The Miami Heat need help in the middle. Serge Ibaka would be a great signing and at the projected price tag, frankly, he would also be a bargain.
The Miami Heat have a few decisions to make. They must first decide how far they are willing to go though to make some of those choices into a reality.
Help came in the form of reporting from John Hollinger.
The Athletic’s (subscription required) John Hollinger recently came out with his salary projections for Free Agents, using his valuation tool to project players’ salaries. Serge Ibaka‘s salary was projected to be somewhere around $5 million annually, while former Miami Heat fan favorite (kidding), Hassan Whiteside, was projected to land at $17 million annually.
That means you might want to take Hollinger’s valuation tool with a grain of salt. But, let’s say that Hollinger is right.
That means that the Miami Heat need to make that move ASAP. Ibaka is the perfect fit next to Bam Adebayo.
The Miami Heat need help in their big man rotation. Is Serge Ibaka their savior?
If Ibaka is worth $5 million, then other teams will be making calls for him as well and if I’m Miami, then I’m looking at creating more cap space. In doing that, I would look to trade Kelly Olynyk or Andre Iguodala.
I would be shocked if Ibaka got only $5 million, so Miami should look to create more cap space. If needed, that’s that but if not, then Miami will have one of the deepest rosters in the league when it comes to bigs.
We all know Ibaka is a shot blocker but as he has gotten older. He has lost a step if you ask me.
But, it’s not a big enough step where he’s no longer impactful on the defensive end. Also, Ibaka can stretch the floor as well, as he was shooting 38% percent from three this year.
You can slide Ibaka in as the starting five-man, where Ibaka and Adebayo would be a nice front line who should cause problems constantly on the defensive end. Imagine Ibaka and Adebayo defending the rim, while both roam the paint.
That’s a scary sight. Especially for the opposition.
Besides re-signing Goran Dragic, Miami needs to be on the phone with Ibaka getting a deal done… like yesterday. Sadly we all saw what happen when Adebayo got injured in the NBA Finals.
Miami didn’t have any bigs that could move. They had zero rim protection.
Ibaka is good insurance to have. This is a deal that Miami needs to get done, as it makes too much sense not to.