Greg Oden to Miami?

[S Curry]

I thing Sammy D would be a better fit for us, Sammy can defend pick and roll, Oden can't, but if we get Oden and he is healthy we will change the style of defense for him, because he that good of a defender in the paint.

The question is money, how much they want and how much we can pay...

[dreamchaser]

I'm cool with giving Oden a shot here. Listen we need more size. I don't know if we can get past guys like Roy Hibbert, David West, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol & Zach Randolph playing small ball. Especially how Bosh didn't play well at all at the 5 position against Hibbert...

[Tony15]

I'm cool with giving Oden a shot here. Listen we need more size. I don't know if we can get past guys like Roy Hibbert, David West, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol & Zach Randolph playing small ball. Especially how Bosh didn't play well at all at the 5 position against Hibbert...

My thoughts here as well...but this is where I only agree to a certain extent. We've proven that battling the Indiana's, Memphis', and even the Chicago's playing small actually works if you have the personell.....I dunno if trying matchup with those teams is beneficial for us. If Bosh is more consistent with his mid-range game, and doesn't stretch out to the 3-point line....we could handle those teams easier.

[NBA82]

I don't know if I'd say that we've proven small ball works against those teams. I think we just out-talented them significantly.

We beat Chicago in 5 games playing regular ball in '11, when they were totally healthy and had Asik on the bench. We beat them in 5 games this year with Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, and Omer Asik all out of the picture.

Indiana took us to 6 games last year and 7 games this year when we tried small ball against them. I guess it worked in that we won the series, but they were a 3-seed that went 6 with both Atlanta and the Knicks. They weren't all that good.

And the Spurs took us to our absolute limit. The truth is that short of some extraordinary luck, we lost this series in 6. I think we dodged a bullet when it came to small ball. We beat a young, poorly coached OKC team without a legitimate post player by playing small ball. But in the playoffs, we got exposed. I just think we were so good that we could overcome it, anyway.

[dreamchaser]

I'm cool with giving Oden a shot here. Listen we need more size. I don't know if we can get past guys like Roy Hibbert, David West, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol & Zach Randolph playing small ball. Especially how Bosh didn't play well at all at the 5 position against Hibbert...

My thoughts here as well...but this is where I only agree to a certain extent. We've proven that battling the Indiana's, Memphis', and even the Chicago's playing small actually works if you have the personell.....I dunno if trying matchup with those teams is beneficial for us. If Bosh is more consistent with his mid-range game, and doesn't stretch out to the 3-point line....we could handle those teams easier.

But your'e also forgetting that Bosh has to use a lot of energy guarding the bigs of Indiana's, Chicago's & Memphis'. If Bosh mid range was consistent against Indiana then we would've bounced them in 5 but like I said before. Jump shots are like woman. One day you fall in love with it and everything just goes well and then the next minute it abandons you and it comes back to hurt you big time. We've got to switch up a lot of things next year like not being the worst rebounding team in the league for one. Our team this year has proven it can play any style tho but at the same time playing another team' style of play started to wear on us...

[Tony15]

I don't know if I'd say that we've proven small ball works against those teams. I think we just out-talented them significantly.

We beat Chicago in 5 games playing regular ball in '11, when they were totally healthy and had Asik on the bench. We beat them in 5 games this year with Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, and Omer Asik all out of the picture.

Indiana took us to 6 games last year and 7 games this year when we tried small ball against them. I guess it worked in that we won the series, but they were a 3-seed that went 6 with both Atlanta and the Knicks. They weren't all that good.

And the Spurs took us to our absolute limit. The truth is that short of some extraordinary luck, we lost this series in 6. I think we dodged a bullet when it came to small ball. We beat a young, poorly coached OKC team without a legitimate post player by playing small ball. But in the playoffs, we got exposed. I just think we were so good that we could overcome it, anyway.

Good points. I'll just say this....the one series we lost as a team was obviously to the Mavs, and that was a series where we tried so desperately to go big against Chandler and Dirk, and it did us no favors because there was no room to drive and it was easy for their bigs to cheat off and help on drives, making their zone defensive scheme effective.

Playing small gives us a huge offensive advantage, and defensively we're quick enough on the perimeter to mask any supposed weakness defensively on the interior. Even then, Bosh has had some damn good performances protecting the paint. Oden is a no risk, HIGH reward prospect so I say go for it anyhow. I just don't want us to go away from what was effective for us the last two years.

[Tony15]

That's fair dream. I just don't want a 2011 repeat ever again I think the best move would be playing traditional lineups during the regular season, and then spring small-ball on the opposition for the postseason....this is where a potential Oden signing could be a huge blessing (though I wouldn't hold my breath).

[DivineFury]

Other than Hibbert, there is no dominant big on a contender, so I am not sweating it over signing a big.

And giving that title to Hibbert is a stretch too.

[truthiness]

I thing Sammy D would be a better fit for us, Sammy can defend pick and roll, Oden can't, but if we get Oden and he is healthy we will change the style of defense for him, because he that good of a defender in the paint.

The question is money, how much they want and how much we can pay...

I agree, as long as by "for us" you mean the Warriors ... or whatever other team except the Heat.

Dalembert is a lazy bum. He couldn't even start for the Bucks. Not even that, he got some DNP-CD. That's how much he brings to the table.

[NBA82]

It's not just Hibbert, though. It's everyone. We really weren't a very good defensive team this year. We have such elite athletes that when we ratchet up the pressure to 10, we can wreak havoc. But short of that, we struggled a LOT on the defensive end and on the glass -- both in the regular season and in the playoffs. We have to dedicate so much of our defense to compensating for our lack of size that we leave ourselves vulnerable.

And the truth is, we really didn't go all-in on "small ball" this season. We started a front-court of Haslem and Bosh. Haslem isn't a small ball PF. He's not spacing anyone out, and he's not particularly agile getting up and down the floor. He was basically a very small center.

We might as well replace Haslem in the rotation with a legitimate 5. Bring in Oden, Kaman, or Dalembert and give them 20 minutes a game. Keep Birdman and give him 18 a game. That way we're playing a traditional line-up with Bosh at the 4 and a real center at the 5 for 24 minutes a game. Bosh is playing 10 minutes of small-ball center against second-string big men. He's playing 24 minutes at PF, flanked by a legitimate center. And we're going 14 minutes with Bosh on the bench and LBJ/Battier at the 4.

As the season goes on, we'll see what works. If we're better off with Bosh at the 5, we can phase out the center and just use him as a nominal starter. But I think we'll find that we're a much better team defensively, and an equivalent team offensively, when we play with a real 5. We might even improve offensively, as Bosh will have a lot more energy to focus on his offense.

[weouthere]

I like Oden for the minimum. Find a young no name center that can rebound for the minimum. This kid who was on the twolves, think his last name is Johnson. We need to take a look at him

[DC_20]

I want a bruiser that can catch the ball and smack the **** out of hibbitch and noah

[Voice_of_Reason]

I would be ecstatic if we got him on the cheap. This guy was a legit #1 pick talent, and his body has failed him, halting his promising career. It's not that he is going to change the landscape, at first, but he will give another option of defending, and give us the opportunity to rest Bosh throughout reg season and at points in playoffs. The small baall line up takes a toll on our players, interesting that late in playoffs they were very up and down, which I think has something to do with energy levels and their bodies. If we can limit minutes to these stars, it can only bode well for playoffs, where Oden probably wont even get off the bench.

[Time4War]

Just watched a few videos of Oden.... I swear this dude plays like a hybrid of Hibert/Dwight
Take the Minimum

Or give him the MLE and give ZaZa the minimum.

[S Curry]

I thing Sammy D would be a better fit for us, Sammy can defend pick and roll, Oden can't, but if we get Oden and he is healthy we will change the style of defense for him, because he that good of a defender in the paint.

The question is money, how much they want and how much we can pay...

I agree, as long as by "for us" you mean the Warriors ... or whatever other team except the Heat.

Dalembert is a lazy bum. He couldn't even start for the Bucks. Not even that, he got some DNP-CD. That's how much he brings to the table.

I'm sure he won't be lazy in Miami, if he comes he knows what we want from him, what we expect from him, Pat will make sure he knows it, I trust Pat on that decision, if he speaks with Sammy and decides to sign him you can be sure that Sammy won't be lazy.

[dreamchaser]

That's fair dream. I just don't want a 2011 repeat ever again I think the best move would be playing traditional lineups during the regular season, and then spring small-ball on the opposition for the postseason....this is where a potential Oden signing could be a huge blessing (though I wouldn't hold my breath).

I understand...

[John Thomas]

if we can get Oden for the min (which won't happen imo), then its worth it. If he starts eating into our mmle then im not a fan because there are more reliable options out there that we can use that on

[Pure_Basketball]

No surprise, players have been trying to use Miami as leverage for years.

Remember when Lamar Odom used Miami as leverage and we thought we were going to sign him, we would never have gotten the big 3 and 2+ championships had we signed that bum.

[John Thomas]

Remember when Lamar Odom used Miami as leverage and we thought we were going to sign him, we would never have gotten the big 3 and 2+ championships had we signed that bum.

Which is why we shouldn't hold our breath for Dalembert. He's already turned us down once and I have a feeling he could give a rat's ass about winning a chip.

[DC_20]

if we can get Oden for the min (which won't happen imo), then its worth it. If he starts eating into our mmle then im not a fan because there are more reliable options out there that we can use that on

Even worse we probably would just have boozer coming off the books