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One of the regular Miami posters (BBallFreak?), nailed the MIN/MIA trade two weeks before it happened, but had Jaric in it instead of Blount. Even with Mourning out, Blount's proving to be worthless in MIA, while Jaric has progressed.

I think BBallFreak had the right trade for MIA, and I was trying to come up with a way to fix it.

MIA SENDS: Mark Blount
MIA RECEIVES: Marko Jaric, Pat Garrity

ORL SENDS: Tony Battie, Pat Garrity
ORL RECEIVES: Mark Blount

MIN SENDS: Marko Jaric
MIN RECEIVES: Tony Battie

WHY FOR MIA: Blount isn't helping, and they want to win now. Jaric would be useful. Jaric is the same price as Blount, but you get four years of production instead of three. MIA could use Jaric for perimeter defense and adequate three-point shooting, and with DWade and Davis with PG experience, he wouldn't be needed to initiate the offense -- just make the extra pass. Jaric would also make it easier for MIA to use Jason Williams expiring for other urgent needs. Garrity is another big with limited skills, but he's an expiring

WHY FOR ORL: Orlando is guaranteed of zero-production from the injured Battie this season, so this can only up their production. Blount's contract may cost $8.1 mil a year, but considering you only get two years out of Battie, he costs $8.5 mil/year for his production. Blount may even prove to be a good fit. He can hit the outside jumper to clear room out for Dwight Howard, and when the two are on the court, that means Turkoglu and Lewis can play their more natural (and safer) SF position. This gives them more beef for the play-offs.

WHY FOR MIN: MIN can absorb a zero-production guy because they are going nowhere. Many MIN fans don't want to deal Jaric for a 3-year deal, but Battie may be useful in the future. He's familiar playing with a dominant PF, and MIN needs a partner for Al Jefferson. Also, he costs about $10 mil less than Jaric, and is a year shorter. MIN may miss the useful Jaric, but this might be a better move for a rebuilding team.

You know what I'm going to say, so why should I bother saying it?

I think the boat has sailed on this. The Heat look a lot closer to rebuilding than contending at the moment, so taking on Jaric's contract isn't going to happen for the same reason the Wolves aren't keeping it.

BBallFreak wrote:You know what I'm going to say, so why should I bother saying it?

Was I remembering correctly? That was your deal, right?

Credit where credit's due.

Put it on your application to GM the Heat when they hire the next one.

loserX wrote:I think the boat has sailed on this. The Heat look a lot closer to rebuilding than contending at the moment, so taking on Jaric's contract isn't going to happen for the same reason the Wolves aren't keeping it.

I don't know. Its hard to flush Shaq's season down the drain, and many of the early losses were without DWade. Guys like that don't need to have the top seed to do some damage -- they just need an invitation to the party. Isn't MIA only about 5-6 games out of the 8th seed in the East?

And anyway, I'm not sure that Jaric doesn't have more trade value than Blount right now. MIN gets encouraging offers on their boards for him about once a week, simply because of usefulness. We probably won't get one this week though -- he had the flu and lost ten pounds (Adriana Lima clearly wasn't taking good care of him), and he simply looks weak right now.

BBallFreak wrote:You know what I'm going to say, so why should I bother saying it?

So I'll say it. Blount might not be helping us, and Jaric might help us, but his deal was too long for our 2009-2010 FA plan in October, and 2 months later it's still too long. Blount was always preferred in that deal.

I agree this sucks for Miami, but I still contend that it could've been the Wolves that insisted on Blount being in the Ricky deal instead of Jaric - Jaric's less per-year helped keep the Wolves under the lux this year, there were concerns that Blount and Al didn't get along, and there was (and maybe still is) hope within the organization that Jaric might be a part of this team's future.