Andrew Bynum

[HeatDaChamps]

Why Bynum doesnt work in Miami, lots of truth to this. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1907 ... t-in-miami

by ethan skolnick

This is essentially an opinion piece based on heresay that Bynum lost/never had passion for the game. The only thing to take away from it is the NBA regimen puts your heart to the test, especially if you're playing for a gritty franchise like Miami.

However, it doesn't prove where Bynum's head is at or if he would be a strongt addition for Miami. Considering his positive, albeit injury-ridden tenure in LA, I really don't think he'd poison the Heat locker room. Considering the enormous upside he could provide Miami on the court, it'd be completely idiotic to not go after him at a bargain price.

It is an opinion based piece, the heat players arent directly talking about bynum. But come on, read between the lines now. They were asked these questions while the bynum rumors were flying. And sure, in theory would Bynum be a good addition? Yes, but his attitude makes a difference. Riley will investigate, but on the surface he doesnt seem to fit this team. Not this team. I dont care how talented someone is, sometimes a player just doesnt fit.

[heatlespeatles]

zillgitt

As for Heat's interest in Andrew Bynum, I've been told it's minimal at best if he cleared waivers. They already have one big-man project.

lies, they just don want anyone else to take him to spite them

[puppa bear]

If he's willing to jump through the hoops that will be set out in front of him - likely including strength minimums, with body fat % and/or weight targets before seeing court time - then I'll be stoked and welcome him. If he's genuinely interested he'll speak to the players, and the Big 3 will definitely give their opinion to Riles.

IRWT!

[heatlespeatles]

Just the idea of Bynum is ridiculous. Team would be so good. But come on guys. Ask yourself this, does he really fit the heat culture? And dont tell me it doesnt matter, it does. Alot of team success comes with chemistry. Sure could we potentially develop chemistry with Bynum on the court? Yes, but i doubt the team will embrace him as a brother, hes just not that kind of guy. Would that hurt us in the long wrong? Its important to look at all of those things before we even think about signing him. I trust Riley to make the decision, but gut feeling, not happening.

f8ck all that heat culture talk. Get the talent and make him love the game enough to go to battle for us

[puppa bear]

Remember people said Beas & Bird would be bad signings, and on the flip-side people who said Bibby would save our season & flourish.

[shanedude]

I think the whole "he doesn't love the game" is just some narrative.

[puppa bear]

I think the whole "he doesn't love the game" is just some narrative.

I agree. I've known a couple of 6-10+ guys (in Australia) who had no love, but played because they were tall & they weren't even state level players. You have to put in a lot of work to get to that level, and that requires some degree of dedication.

I think it's possible he no longer has the same love of the game, but that can be born through frustration, injuries, and being trading to a rebuilding team after contending for multiple years.

[BoshtimusPrime]

I think it's possible he no longer has the same love of the game, but that can be born through frustration, injuries, and being trading to a rebuilding team after contending for multiple years.

“I started investigating [the bowling] a little bit,” Twersky said. “And one of the people that I hit, a guy who has played with him before, he texted me back and said ‘I don’t know if that’s true [the bowling], but I do know that I’ve never met another player in the league who likes basketball less [than Bynum].”

“The disclaimer is, I don’t know Andrew like that. From what I hear, he’s a good guy,” Twersky said. “But the fact that I heard this from a guy who has played with him before, it kind of made me think, ‘what’s going on here exactly?’ That’s not the kind of a guy that I necessarily want to be maxing out.”
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/ ... rew-bynum/

This anonymous ex-teammate would have been with Bynum on the Lakers. If Bynum didn't care about ball when they were winning chips and going for the 3peat, why would he here?

[Dmcdani6]

Early in the season, didnt they say they were never gonna sign michael beasley? Maybe we should wait and see..

[Nitro1118]

It is an opinion based piece, the heat players arent directly talking about bynum. But come on, read between the lines now. They were asked these questions while the bynum rumors were flying. And sure, in theory would Bynum be a good addition? Yes, but his attitude makes a difference. Riley will investigate, but on the surface he doesnt seem to fit this team. Not this team. I dont care how talented someone is, sometimes a player just doesnt fit.

We have no idea of the context. We can make assumptions, but I got very little out of that interview.

And did Rodman fit with Chicago's personality? Metta in LA? Those guys WERE serious headcases that could destroy a team, but they were x-factors that aided those teams to championships. Besides Bynum's shove against Barea, he's never been a headcase on the court. Off the court, he's never caused serious issues or divided a locker room. His heart has been questioned, but that's been raised while he's been recovering from serious injuries while playing on lotto teams. In LA this was no issue, and even Phil Jackson recently said on Twitter he always competed.

Fans look way too far into the Heat culture. Like I said last year with the Birdman and K-Mart rumors, unless the guy is a complete headcase, Miami should always look into upgrades despite their history. Why? Because those kind of guys are undervalued despite their talent due to overblown offcourt issues.

Bottom line is it's a situation you gotta gamble on...very low risk financially with HUGE potential.

[HEAT111]

I really don't like the attitude of his. Although I can see how Miami is going to use him, if that were going to happen. We are definitely going to win the title again...just closing out the depth against Indiana and hopefully we play against other teams healthy, we can go through the playoffs comfortably.

[kyphi]

I don't like his attitude, either and can see why Riley will try to get him too (good luck with that - notice teams waiving dudes to make room on their rosters for him and the supposed nets' blow-up

[RJM]

Bynum's behavior started to become erratic once it became clear the Lakers were not going to seriously contend for an NBA Championship. Prior to that, no one ever spoke about any possible attitude problems. I think that if he were on a team like this one where everyone was serious about winning a title, this attitude won't be as pronounced as recent reports suggest.

[Mars]

Champion of Lost Causes

Pat Riley can teach much to troubled players. The one subject he doesn't dwell on is history.

Ira Winderman | Sun Sentinel
June 4, 2006

MIAMI — No one is quite sure when The Saint Riley School for Wayward Men first became accredited.

Perhaps it was in 1996, when Tim Hardaway went from Warriors pariah to Heat playmaker.

Perhaps it was a year later, when Jamal Mashburn arrived from Dallas with a tarnished reputation and restored it all the way to that season's Eastern Conference Finals.

Or perhaps it was in 2001, when Anthony Mason emerged as a Heat All-Star starter under the same coach who had suspended him six years earlier with the Knicks.

Pat Riley never has claimed to be a saint through his 11 combined years as Heat coach and president. But he also never has condemned even his most troubled of players as sinners.

While hardly in the business of salvaging souls, Riley's latest resurrections have the Heat on the eve of the franchise's first appearance in the NBA Finals, a best-of-7 series that begins Thursday.

Jason Williams was at the throat of Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello a year ago. Now, barely a peep from the Heat point guard.

Gary Payton earlier in his career was suspended by Sonics coach George Karl for insubordination. This season, there was a momentary snap from the veteran point guard at teammate Dwyane Wade during the first round of the playoffs, but otherwise invective reserved only for referees....

...Throughout Riley's tenure, where others saw problems, Riley has seen possibilities.

Rod Strickland. Rafer Alston. Jim Jackson. Lamar Odom.

All wore tags elsewhere of malcontent, distraction, troublemaker, cancer.

With the Heat, all contributed. Without incident. Each performing better here than there. And most never as well after departing.

"I don't want 100 milk drinkers," Riley said. "I don't mind players who have a level of defiance to them. That can always be worked out.

"I mean, I've had a few, but if they're just maliciously bad people, bad to other people, bad in the locker room, they're devious, they will be found out and will be gone."...

Link

[Yaphet Kotto]

If you have the opportunity to sign him, I say DO IT JUST TO KEEP HIM OFF OF OTHER TEAMS, even if he never sniffs the court for us. Better for us to have him rotting on our bench than another contender adding even more size to their team thats probably already bigger than ours to begin with, especially in the playoffs.

[Alex Trevelyan]

Pieces that can help us don't become available unless they're severely damaged goods like Oden, or they're malcontents or allegedly bad actors like Bynum or Beasley. Every player that can potentially help us going forward is going to have some stigma attached to them. I don't see the angst with Bynum's bad attitude or supposedly bad work ethic. He's not going to do that here. I doubt he'd even get away with the sort of crap the Lakers tolerated.

[MisterHibachi]

I swear we all said the same stuff about Beasley, how he's a head case and good as gone from the league. Now we got half the board on his dick.

[GameTime_3]

One interesting part of the Bynum story is Oden. If Riley is seeing what he likes from Oden, he could back away and show Oden confidence. But... If Oden is still far away and Riley fears Oden won't be ready then Bynum signing becomes much better. Either way, I would sign him and give him a chance. Bynum is a monster when health and his mind is right. Oden vs. Bynum!

Ps, it really doesn't matter as UD would play ahead of him. UD in Spo's eys provides us with more size and scoring.

[puppa bear]

One interesting part of the Bynum story is Oden. If Riley is seeing what he likes from Oden, he could back away and show Oden confidence. But... If Oden is still far away and Riley fears Oden won't be ready then Bynum signing becomes much better. Either way, I would sign him and give him a chance. Bynum is a monster when health and his mind is right. Oden vs. Bynum!

I had a similar thought, but in reality it's like having Shaq and Zo during the 05/06 runs. Two amazing centers, but one can't play starter minutes & the other would benefit from reduced minutes. Now Bynum is no Shaq, but he could play 20-25mpg and realistically we should be looking at 15mpg for Oden as the upper limit. That still leaves 8-13mpg for Bird (who would be the #2 to start with).
A center rotation of Bynum(20)/Bird(18)/Oden(10)/Bosh(10) would be one of the deepest in the league, and give us two different power players and two different athletic players.

The real losers of mpg will be UD/Battier/Shard as Bosh will get 20mpg at PF. Not a bad thing though.

[HEAT111]

The way how I see it. Our defense is meant to overwhelm our opponents with the smothering defense. The thing with Oden, he's going to be used for defensive purpose; and notice what Spo usually says "categories that aren't in the stat sheet", meaning "PRESENCE" in the court. The only negative side to Oden is the experience on the court, not the knees.

That's where Bynum comes in, he has some credibility with the years he has already played but his immature attitude won't be tolerated. And what do you know, with Oden and Bynum doing the same thing. We eclipse Indiana's depth. Not just them but maybe San Antonio IF we do meet them again and let's not kid ourselves with the Nets (unfortunately, they're injured). With our offense and defensive presence in the court; this three-peat will be locked for sure. Also, health too...