Tag: Miami Heat (Page 30 of 49)

      What is really going on with Chris Bosh?

      June 30, 2010 /

      He’s been saying all along that he doesn’t want to be a sidekick and thinks that a team should build around him. Yet there’s this feeling around the league that he’s going to go wherever LeBron goes. Some execs have even said that he’s attaching himself to LeBron, instead of LeBron attaching himself to Bosh. I’m sorry, but that’s not being ‘the man.’

      He recently told ESPN that winning is the most important thing:

      “My only priority,” Bosh said, “is winning.”

      If that’s the case, why is there this sense that Bosh will only sign a six-year deal (meaning that he’s going to force a sign-and-trade with the Raptors and his new team)? If he’s going to mess around with a sign-and-trade, his new team is going to have to give up something, and there’s no way around it — it’s going to hurt the team. Whether the Knicks trade David Lee, the Nets trade Derrick Favors, the Bulls trade Luol Deng or the Heat trade Michael Beasley, along with a draft pick or two, his new team will be a little worse off than it would have been if he had signed with the team outright.

      In other words, if he forces a sign-and-trade, then winning is most definitely not his “only priority.” One of his priorities might be winning, but the top priority would be the extra cash and the extra year that only the Raptors can offer.

      In fact, ‘winning’ and being ‘the man’ don’t fit together in this situation. How is a team that is built around Bosh better than a team (with Bosh) that is built around a better player, like LeBron? Wouldn’t a combination of LeBron/Wade/Bosh in Miami have a better shot to win more titles than a Knicks team built around Bosh?

      Chris Bosh (or the Chris Bosh Situation) is really starting to confuse me. I’m glad free agency is only a few hours away.


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      Report: Chris Bosh traded to Miami

      June 30, 2010 /

      Miami Herald sports columnist Dan LeBartard is reporting that Bosh-to-Miami is pretty much a done deal.

      I hear bosh-miami is done ..bosh-wade shared agent avoids tampering…its why beasley, chalmers, anthony still here…raptors get them

      This is unconfirmed and can’t become ‘official’ until midnight. He mentions Bosh’s agent, Henry Thomas. Thomas is also Wade’s agent, so it’s possible that this deal was worked out through him. But the Heat had to be involved at some point to know which players to hold on to.

      If the report is true, it lends credence to the rumor that LeBron, Bosh and Wade are going to hook up in Miami. At the very least, Wade and Bosh would form a nice duo in South Florida.

      It’s funny, when I suggested a Beasley-for-Bosh trade late last year, Raptor fans thought I was nuts. Now what do they think?

      Of course, LeBatard could have the story wrong. Rumors are flying fast and furious right now.


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      LeBron, Wade, Bosh could ‘split the money up’

      June 30, 2010 /

      According to Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have gone so far as to discuss the ‘financial machinations’ of the three playing together in South Florida.

      The Sun Sentinel has learned that the three star free agents have gone as far as to acknowledge that it might not be possible for the Heat to clear the needed space to start each of the three at the $16.6 million maximum salary that they would be eligible for in the first year of new contracts.

      According to the source, the three have agreed to consider to “split the money up,” if need be.

      I’m no salary cap expert (though I play one on TV), but looking at the Heat’s salary cap situation — I usually use ShamSports, but the site is down at the moment — reveals that the Heat have three (maybe four, if we include Joel Anthony) players under contract for a total of $6.869 million. The Heat recently waived James Jones, which will cost them $1.9 million this season. With an estimated salary cap of $56.1 million, that leaves $47.331 million to spend on LeBron/Wade/Bosh, or $15.8 million per player. Though that number is actually a little less due to the minimum salary cap holds for the remaining roster spots.

      Regardless, if these three let $0.8 million per season (or a bit more) get in the way of a dynasty, they should have their heads examined.

      Of course, Wade’s agent, Henry Thomas, denies that the meeting took place in Miami, because his client was not in Miami this weekend.

      “Dwyane was not in Miami this weekend,” Thomas said. “That is untrue.”

      “I said when it first broke about that, that the guys would undoubtedly talk with each other, which they have. That’s not a surprise to anyone,” Thomas said. “But this meeting this weekend in Miami just did not take place. Dwyane was not in Miami this weekend.”

      Chances are that Thomas is telling half-truths to protect his clients. (He also represents Chris Bosh.) It’s possible that the meeting took place on a non-weekend day or in some other South Florida locale that isn’t technically the city of Miami. These are the kinds of games that agents play.

      But back to the Heat, who could give Michael Beasley away to create more cap space. His stock seems to be at an all time low, which is puzzling because he hasn’t had a bad career so far (14-6, 46% shooting) and seems to have cleaned up his act off the court. If they are able to move him, they could start LeBron, Wade and Bosh at the max. The Heat should hold onto Beasley if they can, and see if he thrives in a scoring role off the bench.


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      Colangelo expects Bosh to sign elsewhere

      June 29, 2010 /

      I took a lot of heat (pun intended) over my assertion that the Raptors should have thought about trading Chris Bosh at the trade deadline instead of waiting for the summer.

      Now the franchise is coming to the realization that Bosh is very likely on the way out, but they still hope to work out a sign-and-trade with his new team so that he can get a max contract and they can get something in return.

      [GM Bryan] Colangelo told radio station Fan590 in Toronto that the Raptors still hope to keep the All-Star forward, but if Bosh does want to leave, he will try to work a sign-and-trade arrangement that could help both sides.

      “As we look at Chris as a potential free agent, our own free agent, wanting to re-sign him, I still have that intention and desire,” Colangelo said. “But it’s becoming more and more clear that that’s not going to happen. Now we need to decide what the best way is to come out of this.”

      A sign-and-trade would allow Bosh to get an extra year on his contract while enabling the Raptors to receive something in return for losing him. If Bosh simply signs with another team, it could cost him about $30 million.

      I still think the chances of a sign-and-trade are relatively slim. That $30 million number is always thrown around, but it doesn’t take into account the money earned in the first year of the player’s next contract, so really the difference is about $10-$12 million. It’s still a consideration, but when a player says his #1 goal is winning titles, it doesn’t make much sense for him to force a sign-and-trade and effectively fleece his new team of its young prospects and draft picks.

      The only type of sign-and-trade that make sense for Bosh and the Raptors this summer is one that brings back a player that plays the same position that Bosh does. For example, if Bosh decides to sign with the Knicks, the Raptors could work out a sign-and-trade that would include David Lee. This is about the best case scenario for Toronto, as the other players in the Bosh sweepstakes simply don’t have players of Lee’s caliber.

      The Bulls have Luol Deng, but he’s more of a small forward and his salary is pretty steep — I’m not even sure the Raptors would want to take it on. Miami’s Michael Beasley makes sense, but his stock is awfully low right now and the Raptors don’t seem all that interested. Besides, if Bosh leaves, they’d like to move Bargnani to power forward, which seems to be Beasley’s natural position.

      Predictably, Colangelo tries to spin the current situation:

      “It’s the perfect storm for Chris Bosh to leave and unfortunately we’re possibly going to be on the short end of that, but we will evolve,” Colangelo said. “We will have to evolve and move forward.”

      This didn’t happen overnight. If I could see the writing on the wall late last year, then surely Colangelo did too. The sign-and-trade strategy makes sense when there aren’t very many teams under the cap, but with this much cap space floating around, Bosh has plenty of options to sign with another team free and clear, and that may very well leave the Raptors out in the cold.

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      Sources: Free agency summit happened over the weekend

      June 29, 2010 /

      LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh apparently met over the weekend in South Florida to discuss the possibility of playing together next season for the Miami Heat.

      Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball — Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James — met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade’s Heat.

      One source did label Miami as the new frontrunner to land James in a package deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cautioned that James was “non-committal” with the start of free agency fast approaching.

      Earlier Monday, Fox Sports Radio’s Stephen A. Smith reported on his morning radio show and via his Twitter feed that James and Bosh have committed to joining Wade in Miami. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, in a report on its website Monday afternoon, quoted a source close to Wade as saying that the 2006 NBA Finals MVP “believes his team is poised to pull off a free-agency coup” by signing James and Bosh and re-signing Wade.

      Chris Broussard is on SportsCenter as I type saying that the trio left the meeting “without a verbal commitment” because LeBron has been “non-committal.” He’s torn about leaving Cleveland and is intrigued about playing for the Bulls.

      Unless Pat Riley is able to move Michael Beasley, this trio would currently have to take less-than-max money to play together in Miami. Currently, the Heat have enough cap space to sign three players at contracts that start at $14.7 million per season, but the fact that Florida has no state tax is a big ‘pro’ in the Heat’s favor. If pragmatism outweighs egoism, the trio could create a dynasty for the next five seasons in South Florida.

      I wonder about LeBron’s willingness to join a franchise that has won a title recently and is known around the league as ‘Wade’s team.’ If he’s mainly interested in winning championships, Miami may be the place to be, but there are other factors involved, no matter what LeBron and his camp say. The other issue is that if the three do join forces, the expectation will be that they will win a title every year, and anything less will be a major disappointment.


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