Veteran big man Udonis Haslem is training hard three or four days a week with the intensity of someone who wants to play next season, a source tells Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
While his longtime teammate Dwyane Wade called it a career at the end of the 2018/19 campaign, Haslem remains undecided on his future. He said during the season that he was leaning toward playing another year, and based on Jackson’s latest report, it sounds like that scenario remains very much in play.
Haslem doesn’t have a contract for next season, but the Heat have shown in recent years that they’re willing to keep bringing him back on one-year, minimum-salary contracts, despite the fact that he no longer sees much playing time for the club.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- James Johnson and Dion Waiters are considered available on the trade market this offseason, according to Barry Jackson. While I expect a number of Heat veterans to be “available” in trade talks, it’s telling that Johnson and Waiters are the ones specifically mentioned by Jackson. They both have multiple years left on their contracts, which indicates that the Heat may be looking to carve out more cap room for 2020 in addition to gaining extra flexibility in 2019.
- Jackson writes that the Heat are expected to buy out Ryan Anderson before July 10, when his salary for 2019/20 would become fully guaranteed. While Jackson’s wording suggests that the Heat might ask Anderson to give up a little salary, the team likely wouldn’t push too hard for that, since the veteran sharpshooter previously agreed to reduce his guarantee for next season.
- The Heat are expected to hire Malik Allen as an assistant coach on Erik Spoelstra‘s staff, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Allen, who began his NBA playing career with the Heat, would fill the position that opened up when Juwan Howard left for Michigan.
- I previewed the Heat’s offseason earlier today.
The heat have gone cold. Does Riles have another rabbit in the hat?
Off the top of my head I can’t recall a player falling off as fast as Ryan Anderson.
Year before last, I think Phoenix decided they’d rather give minutes to Warren than win a couple more games with Anderson. Anderson started the year in Phoenix pretty cold, but I’m sure he would have worked out of the slump with more minutes. We know the guy can shoot.
Last year, Miami had a lot of front court players to feed. Again, we know Anderson can shoot, so I’m hesitant to hold his shooting slump against him. I’d bet he was the easiest guy to bench because he’s a team first player. He’s also not going to take minutes from a good young player at this stage in his career.
But if he ends up coming off the bench for a good team, I expect he’ll be a good value. Not great, but solid. Utah and OKC would probably love to have him, as would Milwaukee (Mirotic is a goner I think), and probably Philly. He’ll get a deal somewhere I bet.
Probably tired of being ragged on for years by everyone with a posting account.