AUGUST 7TH: The Heat have officially signed Oden, the team announced today (Twitter link).
AUGUST 2ND: Greg Oden will sign with the Heat, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. It's a two-year deal with a player option for the final season, Goodman adds. The two sides agreed on a minimum-salary contract, according to fellow ESPN.com scribe Marc Stein, who adds that Oden will officially sign the pact on Monday (Twitter links).
The deal is a coup for Heat president Pat Riley, not only because Oden chose Miami over five other finalists, but because he consented to the minimum salary, tweets Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. That allows the Heat to preserve their mini mid-level exception should an enticing player come available at some point this season.
The Spurs and Mavs appeared as of last night to be Miami's primary competition, with the Pelicans next in line, followed by the Kings and the Hawks. Sources from three Western Conference teams among those spurned finalists told Stein minutes before news broke of Oden's decision that they were informed that they wouldn't be landing the former No. 1 overall pick, and that they believed he was headed to Miami (Twitter link).
Oden tells former Ohio State teammate Mark Titus of Grantland.com that the Heat became the front-runners for him when he visited Miami during the NBA Finals. Three months ago, Oden told Titus that he wanted to play in Cleveland because he liked playing in Ohio. About a year ago, Oden let Titus know that the plan was to reunite in Memphis with Mike Conley, another of their Buckeye teammates. Conley's father, Mike Conley Sr., is one of Oden's agents.
The 7'0" center has only played 82 games in his NBA career, but he was on the Blazers roster for five seasons, meaning he qualifies for a minimum salary of $1,027,424 this season, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports confirms (Twitter link).
since its only a minimum salary, that means we didnt have to use all of our midlevel exception and we still have close to $2 million to spend. There are some names out there that I would like to look into and the Heat are already interested in or we could wait for someone like Caron Butler to get bought out during the season. Those names are Mickael Pietrus, Antwan Jamison, Deshaun Stevenson, Ronnie Brewer, AL Harrington, Lamar Odom, Moe Williams, and Lou Amundson (though he isnt needed now that we signed Oden). Again, I’ve said many times that this signing doesnt necessarily mean anything. He has to stay healthy, and we have to see if
he can play our style of running up and down the floor and defense. He reportedly has slimmed down noticeably, so that should help with that. We’ll see, but for now, this is a good, essentially no risk signing of a 25 year old legit center…‪#‎Roadtoa3peat‬