Well Heat fans, it appears as if the Heatles are splitting up.
LeBron James has announced his ‘decision 2.0’ to return home and sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Chris Bosh will reportedly sign a max deal.
The biggest question coming out of Miami now is “Where do we go from here?”
Well now that LeBron has made his move, the free agents are now expected to begin falling into place. There are still guys Miami can go after but it all starts with Dwyane Wade and getting him under contract. With LeBron leaving it is rather vague as to what kind of contract Wade will demand.
With James’ space cleared, he may chase top dollar now. However, if Miami can lure some impact role players, maybe they convince him to take a little less.
First, Miami should match the Houston Rockets and extend the max offer to Chris Bosh.
Bosh is still a high-end player and if Miami plans to compete next year they’re going to need him, especially with Wade’s health woes.
Even if the Heat sign Wade or Bosh to a max contract, Miami will still have enough money to pursue some of the second-tier guys like Eric Bledsoe, Isaiah Thomas, Trevor Ariza, Luol Deng or Greg Monroe.
Other potential targets include Ramon Sessions, Anthony Morrow, Marvin Williams, and Ed Davis.
Miami’s current roster consists of a few guys that the Heat organization have a lot of optimism for. Shabazz Napier and James Ennis are some of the younger guys on the squad with some good potential. Norris Cole is another who has played well in his first three seasons and could be ready to compete for a starting role.
The remaining guys are Danny Granger and Josh McRoberts. Granger has been battling injuries for the past couple years but averaged 18.7 points and five boards in his last healthy season. McRoberts is a guy that sports a career average of 5.7 points and 4.2 rebounds but had a decent season with Charlotte last year.
If the Miami Heat keep Bosh, he’ll be the nucleus that they build around by adding pieces to complement his game.
The best thing Miami could do is to try and emulate the 13′-14′ Lakers approach. Sign a bunch of guys on 1-2 year contracts, essentially securing a lottery pick and setting the franchise up to have an extensive amount of cap space for 2015 and/or 2016 to target guys like LaMarcus Aldridge (15′), Kevin Durant (16′), Marc Gasol (15′), Rajon Rondo (15′), Dwight Howard (16′), Al Jefferson (15′), Paul Millsap (15′), Deron Williams (16′), and a list of others.
Miami has options, but it’s looking more and more like they will have a lottery pick next year. The Miami Heat are one of the best organizations in the NBA and should get the benefit of the doubt when we talk about how they will recover from this. While they did lose one and possibly two big pieces to their championship puzzle, they still have the people that orchestrated it all. Everything else remains to be seen. It was a great run, two titles and four-straight finals.
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