Turning up the Heat at #2

May 22, 2008

At least Pat Riley knows the Miami Heat need a lot of help. The team president is considering trading out of the #2 pick in the draft, instead of drafting either Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose. “We need help. We need it now,” Riley said. “Can [Rose and Beasley] help a team like ours? That’s how they’re going to be measured.” There are already teams lining up for the possibilities of trading up in the draft. Those teams include the Seattle Supersonics, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, New Jersey Nets and none other then the New York Knicks. Read more

Written by Paul Raymond · Filed Under Bulls, Grizzlies, Heat, Kings, Knicks, NBA, Nets | Leave a Comment

Could Mike Miller be joining the Cavs?

February 20, 2008

ESPN’s Chad Ford thinks so after an early report. Ford says “The deal, as described to me by a player agent, would send Miller, [Brian] Cardinal and [Kyle] Lowry to the Cavaliers for Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall, Shannon Brown, Cedric Simmons and Dwayne Jones along with cash and at least one first-round pick from Cleveland.”

Pretty interesting deal there, just like all the other ones we’ve been seeing. But who and how does this benefit teams. First, the Memphis Grizzlies, they’ve already dealt Pau Gasol. So what are they doing? Dumping contracts and rebuilding the team. Pretty funny since they were never really built up to contender status, so its kind of hard to say “rebuilding”. More of a its time we start over we did it wrong. There’s not much plus really for the Grizzlies other then they’d get to dump Cardinal’s contract.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, well they have a lot to like in this deal. Mike Miller has never been a true star in the NBA, but he’s a solid starter. He’d most likely take over the 2 spot on the Cavs, and bump Sasha Pavlovic to the bench. Miller has played 52 games this season, and scored 16.8 points a game, while pulling down 6.5 boards, and shooting 43% from behind the arc. Not bad numbers, and definitely more consistent then Pavlovic and Newbie.

But like everything it comes down to money. The Cavs don’t have much to deal with so they’d be willing to take on Cardinals hefty $13 million over 2 years that he has left on his contract. But here’s the kicker. Cardinal and Miller both have their contracts expiring in the summer of 2009-2010. Who becomes a free agent then? King Lebron James. This would free up even more money for the Cavaliers to be able to resign the leagues superstar. It would also allow them to either re-sign Miller if the two work well together or just work on adding more pieces to convince James that Cleveland is where he belongs.

Now once again, this is just a rumor from Chad Ford at ESPN. There hasn’t been much out there to say that a deal is imminent or even possible other then him. This is just my two cents on why the deal makes some sense.