- The Heat have been starting Rodney McGruder at small forward but don’t be surprised if Josh Richardson gets some looks as well considering the results thus far from preseason, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes.
The Heat have passed the midway point of the preseason, which means a roster shakeup could be on the way, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. NBA rules state that players are eligible for an “affiliate” tag after spending half the preseason with a team. Winderman uses Erik McCree as an example, saying if he were to be waived now, then sign with another team and get waived again before the season opens, he would be assigned to Miami’s G League affiliate.
Waiving players once they pass the midway point and then signing replacements allows teams to create four affiliate spots for their G League franchises. The Heat pursued that strategy last year when they waived Stefan Jankovic and Keith Benson in the preseason, then signed Vashil Fernandez and Luis Montero, and all four wound up in Sioux Falls. In addition to McCree, Derrick Walton Jr., Matt Williams and Larry Drew II are eligible to join the Skyforce. Drew would be a returning player rather than an affiliate player, while Walton already has a two-way contract and will not count against the 15-man roster limit.
There’s more news out of Miami:
- Justise Winslow will find out soon if the extra time he has been spending with shooting consultant Rob Fodor is paying off, Winderman adds in a separate piece. The third-year forward has excelled in other areas, but shooting has been a persistent problem since he entered the league. He is a 40% career shooter from the field and 26% from 3-point range and is trying to bounce back from a torn labrum in his right shoulder that limited him to 18 games last season. “The way I see it in the basketball world, or just in general, God doesn’t give everyone everything,” Winslow said. “… And in the sense of basketball, once that thing gets figured out, there’s not much you could say I can’t do. I can bring the ball up. I can guard your best player. I can rebound. I can find my open shooters. I can push it on the break. So once that minor detail gets settled out, I think we’re going to have a very fun ride.”
- Hassan Whiteside is a traditional low-post center, but the Heat would like to see him expand his shooting range, Winderman adds in another story.
- Williams’ summer league performance gave him a shot to make the Heat roster, writes Mike Gramajo of The Miami Herald. The 23-year-old signed with Miami in late July after impressing the coaching staff with his performance during the summer. “It feels good just to know that my hard work is starting to pay off,” Williams said. “I’m with a great organization, and it couldn’t be better.”
Given Pat Riley‘s history as a coach and executive overseeing star-studded rosters, it’s somewhat unusual that the Heat don’t currently have any players that have made an All-Star team. However, as he said this week during an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Riley believes Miami has players that qualify as “stars,” even if they’ve never been recognized as All-Stars.
“I was asked this question earlier and I was a little bit taken aback by it, that, ‘How do you think you can win when you don’t have any All-Stars?'” the Heat president said, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “And when you think about All-Stars, there were 12 All-Stars last year in the Eastern Conference and there are 225 players in the Eastern Conference. So we had a lot of stars on our team last year, we had All-Stars on our team last year, they simply weren’t selected.”
Although Riley is happy with his current roster, he also made it clear that the Heat won’t hesitate to pursue superstar-caliber players should they become available: “When it comes to ‘one step away,’ where are we in the rebuilding process, we’re going to always chase the most talented players that we can that are superstars, that we feel have the ability to be a superstar, and to really carry a team when a team can’t carry itself.”
Longtime Heat big man Udonis Haslem is back in Miami for his 15th season with the team this year, but he admits that at one point this offseason he was unsure whether he’d re-sign with the Heat. As Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald details, Haslem received interest from Cleveland in July and acknowledges that he considered signing with the Cavaliers.
“I got an interesting call from Cleveland,” Haslem said. “My son is out there [as a student and football player] at the University of Toledo in Ohio. It was something to consider.”
Although Haslem never paid a visit to the Cavs, his agent Leon Rose spoke to team management, writes Jackson. Ultimately though, Haslem decided that it wouldn’t make sense for him to leave the Heat at this point in his career, suggesting that he can’t imagine playing for another team — even one that now features his former Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.
“It would have been funny [with Wade there], but I don’t regret the decision I made,” Haslem said. “I’m where I’m supposed to be, I’m where I need to be. I’m where I’m most effective, even though it’s not on the basketball court, I would like to think I impact this organization, this team just by bringing my presence and everything else.”
Here’s more on the Heat from Jackson:
- Associates of Chris Bosh, who appeared at Lakers practice this week as a guest of his former agent Rob Pelinka, say the veteran big man hasn’t ruled out the idea of an NBA comeback, despite his blood clot issues. If Bosh were to make an NBA return, his salary wouldn’t go back on the Heat’s cap, Jackson notes.
- Although A.J. Hammons has a guaranteed salary, his spot on the 15-man regular season roster isn’t necessarily a lock, in Jackson’s view. Hammons, who will be out for a week with the flu, has the advantage over camp invitee Matt Williams due to his guaranteed contract, but he was essentially a throw-in in the Josh McRoberts trade with Dallas, so if Williams proves more deserving of that roster spot, the Heat will face a difficult decision.
- Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is interested in seeing Hassan Whiteside play alongside free agent addition Kelly Olynyk during the preseason, believing that their skill sets complement one another, says Jackson.
- In the battle for the Heat’s starting small forward job, Josh Richardson isn’t concerned about whether or not he starts, but Rodney McGruder said that being in the starting lineup would be important to him, according to Jackson. “Who wouldn’t want to start in the NBA?” McGruder said. “It’s fun starting.”
10:40am: The Heat deny making a three-year, $15MM offer to Reed, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel.
8:46am: Multiple players are parting ways with agency ASM and agent Andy Miller, and Willie Reed has filed an arbitration claim seeking $13.5MM, league sources Jeff Goodman and Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. Reed alleges he was defrauded by the agency.
The agency’s troubles are related to former agent Christian Dawkins, who was one of 10 people arrested this week in the FBI’s probe into fraud and corruption in NCAA recruiting. Dawkins was reportedly let go by ASM back in May after racking up more than $40K in charges on a player’s Uber account. An investigation by the National Basketball Players Association determined that worked out to 1,865 Uber rides, and “all but a small number” of those charges were made without the player’s permission.
However, despite no longer being certified, Dawkins remained the primary ASM representative for multiple players, including Reed, Edmond Sumner, and Justin Patton. All three of those players have now severed ties with Dawkins, Miller, and ASM, according to Goodman and Haynes, who note that Reed left the agency in July, while Sumner and Patton have done so this week.
Sources tell ESPN that Dawkins advised Reed to turn down a three-year, $15MM offer from the Heat this summer, suggesting he’d receive more lucrative offers. The big man ultimately signed a one-year, minimum salary deal with the Clippers that will pay him about $1.5MM, which explains why his arbitration claim is worth $13.5MM.
While Miller has until October to respond to Reed’s claim, it remains to be seen whether the agency will retain all of its higher-profile clients in the wake of a federal raid on ASM’s offices. Miller and ASM represent dozens of NBA players, including big names like Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, Myles Turner, and Kristaps Porzingis.
When Dion Waiters hurt himself last March he had the option to pursue a surgical treatment that would have sidelined him for eight to 10 months, Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel writes. The Heat guard, and at that point pending free agent, opted against going under the knife to repair his ankle and instead has been strengthening it and undergoing treatment.
Winderman stresses that Waiters only brought up the injury when asked at the Heat’s media day on Wednesday but admitted that some days are better than others.
“I’ll get four or five treatments every day,” Waiters, who re-signed with the Heat this summer, said. “Some days you’re going to feel great, some days it might be just one of them days. You have to push through it and be smart about the whole situation.”
In 46 games with the Heat last season, Waiters averaged 15.8 points per game. This year his contract will pay an additional $1.1MM if the guard stays on the court for 70 games, one of several incentives built into contracts that Miami extended this offseason.
After being bought out by the Bulls earlier this week, Dwyane Wade officially signed with the Cavaliers on Wednesday, choosing Cleveland over potential suitors like the Thunder, Spurs, Lakers, and Warriors. Another notable team that had interest in Wade was the Heat, and while the veteran guard didn’t return to Miami this season, he made it clear to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press that he envisions a reunion down the road.
“Miami, the door’s always unlocked,” Wade said. “One day I want to retire in a Miami Heat jersey. I don’t know how that will happen, but I definitely want to make sure than when I decide to hang it up, that jersey is on. Whether it’s being back there or signing a one-day deal like Paul Pierce, I want to make sure that I go out the way I came in.”
[RELATED: Cavaliers sign Dwyane Wade]
In his report earlier this week on Wade joining the Cavs, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN noted that Wade is open to returning to the Heat at some point, but believed Cleveland gave him a better shot this season at competing for a championship, which is still his top priority.
Reynolds also indicates that, while Wade considered the Heat this week, he didn’t view Miami as an ideal fit given the team’s depth at shooting guard. Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder, and Wayne Ellington are all candidates to see time at the two for the club this season.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel they needed me there,” Wade said. “I feel that those guys are in a good place. They deserve to come back this year and see what that 30-11 was about. They don’t need me there over their shoulder or anything like that. That’s kind of how I approached it.”
Wade’s deal with the Cavs is reportedly just for a single season, so it will be interesting to see if the three-time NBA champion finds his way back to Miami during the 2018 offseason.
- Although Dwyane Wade hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning to the Heat within the next few years, his desire to join a championship contender trumps his desire to reunite with his old team at this point in his career, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
SEPTEMBER 25, 4:25pm: Wade has been formally placed on waivers, Shams Charania of The Vertical tweets. He will clear waivers on Wednesday, Charania adds.
SEPTEMBER 24, 8:36pm: The Bulls and Dwyane Wade have reached an agreement on a buyout, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweets.
The early favorites for Wade’s services are the Spurs, Cavaliers and Heat, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. Miami is currently positioned to pay him the most money this season.
Within minutes, Wojnarowski followed up with another tweet saying that Cleveland was a “clear frontrunner.”
Per Bobby Marks of ESPN, the Heat can sign Wade for $4.2MM and the Spurs can sign him for $3.3MM. The Cavaliers at $2.5MM could pay little over the veteran’s minimum.
The idea of Wade suiting up elsewhere in 2017/18 has been a popular topic ever since the organization traded Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves earlier this summer.
It’s been said that Wade felt misled by the organization at the beginning of the offseason, given assurances that the team would remain competitive in his final year with the squad should he opt into his 2017/18 player option.
Wade, of course, did opt in but the Bulls soon changed course, trading Butler for a package centered around Zach LaVine and Minnesota’s No. 7 overall pick.
In the months since, the Bulls and Wade have gone back and forth in seemingly amicable negotiations.
Per Wojnarowski (also on Twitter), Wade will forfeit about $8MM of his $23.8MM contract, leaving the Bulls on the hook for around $16MM through 2017/18.
Considering that Chicago currently runs the risk of falling below the salary floor for the season, keeping the bulk of the veteran’s deal on their books isn’t particularly cumbersome.
Chicago came to an agreement with Nikola Mirotic earlier today that would have pushed the Bulls above the $89.2MM floor but the Wade buyout will drop them below yet again as training camps around the league begin in earnest.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
- The Cavaliers, Thunder and Heat were consider the early favorites to sign Wade, but the competition may be more intense than originally believed, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link), who adds that “many more teams” are pursuing him.