While there has been some speculation that the Heat could be a landing spot for Carmelo Anthony once the Rockets officially waive or trade him, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald notes that the Heat’s offseason meeting with Anthony’s reps was initiated by Carmelo’s camp rather than Miami’s.
According to Jackson, there are some Heat basketball people who don’t think Anthony would be a particularly good fit, particularly with the club’s rotation already pretty crowded. Miami has also been trying to get its defense on track, and adding Carmelo to the mix likely wouldn’t help on that front.
The Rockets announced on Thursday that they’ve parted ways with Anthony, but have yet to make an official roster move with him. As I detailed this morning, there are plenty of reasons for Houston to wait to finalize anything, so the Heat should have some time to decide if they want to get involved.
Here’s more out of Miami:
- Dion Waiters‘ return to the court for the Heat still isn’t considered imminent, according to Jackson, who hears that conditioning remains an issue for the veteran guard even once he’s fully recovered from ankle surgery.
- Jackson also circles back to the Heat’s involvement in the Jimmy Butler talks, confirming that the best offer the team made last month was Josh Richardson, Kelly Olynyk, and a protected first-round pick. According to Jackson, after the Timberwolves passed on that offer, the Heat didn’t exactly pull Richardson off the table — they simply never returned to the table.
- In case you missed it, we relayed a few more Heat-related notes on Wednesday.
We are not getting anywehere this season, a little nostalgia won’t hurt us, just to watch a big one put a Heat uniform would be great, maybe he gets on track, maybe he can teach a thing or two to our young guys, Winslow and Richardson specially. I Always liked Melo in Miami and we got an opportunity now.
I just saw Carmello in the candy section of the gas station. Between Butterfinger and Big KAT.
Sounds about right. Here’s the bottom line: most, of not all, teams are much better without him. What’s surprising is it’s taken teams so long to realize this. Perhaps the most overrated player of all time. Seriously.
Heat could 100% use Melo at 4 right now for several reasons. It obviously would have been nice if he was already 3 months into the Heat program and conditioning, but there is still a lot of time left, and both sides can benefit in my opinion
Waiters looked decent to me when I saw him working out directly in front of me before a couple of games recently. As I’ve said, he wasnt running, but he didnt look out of shape, and his jumpshot looked fine. He seemed like he was closer to starting to increase the workload, but I could be wrong. He has plenty of time to get right though b/c that’s an area we have depth. The James Johnson situation is much worse b/c we have nobody at the 4 behind Winslow
I’m glad Minnesota didnt take either of the Heat’s reported offers. I wanted Jimmy Butler, but only at a certain price, and the end result of that trade justifies that reasoning even more. No way should they have included Richardson’s contract in that deal. Richardson isnt untouchable, but he should only be included if a top young star with multiple years left were potentially available
Melo needs to go somewhere and be a 15 minute a game scorer for the second unit. Houston was trying to be a championship squad relying on him for 30 minutes a game.
Wish the media would try this hard to find me a job if I get fired.
Be as good at something as Melo was
The key word there is “was”! Carmelo Anthony was a great but selfish scorer who cared mostly about his stats, not wins. Now he just an old, selfish scorer who contributes very little to a team.
Truth is Melo was never that great. See beyond the offensive numbers. He’s historically brought little to nothing else.
Do you want them to try as hard as this to constantly throw you under the bus as well?
Woj says Melo has an open invitation from the Puerto Rican national team to join them.
Nice catch, gotta link. That would be a way for him to bounce back after all these “Nooo to Melo” outcries! National teams will be his legacy. That and getting Boeheim a title.
link to espn.com
At the end of the day Philly’s offer was much better, Richardson is only better to RoCo in that he is younger, but even the RoCo’s contract is better, Saric is way better & cheaper & younger than Olynyk, also Bayless is a very nice trade chip for Minny with the 2nd round pick also is better than a late 1st from Miami… so the offer was very clearly in favor of Philly. Miami should upped their game, I think they seem to overvalue Richardson, like if he was a star.
I rate Olynyck ahead of James Johnson (and Saric), so the Miami offer for Butler was better than I thought. If only they had come back with Johnson for Dieng in addition. Or TylerJ, or Waiters, or even Dragic for Dieng– boss Taylor would have jumped to take anyone in a deal that replaces Butler at 2G. (If a guard is added, get Tyus to replace. If JJ, get Diop. Taylor would still take it over the Philly option with no 2G and no taking over of Dieng.)
What is the deal with Dieng anyway, he is collapsing statistically.
Shake it how you want, MIN already had forwards then got 2 more. Meanwhile who is 2G.
With that trade, Miami’s 3 is still strong with Winslow or Mcgruder. Waiters played the 1 pretty successfully in Cleveland.
But grandpa left the table.
Olynk may be ahead of Johnson but is light years behind Saric. Wolves had no interest in Olynk or Waiters or Johnson or Dragic. Apparently they would have taken Whiteside and an unprotected #1 along with Richardson. Wiggins is the two guard now.
Wiggins may have some say in that. The 2G position is wide open now, and he has no interest in it. He will push Covington off the 3, who will then push Saric off the 4, who will then drift off into free agency, like the scrubs will eventually. Butler will take his 5/190, and all the trade will be by next year is Butler for Covington.
link to basketball-reference.com
The only advantage Saric has over Olynyk is less fouling and .08% in FTs; Rebounding is about tied. Olynyk is ahead in everything else.
ORtg-DRtg: Olynyk+5, Saric(-4)
Plus-minus: Olynyk+1.6, Saric(-0.6)
Covington & Richardson are roughly equal, but RoCo cannot move to 2G. Miami also included a 1st.
Most would say JRich has room to improve in time, while Saric is likely to improve over a season, so there’s that.