OffSeason Free Agent Thread...Let's build a DYNASTY!

[Carlos4Heat]

Arnett Moultrie- I saw a lot of him last year(being that I live smack dab in the middle of SEC country) and I came away feeling pretty "Meh" in regards to his game.He's 6-11",but plays like a small forward.He doesn't do anything particularly well,and he looks to shoot outside jumpers way too often.He's also allergic to rebounding.

Fab Melo- He's a defensive presence,and that's about it.I also question his on and off the court I.Q,as well as his work ethic.I mean if you can't hack it in school,with all the various tutoring available to athletes,what does that say about you?

Andrew Nicholson- I would be happy if Miami were to land him,but it ain't gonna happen.He'll be off the board,before the Heat's 27th pick.

[RexBoyWonder]

^ that's my impression of Festus, i didnt follow him that closely but i see a big red flag in a senior that drops to the second round after his production as a senoir was worse then his previous year. what makes u think he's a NBA strating Center? why does he drop that low in a league desperate for Centers?

I'll take your word on Moultrie since u seem to know him better, but Melo looks to have a nice upside and he's a very good fit here with his defensive power and length.

Andrew Nicholson is projected to go at #24, just 3 picks before ours, we could try to move up.

[Carlos4Heat]

^ that's my impression of Festus, i didnt follow him that closely but i see a big red flag in a senior that drops to the second round after his production as a senoir was worse then his previous year. what makes u think he's a NBA strating Center? why does he drop that low in a league desperate for Centers?

Dude was coming off an ACL injury the previous year,it was inevitable that his production would dip a little.Believe me I've watched plenty of Vandy games,Festus is not a scrub.If healthy,he'll be a starting center on somebody's team,and I hope that team is the Heat.

[RexBoyWonder]

Would u take him over Andrew Nicholson?

[Carlos4Heat]

Would u take him over Andrew Nicholson?

I think Andrew spaces the floor a little better than Festus,but I think Festus protects the rim and rebounds better than Andrew.It's almost "splitting hairs".The Heat couldn't go wrong with either one of them.

[Lord Leoshes]

Guys, neither Allen, Terry, noire Nash can defend their own shadows at this stage in their careers. Billups would fit better with this team. But that's not my point. My point is we need to get bigger. If not a C, then a PF who can slid to C occasionally.
Odom at 6-10 would fit that bill. with both him & Bosh inside it would improve our rebounding greatly, as well as on our turnovers. & Odom would impact our defence much more then the other 3.

Either a one way offensive players, or a player that wont be a liability on the defensive end?

This Heat team is built on defense, & having another rebounder who could initiate the break would also improve our offense.
+ the fact that he is an all around player, not a one dimensional one.

[RexBoyWonder]

^ We play Team Defense, we can cover up for Nash or Terry. Both can providing the type of offense we despertly need, and both are proven in the playoffs. If we take Terry he won't even have to guard starters most of the time - he'll play Behind Wade and then Behind Mario. he's used to coming big off the bench. just think of all the good looks he'll get playing here with LBJ. he'll have a field day.
Billups is a 36 year old comeing from a serious season ending injury. is that really what u want to bet on? Anyway he likes LA and everything seem to indicate that he would want to stay there.

Look, the problem with Festus Ezeli is that we dont have time for any more projects. We already got a project player with Dexter (which i believe in), but now we need a ready now, no BS, come here and play big minutes and be reliable type of a Center. to me Dalembert is exactly that. U know he'll be blocking a ton of shots and grabing a ton of rebounds and get a few junk points. i really dread the idea of again being stuck with a bunch of bench caliber Centers, none of them ready for this stage.

The more i think about it the more i want us to buy an extra pick.

[Lord Leoshes]

If you can not defend your position i do not want you on my team. We do not need defensive liabilities that will be giving up constant layups.

& No we can not cover up for them, we do not need to be sending a double every time our PG is guarding opposing PG's.

If we sign a PG then let it be for only the MIN. If Nash, Terry, Allen, Billups, or any other guard wishes to join us the let it be fr the MIN.


Our 3mil should be for a C, or PF who can slid to C. & they better be able to defend their position.

[RexBoyWonder]

^ You're not making any sense. you're making it seem like Mario is some kind of a lock down defender. Nash on offense > Mario on defense. Terry too. our all defensive philosophy is built around team defense with alot of help.

What Centers will come here for 3 mil? Camby is probably the only one that might think about it. Im the one lobbing for Dalembert but being realistic the most likely way to get him is to trade for him with the Rockets, not luring him with our lame Mini MLE.

Get Terry or Nash with the Mini MLE, they both might compromise the $ for a chance at a ring, being both veterns that already made big money.

The only other decent Big guy that might come here for 3 Mil is Odom, but he's not a center so we'll have to play Bosh at the 5 whice isn't optimal, and i worry about Odom's mental state and what he has left in him.

[RexBoyWonder]

Let's put togther all our options in one post :

Guards :

1.Steve Nash
2.Jason Terry (can play both SG and PG)
3.Tyshawn Taylor (Draft pick)
4.Ray Allen (looks broken, can only play SG behind Wade, leaves very limited minutes)
5.Chauncey Billups (coming off a season ending injury and will most likely prefer to stay with Clippers)

Bigs :

1.Samuel Dalembert (Trade or MLE)
2.Marcus Camby (38 years old)
3.Lamar Odom (this means moving Bosh to Center full time, big question mark)
4.Festus Ezeli (draft)
5.Fab Melo (if we can move up the draft)
6.Andrew Nicholson (draft, but he's more of a PF whice again means moving Bosh to Center)
7.Andray Blatche (Trade for Miller + piece)
8.Boris Diaw (most likely would stay with Spurs)

Considering we only have the 27 draft pick and the Mini MLE (3 Mil a year for 3 years) - i'd say we'll be lucky to get 1 guard + 1 big from this list. whice 2 players would u take?

[OtW]

Worse comes to worse, Bosh may have to move full time center in order for us to compensate in other ways for our front court depth. Maybe not full time center, but he may have to start there.

In that case, we'd sign someone like Odom or Carl Landry with the mini-MLE? Of course, this is if only Odom is mentally right, wanting to contribute, and if we can't get him for the min.

Or else, we'd probably pick up Nash or Allen, preferably Nash since Allen can only play limited minutes behind Wade, and then draft a big man.

Best case scenario would be somehow snagging Sammy for the mini MLE, but that's sooooooooooo...yeah....dude is all about the $$$$$. Remember how he strung us along last off season after the lock out to get a pay day from Sacramento/Houston.

[RexBoyWonder]

^ Carl Landry is only 28 and didnt get a big contract yet, he's not coming here on a discount.

One optimistic yet somewhat realistic scenario would be we get Terry for the Mini MLE (he went on recored saying he want to come here and all sighs are that he's done with Mavs) And then we use our pick wisely to draft a young Dalembert-like Center (Fab Melo/Festus Ezeli ) that turns out to be a real player.

To those who might not be excited about the Terry option, consider this : in this year's playoffs Vs the OKC he averaged 14 points, 45% from the field and 50% from 3 with 4 asists a game. and he does his damage with outside shooting, exactly what we need. if he'll be able to contribute similar numbers here next year, it would be HUGE for us. he'll basically be our third/fourth best player on offense.

[Lord Leoshes]

^ You're not making any sense. you're making it seem like Mario is some kind of a lock down defender. Nash on offense > Mario on defense. Terry too. our all defensive philosophy is built around team defense with alot of help.

What Centers will come here for 3 mil? Camby is probably the only one that might think about it. Im the one lobbing for Dalembert but being realistic the most likely way to get him is to trade for him with the Rockets, not luring him with our lame Mini MLE.

Get Terry or Nash with the Mini MLE, they both might compromise the $ for a chance at a ring, being both veterns that already made big money.

The only other decent Big guy that might come here for 3 Mil is Odom, but he's not a center so we'll have to play Bosh at the 5 whice isn't optimal, and i worry about Odom's mental state and what he has left in him.

Mario is too slow to stay in front of quicker points, but is great on the passing lanes, & getting into the opposing players chest. He is an above average defender at best but the others are horrendous. Now if you are telling me we can sign Hinrrich with the 3mil then i would do it, but only after getting turned down by all the best bigs out there.

I would love to make the Heat the #1 defensive % team in the league, as well as the #1 rebounding team in the league.

[Lord Leoshes]

Let's put togther all our options in one post :

Guards :

1.Steve Nash
2.Jason Terry (can play both SG and PG)
3.Tyshawn Taylor (Draft pick)
4.Ray Allen (looks broken, can only play SG behind Wade, leaves very limited minutes)
5.Chauncey Billups (coming off a season ending injury and will most likely prefer to stay with Clippers)
Kirk Hinrich
Jannero Pargo
Keyon Dooling
Jason Kidd
Andre Miller
Leandro Barbosa
Randy Foye
Jordan Farmar
Jamal Crawford
Raymond Felton
Bigs :

1.Samuel Dalembert (Trade or MLE)
2.Marcus Camby (38 years old)
3.Lamar Odom (this means moving Bosh to Center full time, big question mark)
4.Festus Ezeli (draft)
5.Fab Melo (if we can move up the draft)
6.Andrew Nicholson (draft, but he's more of a PF whice again means moving Bosh to Center)
7.Andray Blatche (Trade for Miller + piece)
8.Boris Diaw (most likely would stay with Spurs)
Aaron Gray
Hasheem Thabeet
Robin Lopez (sign & trade)
Jared Jeffries
Kwame Brown
Antawn Jamison


Considering we only have the 27 draft pick and the Mini MLE (3 Mil a year for 3 years) - i'd say we'll be lucky to get 1 guard + 1 big from this list. whice 2 players would u take?

Just a few more that might sign for the mid 3mil, or min.

Then there will be a few others that their teams will amnesty like E Bron, & maybe Haywood?


& from your list i would take Melo, & Odom, but with a side of Doolings for the min.

[Heat fan06]

Steve Nash or Ray Allen please

need more of a center though. Who is out there?

[RexBoyWonder]

Well, Some of these players suck, some are a bad fit and some we have zero chance of getting.

Honestly, except for maybe Hinrich i dont want anyone from the names added. and even Hinrich just had a terrible season, he fell off a cliff. he's not a upgrade over mario at this stage.

Haywood can be a desperate last resort option, but i'll be totally bummed out if he'll be the best big we can add.

[Heat fan06]

Can we still use the MLE? or can you only use it every 2 seasons?

[Bubstubbler]

trade Miller/Cole for Nash (Miller retires after trade) [3yr/$15M?]
sign KG with mini [3yr/$9M]
sign Oden for minimum
draft Doron Lamb

Nash/Chalmers
Wade/Lamb
LeBron/Battier/Jones
Bosh/Haslem
KG/Anthony/Oden

That gives Nash and KG a legit shot at winning the next 3 NBA titles, and to do so as starters for at least the next year or two. Oden gets to enjoy the ride from the bench at a minimum, but with the outside chance that he'll actually heal up and get healthy. If he eventually does get healthy a year or two from now, he could really help extend and solidify the team's championship window.

[Pimpwerx]

I wonder if I should keep my hopes from getting too high, because the offseason will come, and every interesting FA will go elsewhere, except the one we sign with the mini-MLE. I'm thinking that realistically, we've only got that and the #27 pick. That should be sufficient. PEACE.

[RexBoyWonder]

Can we still use the MLE? or can you only use it every 2 seasons?

Dont take it as a personal attack, but is it really that hard reading the thread BEFORE posting in it? the answer is mentioned numerous times in this thread, it was explaind a few times just in page 5.

trade Miller/Cole for Nash (Miller retires after trade) [3yr/$15M?]
sign KG with mini [3yr/$9M]
sign Oden for minimum
draft Doron Lamb

Nash/Chalmers
Wade/Lamb
LeBron/Battier/Jones
Bosh/Haslem
KG/Anthony/Oden

That gives Nash and KG a legit shot at winning the next 3 NBA titles, and to do so as starters for at least the next year or two. Oden gets to enjoy the ride from the bench at a minimum, but with the outside chance that he'll actually heal up and get healthy. If he eventually does get healthy a year or two from now, he could really help extend and solidify the team's championship window.

There is ZERO chance we get KG to join us. we just sent his team home for the second consecutive year, joining us would be a total bitch move by him, he'll never do it..he'll rather retire. he already got his ring.
Oden for minimum is fine as a gamble, but u cant count on him ever playing again, we need a ready NOW Center.

I wonder if I should keep my hopes from getting too high, because the offseason will come, and every interesting FA will go elsewhere, except the one we sign with the mini-MLE. I'm thinking that realistically, we've only got that and the #27 pick. That should be sufficient. PEACE.

I agree that we'll probably end up with one Mini MLE guy and a draft pick, but that's no reason to get discouraged. if we choose those 2 wisely, they can be a huge upgrade to our team. a decent two way active Center and guard with a good outside shoot would take us to the next level.