Heat Must Wonder What Could Have Been

Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Vince Carter, SG/SF – 2 years, $6 million

(2001 Me would have been so happy.)

The remainder of our cap space goes to another position the Heat have struggled with the past four years: scoring from the second unit. While Carter isn’t “Vinsanity” anymore, he’s more than capable of providing the punch off the bench that the Heat could use.

Carter has aged pretty well for a guy that had trouble with numerous injury issues over the last 10 years, and has evolved into an excellent three-point shooter (39% last season, which would have led the Heat), while still being able to create his own shot. He’ll give you nothing on defense, so at least something is consistent. However, the Heat have been able to hide defensive liability specialists pretty well (Ray Allen) so it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Erik Spoelstra doing the same with VC.

Carter ended up with the Grizzlies on a 3 year, $12 million deal, which is a bit more than our offer. The selling point for him would be that he comes back to his home state (he’s from Daytona Beach) as well as playing with a team that has a chance of winning their conference (our fake team looks pretty good, as well as it plays in the East), so that might be enough of a selling point to sell Carter to take less money.

It also might help that in filling out the remainder of the roster, we bring a buddy along with him…