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Big moves won't turn up the Heat enough: the Cavaliers. The Pacers. The Pistons. How's that for three good reasons the moving-and-shaking Heat won't win the East?

Sporting News, The, August 19, 2005 by Sean Deveney

In the course of a day last week, the offices at AmericanAirlines Arena became so hectic, so overheated with activity that word is three of Pat Riley's hairs came out of place. That's the price you pay when you agree to give Shaquille O'Neal $100 million and you acquire three starting-caliber players for Eddie Jones and a pair of spare parts. And you do it all with time for a nap before dinner.

Despite the flurry of activity that brought Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey to Miami, though, a frosty fact hangs over the Heat: It's hard to envision Miami getting much further than it did last season, not with the Pacers back at full strength, not with the Pistons preparing to add veteran help off the bench and not with the Cavaliers having such a bang-up offseason. The Heat still has one more shot to add talent with its full midlevel exception, and how it uses that money could be a make-or-break decision.

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Miami's plan calls for Williams to play point guard, with Dwyane Wade at shooting guard, Posey (or.... possibly, a player to be signed) at small forward, Udonis Haslem at power forward and O'Neal in the middle. Walker would be the sixth man. That's a better lineup than last season's, and with O'Neal heading into the twilight of his career, there's no doubt the Heat must do all it can to win now.

But it won't be good enough to win the East, even in the unlikely event that the addition of Walker and Williams--known as much for boneheaded antics as for their talent--creates no chemistry problems. The Heat sorely is lacking in 3-point shooting. Williams and Walker are very willing to take 3-pointers, but, mind you, that's much different than being able to make 3s. Williams is a career 31.5 percent shooter from beyond the arc, and Walker is at 32.6 percent. O'Neal is at his best when he is surrounded by quality perimeter shooters. The Heat has none.

Miami also lacks the backcourt defense to stop the likes of Detroit's Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton, who killed the Heat last postseason. If Cleveland goes with a big backcourt of Larry Hughes and LeBron James or if the Pacers go with Jamaal Tinsley and Ron Artest, the Heat will face similar problems.

Miami hopes adding Williams will induce the team to run more. But Williams' reputation for running the fast break is overblown, thanks to his trick-passing past. He's turnover-prone and prefers to pull up for jumpers rather than attack the rim. Besides, no team with a big lug such as O'Neal in the middle truly can De a running team.

Ultimately, even with all the tinkering the Heat has done, Miami's championship hopes will rest with the same thing they did last season: health. The Heat will need the cosmic forces of injury to nip other top teams in the East and clear a path to The Finals, much as injuries to Wade and O'Neal torpedoed the Heat's chances at beating the Pistons last season. The flood of early-August personnel moves was nice but not enough.

speed read

The Blazers wasted no time getting started on their youth movement, cutting Derek Anderson and Nick Van Exel. Portland finally seems to understand the value of rebuilding and has one of the league's best young groups and a good young coach in Nate McMillan. The next step is moving Darius Miles.

INSIDE DISH

The qualifying option is a one-year salary that can be offered to fifth-year players by the teams that drafted them. It's rarely used--C Michael Olowokandi played his final season with the Clippers on such an offer--but after finishing the one year, players are eligible to become unrestricted free agents. The agent for Sonics F Vladimir Radmanovic has hinted that his client might sign the qualifying offer, and with no teams rushing to extend offers to Bulls F Tyson Chandler and C Eddy Curry, they, too, could be forced into taking qualifying offers. But most teams don't want to engender the kind of bad feelings that can come from forcing a player into such a corner. > Knicks PG Stephon Marbury confirmed last week that coach Larry Brown wants to use him at shooting guard. Assuming Brown thinks Jamal Crawford is a shooting guard, too, the Knicks appear to have a very large hole at point guard and no money to address it. > New Heat PF Antoine Walker was lucky Miami was interested in him and that he got $54 million over six years from the team. One general manager says Boston would not have re-signed Walker for anything more than the midlevel exception, adding, "There really wasn't anyone else interested in him, from what I have heard." > Warriors SF Mike Dunleavy is a favorite of vice president Chris Mullin, but a league source says Golden State is open to trading Dunleavy. That's because Mullin has done a terrific job in stocking the roster with talent. The Warriors need to get G/F Mickael Pietrus on the floor more--he has offensive potential and already is a vastly superior defender to Dunleavy.

SEAN DEVENEY

sdeveney@sportingnews.com

Big moves won't turn up the Heat enough: the Cavaliers. The Pacers. The Pistons. How's that for three good reasons the moving-and-shaking Heat won't win the East?

Sporting News, The, August 19, 2005 by Sean Deveney

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