5:32pm: The trade is official, the Heat have announced.
JULY 10th, 5:16pm: The Heat are in “advanced trade discussions” with the Pelicans for combo forward Luke Babbitt, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. New Orleans will receive draft considerations and cash in return.
The draft considerations involve the heavily protected 2018 pick the Pelicans sent to Miami in a February deal for Jarnell Stokes, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. The draft choice was protected unless it fell out of the top 55 (Twitter link). Miami is also sending the first of its allowable cash outlays for next season to New Orleans (Twitter link).
The 6’9″ Babbitt has six years of NBA experience with the Pelicans and Trail Blazers. He played in 47 games last season, averaging 7.0 points and 3.1 rebounds.
Ok, NOW I’m going to lose my mind! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! We refuse to move anything with McRoberts to trade him, and keep Wade, yet we trade for another version of McRoberts (one that cant play defense or pass nearly at that level) to pair with Michael Beasley 2.0 (Derrick Williams), and James Johnson (Athletic combo forward, but cant shoot, and doesnt play defense or give enough effort with the consistency he should (also describes Williams). Those are a couple of guys that would be interesting if Fizdale was still there to help on the development on that side of the ball, but they’ll likely be an adventure). Not a fan of the combination of Derrick Williams and James Johnson on the same team, and now you add Babbit to the mix, when you kept McRoberts over Wade?? WHAT ARE YOU DOING PAT RILEY?! There are some interesting names on the market that could still help us with the shooting on the wing we need. I’d even give a couple of their summer league guys a look well before doing something like this. Heat only have 1 roster spot left now, and not much space left besides room exception. What a joke!
I get your point but not every year is a slam dunk. They lost Deng who I think people aren’t even realizing how valuable he was to that team when they lost Bosh. Bosh isn’t guaranteed to be healthy again this year. Everyone goes through their dark days and the Heat might be hitting that point. They still have some good players. Whiteside is a beast, Bosh might be heap and if he is he’s good and you Dragic or however it’s spelled. Worse case scenario it’s back to the drawing board next offseason but if I know anything about Riley they won’t be down long. Lot of free agents next off season that are great players so I wouldn’t worry about the Heat. They’ll bounce back. Riley knows what he’s doing. While I say they should’ve paid Wade I understand why they didn’t at the same time. Look at how Kobe crippled my Lakers. We should’ve went through our rebuild a few years ago but couldn’t with him on the team so this is our first real season of rebuilding. We will get back to the playoffs in the future but we are behind now because of that Kobe deal. Riley is smart. It’ll all work out. Once Bosh is off the books which I think he will retire by the end of this season if he can’t stay healthy then that’s a lot of freed up money plus the cap raised another 10 million next season. Heat will be in good shape with some good young players and money to spend so don’t worry my friend.
the Wade contract wouldnt have been anything close to the same situation as Kobe. I educated someone else on this a couple of days ago, and would prefer not to have to go into it, if I can, though if its imperative for people to understand why its totally different, I can explain it…
I agree on Deng. He is arguably the biggest loss, to be honest, as much as I’m still PO’d about the Wade situation…But that isnt my point. Its contradictory stuff from the organization. Pretty much, this just confirms the idea that Riley never wanted Wade back in the first place, and purposely pushed him out to try and “reel in a whale,” next season, completely ignoring the fact that free agents never came here before Wade brought LeBron and Bosh here in 2010, so what makes him assume he’ll get Westbrook? Meanwhile, he also outsmarted himself, b/c Wade still is a “whale” for the next couple of years, and the team was right there last year, even with the injuries they had, and Bosh being out. You dont know for sure that GS will win. I never thought they’d lose at any point in the last 2 years, and they did. The Heat were 1 win away from the ECF and matchiup up with LeBron and the Cavs, who they had a good matchup with. I obviously understand that you need to keep flexibility, and you cant stay complacent, but at some point, you need to build your team, b/c keeping space year after year after year does nothing, especially when you have ZERO draft picks (besides 2017 1st rounder), if you dont get anything. Plus, the space wasnt an issue anyway, as the Heat have tradeable assets in Dragic, etc. I’m not going to get too far into that though, b/c that kind of goes into the Kobe contract comparison I mentioned earlier.
Moving past the Wade situation, I’d be fine with tanking for Josh Jackson or Harry Giles this year, but this roster shouldnt be bad enough for that, unless maybe Bosh doesnt play, which I dont see happening, and even then, would require zero improvement from Winslow, Richardson, and Whiteside. Instead, they are kind of in the middle right now, which is the worst possible place you can be in. They have an interesting roster. There are/were some interesting names that could have helped them this year still elft before making this move. They need a wing. I’d have looked into one of the summer league/D-League guys before making this deal, every day of the week. You still need to put a team on the court, and the fits of Williams, James Johnson, Babbit, and McRoberts make zero sense
Every single indication has been that Bosh will play, so you and Ira Winderman are apparently the only people that think he wont or that its a question. The DVT he had in his calf wasnt anything comparable in terms of being life threatening to the year before, when he had the clot in his lung. He has also been tested multiple times, proving that he doesnt have any disorder that would make him a risk for recurrence. He may be at more risk than others, considering now he has had 2 clots, but he must have messed up somehow last time, which I’m sure he wont do again
I get your points and they are valid. I agree with most you’re saying but to say it’s certain Bosh is coming back is crazy. Let me rephrase that. Yea he will come back but that doesn’t mean he will stay healthy. Health is something you don’t mess with and he may be forced to retire early. As far as Riley and Wade I do agree with you in that Riley obviously just didn’t want him back.
Well, if Bosh plays, and then still has to retire afterward, his money would stay against the cap for another calendar year. As of now, if he does retire, his money comes off the books in February. I guess you are right. Its possible that the Heat fight against letting him come back and play, but I would think there would be a serious grievance filed by the NBAPA in that scenario. Only reason he didnt play in the postseason had to do with still being on blood thinners. Once he has been off them for enough time (3-6 months), he’ll be good to go
Johnson is a great defender lol and Derrick williams is all defense and is finally adding some offense. They add much needed depth to the frontcourt but replacing amare with haslem is going to hurt and if winslow doesn’t step up they will struggle mightily. I worry about giving Ellington and Johnson and richardson Wade’s role but you have to start somewhere
James Johnson can defend when he wants to, and doesnt do anything else. That doesnt make him a great defender. As for Derrick Williams? I dont know what universe you’re in if you think he is all defense. He can score, but he just doesnt shoot the ball well, and he is not good on the defensive end of the floor, which has cost him minutes in the past. While I liked what Amare gave them last year, Its not too much of an issue replacing him with UD and Willie Reed. I’d give my explanation on UD, but I did that in the UD article
The biggest losses are obviously Deng and Wade. If certain guys step up, they can maybe help in those areas, but they need another wing piece…Anyway, this Babbit move is the one that angers me most. In no way does it make any sense with anything they’ve said or done all offseason. He can shoot, but thats it, and doesnt play a position of need, unless you put him at the 3, which is terrible defensively, though he cant play the 4 like McRoberts can b/c he is too soft
But he’s so handsome!!
Top 5 lotto pick?
Sixers part two