Monday, October 7, 2013

To the Winners Go the Spoils...Or the Low-Risk, High-Reward Stock Options at Least: The Offseason Additions of the Miami Heat

With everything else going on in the sports world including the MLB playoffs, the NFL season, and the start of the NHL season (wait, f*** it, I don’t care about hockey), it’s almost shameful to talk NBA right now. And yet with NBA teams all in the midst of training camp, maybe it’s a good time to take a look at the upcoming season.

There are plenty of good storylines to talk about including the return of D-Rose, the new-look Brooklyn Nets, Kobe’s achilles, and Dwight Howard’s new home in Houston…but look for the same team that has dominated the headlines since the inception of its current core to do so again this year: yes, the Miami Heat.

Yea, those guys.

It’s fascinating to look back at the expectations that these Heat have had going into each of their seasons together. After signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh, people wondered whether they would win 70-plus games. Going into season 2, there was almost a sense of panic and wonderment as to whether they would ever live up to those original expectations. Going into season 3, the pressure of living up to those expectations had lessened, but people still wondered if they could sustain the level of greatness they had shown.

Going into season 4, having been to 3 NBA Finals and winning 2 titles in those 1st 3 years, the only pressure they really face is historical. If they lose, they will be thought of as having a very good run over the course of a 4 year span. If they win a 3rd straight championship, theirs will be measured against the great franchise runs in league history.

And that no pressure approach seemed to apply to what they did in the offseason as well. Originally thought to be pretty hamstrung by the salaries on their current roster and the luxury tax, Miami saved some dough by applying the amnesty clause to Mike Miller. Then, they re-upped with Chris Anderson, who proved to be a valuable high energy big guy off the bench last year. Then, they won the Greg Oden sweepstakes (if you want to call it that). Then, they acquired the very talented but often troubled Michael Beasley.

If Oden can give Miami just 10-12 minutes a night in April, May, and June, it might be the steal of the century.

The Anderson resigning was a smart one given Udonis Haslem’s decline, that Miami’s roster possesses no other real rim protectors, and the fact that Anderson seemed to blend in well with the rest of the roster. The pick-ups of Oden and Beasley were the kind of moves that a 2-time defending champion bringing basically everyone back can afford to make.

Oden and Beasley have had very troubled careers (for very different reasons) up to this point. If things don’t work out, the incentive-laden deals that both signed won’t make a dent in Miami’s short or long term plans. But because the Heat are already a ready-made championship team, there won’t be any pressure on them to produce right away either.

Umm, see the above caption from the Oden pic. Replace Oden with Beasley. Done.

In the worst case scenario, Beasley does something dumb again, Oden’s woesome knee problems continue, and neither ever ends up contributing. The next step up would be that they stay on the roster but just never crack Miami’s already loaded rotation, and they wind up being bench neighbors with other high profile garbage-timers like Rashard Lewis.

Miami has the locker room, talent, and clout to absorb any and all of that though. In fact, if Oden and Beasley never play a minute this year, the Heat will still be the odds-on favorite to win it all again. But if the 2 can actually get on the court and blend into Miami’s system, they could fill 2 supporting roles that the Heat have never had since James and Bosh came to town: a true 7-foot, paint-patrolling, rim-protecting behemoth, and an athletic combo forward who could possibly take some of the wing scoring pressure off of Dwyane Wade and James for a couple minutes a game.

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