Yesterday was an eventful day for the Heat, who saved on salary and their projected luxury bill with their swap of Joel Anthony for Toney Douglas, and welcomed Greg Oden back for an eight-minute stint that was his first official NBA action in more than four years. The day ended with the thud of a blowout loss to the Wizards, resulting in Miami’s first three-game losing streak since the 2011/12 season. Here’s more from South Beach:
- In spite of speculation that yesterday’s trade would lead the Heat to sign Andrew Bynum, team president Pat Riley told reporters yesterday that nothing’s going on between Bynum and the club, Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick tweets.
- Riley also said that he’d be meeting with others in the front office and looking for pieces to add to the club, Skolnick notes via Twitter.
- The Heat’s next priority should be finding an energetic wing player who can defend well, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel opines in his latest mailbag column.
- Miami tried to bring back 2012 training camp invitee Garrett Temple when he was a free agent this summer, tweets J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. The point guard re-signed with the Wizards instead, and the Heat’s decision to cut him two years ago still serves as motivation, Temple says.
If Oden continues to play the way he did in the 5 minutes he saw in the
first half last night, they definitely dont need Bynum. I still cant
believe what I saw from Oden last night. He was changing shots, playing
some good help defense while covering ground, getting up and down the
floor, rebounding, setting good screens, and getting those dunks. He was
really providing some energy there…Pretty awesome to see. Has to feel
incredible for him
as for getting another wing player, maybe they can now look at Pietrus as I’ve been asking since the offseason. They could also explore bringing back Eric Griffin, who was really impressive in training camp
Tel that to Riley they’re going for Bynum. This is why they got rid of Joel as I predicted
that is not why they got rid of Joel