Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will have a difficult time coming up with a rotation after team president Pat Riley failed to address the logjam at several positions, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel notes. With Hassan Whiteside, Kelly Olynyk, Bam Adebayo and James Johnson on the roster, there aren’t enough frontcourt minutes to go around and keep everyone happy, Winderman continues. There’s also an excess of shooting guards options (Rodney McGruder, Dion Waiters, Tyler Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Josh Richardson) even if Dwyane Wade isn’t re-signed, Winderman adds.
We have more from around the Southeast Division:
- The Hornets are thinking seriously about going with smaller lineups more often, featuring Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at power forward and Frank Kaminsky at center, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports. Charlotte has plenty of rotation-worthy options at small forward and shooting guard to allow those position changes to take place, Bonnell continues. If Kidd-Gilchrist logs significant playing time at power forward, Kaminsky could join an unsettled rotation at center and his perimeter defensive shortcomings wouldn’t be as much of an issue, Bonnell adds.
- This is a pivotal season for Wizards point guard John Wall, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington points out. Following the upcoming season, Wall’s four-year, $170MM-plus extension kicks in and it’s time for him to show he can lead a major contender, Hughes continues. He must improve his field-goal efficiency and mesh well with incoming center Dwight Howard, Hughes adds.
- Heat summer-league star Derrick Jones will struggle to find playing time, Winderman wrote in another mailbag piece. Get that info, plus other Miami notes, right here.
Pat Riley just seems lost with this Heat team.
How is Spoelstra still coaching?
Yea I don’t understand, he’s not putting the right rotations out there. No one should get more minutes than Winslow,Adebayo, and Richardson this coming season.
Bam is untouchable, Whiteside and Johnson unmovable, so Heat is going to trade Olynyk?
On paper it’s feasible until you realize how solid he was this season and was arguably the second best player behind Dragic against Philadelphia. I really don’t get why they didn’t address the issue by moving Whiteside, who has shown multiple times he’s disgruntled with the team. He has a ton of talent and a team could have taken him on.
Probably because Whiteside takes way too much to move, and Riley said he won’t give up assets just to move bad contracts.
MKG should have been playing PF for a long time now. A little undersized, but still a good defender and it makes his lack of shooting a little easier to swallow.
Their starting lineup should be:
Kemba-Monk-Batum-Kaminsky-Zeller
Miami Sun newswriter tells fans today he thinks it would take an unprotected 1st round pick and a salary to match Dragan to get him.
Dragan Bender? I kid I kid.
It would have to be a somewhat bad to bad contract for the Heat to get an unprotected 1st from lottery bound teams for Dragic. If a playoff team offers an unprotected it doesn’t matter much and they could pull that off more feasibly. Maybe MIN sends Teague or Bucks send Bledsoe and their late 1sts. LA should’ve traded Deng and Lonzo for him imo. Riley vs Lavar would be entertaining and Dragic fits Lequit (Dionis trademark) better.
I always have liked Miami, but man what a mess is now down there. They should get rid of Riley & Spoelstra & start from fresh.
Funny I used MIA=mess also on a different cesc comment today. I haven’t thrown that word on anyone since CLE before the Feb.trade deadline.
Cannot really understand this new fixation of Charlotte to play small line ups, just don’t get it. They won’t be like GSW whatever they do & I don’t think favors them with their roster to play this type of game.
They should go
C-Biyombo
PF-Hernangomez
SF-Zeller
SG-Kaminsky
PG-Kemba
Imagine 4 7 footers and Kemba? Or get cray and trade Kemba for Giannis. All 7 footers to counteract the small ball. The games gotta evolve. Thoughts? I know, I know, Bucks would never trade Giannis.
Whatever the case Wall is worthy of his contract, the guy is really good, but you cannot look at his worth just by team success, doesn’t matter how good you are you don’t make your team win alone, he is usually healthy & plays at a great level, particularly in the playoffs always raises considerably his game. What else can he do? His performance is all he can control, maybe the FO should start spending some money wisely & build a good team around him.