft pick... and they have untradable players... unless you want a complimentary player like Haslem or Fatoine.
DWade is in for a long painful career in Miami.One of the Heat's beat writers breaks things down here (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basketball/heat/sfl-sppersonnel30apr30,0,7286416.story?coll=sfla-sports-heat). Not sure why he didn't mention Udonis, who I think has about 3 years left at about 7-8 million per year. Barkley last night said that other players around the league would want to play with Shaq and Wade, and yet he also said they needed to get more athletic to compete on the boards--how exactly are they going to do that? Shaq is old and Udonis isn't that great, so where's the rebounding help going to come from?
It seems clear that Shaq is far more likely than not to wear down in the second half of playoff games for as long as he's still in the league. Big Ben certainly had something to do with that in the Bulls-Heat series, but Father Time seems like a bigger factor to me. Shaq's ability to stay healthy during the regular season and in top shape for the playoffs just isn't going to improve from the not-so-good level that it's already at.
What prospects do they have of upgrading their roster to a large extent? JWill's contract expires after next season, but Antoine's sure doesn't--as the Heat writer says, the most optimistic description of Toine as a trade asset is that he "could be dealt in bad-contract swap." It certainly doesn't look like Shaq + Wade + role players is going to be enough for them to win anything, but that's the heart of the problem of building around two superstar salaries. When those two guys aren't enough to get it done, you're stuck with no options outside of trying to find some better role players.