Would you deal LeBron James?

[Real Deal]

Doesn't make much sense to give up on the team so quickly, but let's just say Otis Smith offers Dwight Howard for LeBron James. Do you make the trade if you're the Miami Heat?

 

C - Dwight Howard

PF - Chris Bosh

SF - Mike Miller (or whoever)

SG - Dwyane Wade

PG - Mario Chalmers

[SRV]

Nope, cause then it will come back to haunt us. Who needs Dwight when we have Dexter Pitman anyway? lol

 

I mean, we just had a brand new team essentially and made it to the Finals. Just imagine how much better next season will be, cause we can't get worse and there are no teams in the East that can stop us.

[ChosenOne]

[expletive] YEAH! If you are offered Dwight Howard for Lebron James it is a no brainer. You already have Wade as a ball dominate guard, so you dont need LBJ that much. Either way they are a championship team, but with Dwight they win it.

[SRV]

Dwight is probably going West. So I would hate to give Lebron to Orlando and then we have to deal with him along with Chicago and some other up and coming teams, and maybe Boston if they are still good. If we keep Lebron, and Dwight goes West then Orlando blows and we have no competition in our own division.

Plus there is no way in hell we even think of trading Lebron, its just out of the question.

Edited June 13, 2011 by SRV

[Check my Stats]

You deal Wade before you deal LBJ, but I would definitely entertain offers for both of them. It's the first year guys...

[Flash]

Lol [expletive] no.

[Clutch]

no way you trade wade before lebron, i dont care about the age

[Make It Naaaashty]

Hell no, LBJ just had a really tough stretch in the finals which doesn't take away how good of a player he really is.

[NomarFachix]

You absolutely do it. Wade and Shaq did it, imagine Wade+Dwight+Bosh? Much better mix than what they have, you eliminate all scoring in the paint with one move, allow Wade to ball dominate 24/7, rebounding, etc. $$ move.

[Flash]

I don't think there's any way it happens, or is even brought up. I doubt Wade lets it happen either. No way he's trading his best friend.

[reno]

Hell no, LBJ just had a really tough stretch in the finals which doesn't take away how good of a player he really is.

If you were the miami dolphins and had the opportunity to trade marino for montana, would you?

[Guru]

I would, they won't. They need a dominant post presence. Can you imagine having a great post player like that kicking it out to Bosh for open jumpers and dishing to Wade on cuts? I'm not even going to go into how insane their team would be on defense.

[Real Deal]

I don't think there's any way it happens, or is even brought up. I doubt Wade lets it happen either. No way he's trading his best friend.

So, basically, this is a Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley thing?

 

I would do whatever it takes to win championships (and this is supposedly what was done back in July 2010). A low post, high-efficiency scorer in Dwight, who is one of the best defensive players of the last decade, paired with a versatile power forward that has a mid-range game, led by a two-guard that plays defense and scores 20-30 a night? What owner wouldn't want that? What player wouldn't want to be in that trio?

 

Miami better pray to the basketball gods that there isn't a hard cap put into play, or else they'll be a trio + minimum contracts for the rest of their time together, struggling to find a decent center that doesn't have 40-year old knees, and a legitimate point guard.

 

At least with someone like Howard, you can make up for many of the defensive deficiencies, and take care of the weakness in the frontcourt.

[Nitro]

Only trade I'd entertain is LeBron for Dwight. Otherwise, hell no would I trade LeBron...he's the best player in the league. It's only the first season of this project, and they will likely attract a few valuable FA's this summer/next year's tradeline (possibly the MLE and a few veteran contracts, maybe a trade or two). Also, if LeBron/Wade/Riley are as smart as I think they are, they will work on making LeBron expand his post and off-ball game, and install a real offense which can counter a simple zone (which is something every NBA team should be able to take advantage of). Hopefully they will also add more sets with Wade in the post, where he completely dominated in the Philly and Dallas series'.

 

This team can work...they went 8-2 against Chicago and Boston, with Chicago having homecourt. LeBron and Wade have the abilities to play off each other, it's just a matter of getting them comfortable with doing that when the other is dominating the ball. My biggest issue with Spo all season long was his refusal to install a real offense in training camp and pre-season (which he admitted to), and then letting talent simply dominate throughout the season. He did a good job, especially on the defensive end, but he didn't maximize what he had.

[Nitro]

Miami better pray to the basketball gods that there isn't a hard cap put into play, or else they'll be a trio + minimum contracts for the rest of their time together, struggling to find a decent center that doesn't have 40-year old knees, and a legitimate point guard.

 

Eh, you can say that about the Mavs, Lakers, Knicks and Magic as well, among other teams.

[Real Deal]

Eh, you can say that about the Mavs, Lakers, Knicks and Magic as well, among other teams.

Well, considering the fact that the Heat were just defeated in six by a real team of players, one all-star (not even sure if everyone considered Dirk a superstar months ago) and role players...it doesn't sound that promising for Miami. If there is any flexibility (and there will have to be), most teams will find a way to capitalize on it...but I don't see how on Earth the Heat will be able to, unless they decide to deal Bosh.

[Nitro]

Well, considering the fact that the Heat were just defeated in six by a real team of players, one all-star (not even sure if everyone considered Dirk a superstar months ago) and role players...it doesn't sound that promising for Miami. If there is any flexibility (and there will have to be), most teams will find a way to capitalize on it...but I don't see how on Earth the Heat will be able to, unless they decide to deal Bosh.

 

My point was that if there is a hard cap, Miami will not be the only team screwed...Dallas is currently $25M over the cap (which the owners want to reduce to $45 million I believe), the Lakers are $32M over the cap, Chicago will be well over the cap once it's time to resign Rose, etc... Currently the Heat are only $8M over the cap, and they got all their main players on discount deals (Wade, Bron, Bosh, Haslem and Miller all came for cheap). So, if there is a hard cap put in place, they won't be as bad off as people are making it out to be because every other team will have the same problem....specifically teams with hugely overpaid role players like the Mavs have.

[SRV]

I don't know about teams being able to beat us. Boston, and Chicago were teams but we dealt with them. The Mavs just had the perfect package. Dirk was unstoppable, Terry woke up and Marion, Barea and Stevenson gave a couple points here and there. On the other hand, Lebron sucked, Miller, Anthony, House, Bibby were all useless and our defense just gave up on what they had been doing all season. The guys we have now can tear through any team in the East. Chicago got exposed and we will only get better. Would Dwight help? Yes, but then we give Lebron to Orlando and all of a sudden potential FA's that we can be signing will go to Orlando. We are a very dominant team in the East and right now thats the easiest path to the Finals. Then its all down to the luck of the draw. We could have killed the Thunder in the Finals, but we got unlucky and we got paired with the Mavs.

[Real Deal]

My point was that if there is a hard cap, Miami will not be the only team screwed...Dallas is currently $25M over the cap (which the owners want to reduce to $45 million I believe), the Lakers are $32M over the cap, Chicago will be well over the cap once it's time to resign Rose, etc... Currently the Heat are only $8M over the cap, and they got all their main players on discount deals (Wade, Bron, Bosh, Haslem and Miller all came for cheap). So, if there is a hard cap put in place, they won't be as bad off as people are making it out to be because every other team will have the same problem....specifically teams with hugely overpaid role players like the Mavs have.

In that case, all teams in the NBA are going to be screwed. That's not exactly how it's going to work out.

 

LeBron and Wade aren't going to work unless two things happen (one of the two): they have role players that actually step up, huge, or one of them learns how to play off the ball very well.

 

Miami is losing Big Z to retirement (not a big deal anymore). They are also losing a few to free agency: Howard, Dampier, Magloire, Bibby, Jones and possibly Chalmers.

 

If we're talking about players being signed to long-term, overpaid contracts...well, Miami has them. Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Joel Anthony are all signed until 2015. I actually like Joel on the defensive end here and there, but he's a massive liability on the offensive end. Miller is nowhere near worth the $6.6 million he'll be getting at the end of his deal (he'll take the PO). Haslem is cheap, but he's still coming off the bench in very limited minutes, with Bosh eating up most of those at the four.

 

When it's all said and done, if the owners get their way, Wade and LeBron are going to have to change the way they play together if they want to win rings, because the Heat will be a trio with a bunch of old vets trying to leech their way into a franchise to get a ring, and over the years, a lot of those "leeches" have been more of a liability than anything else. Do you think one of those guys will change after eight seasons? I'm not sold on it.

 

Plus, it was very evident that LeBron and Wade were both tired. Give them a few more seasons like this, and see how it wears them down. One (LeBron) has been fortunate not to suffer a big injury, and Wade is lucky to have just one significant injury in his career. Same with Bosh. One is what...28-29 years old? Bron is up there in age, along with Bosh. In three seasons, all of them will be 30+ years old.

 

I never said the Heat were the only team that would be screwed over, but they are the best team without an actual team right now (trying to make sense of that). With the potential of even less of a team, I'm not sure where they go from here.

[Real Deal]

I don't know about teams being able to beat us. Boston, and Chicago were teams but we dealt with them.

Boston was just too old, but yes, they were still a team. Chicago I disagree with. In the playoffs, it seemed like the Bulls were far too reliant on Derrick Rose, and because of that, he ended up shooting a low percentage in every series, not having much help each night on the offensive end, and Chicago was lucky to get past the Hawks because of it. Jeff Teague came out of nowhere to defend Rose, and it was effective. He's lucky that Hinrich was hurt and not playing.

[Nitro]

LeBron and Wade aren't going to work unless two things happen (one of the two): they have role players that actually step up, huge, or one of them learns how to play off the ball very well.

 

I disagree. For a team that was built completely from scratch just 11 months ago, and half the team being on minimum deals, they were within 2 games from the NBA Finals, defeating the reigning EC champs, a 60+ win team, and losing to the team that swept the reigning 2x champs. They had a great shot at beating Dallas in their first 2 losses of the series, but simply weren't prepared for the zone and blew big 4th quarter leads as a result. That is a fixable mistake and something they have the personel to counter, it's just a matter of coaching and preparing them for those situations throughout the off-season, training camp, pre-season and reglar season, something that simply did not happen this year.

 

There were a few times in the post-season where Wade was terrific moving off-ball and in the post (specifically in the Philly and Dallas series'), and I don't think they took enough advantage of that. Personel really wasn't the problem as much as making adjustments throughout a 7-game series was IMO.

 

If we're talking about players being signed to long-term, overpaid contracts...well, Miami has them. Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Joel Anthony are all signed until 2015. I actually like Joel on the defensive end here and there, but he's a massive liability on the offensive end. Miller is nowhere near worth the $6.6 million he'll be getting at the end of his deal (he'll take the PO). Haslem is cheap, but he's still coming off the bench in very limited minutes, with Bosh eating up most of those at the four.

 

Joel Anthony is making like $3M a year and was extremely valuable at times for the Heat in the playoffs. Miller's deal is certainly managable, and Haslem's deal is terrific (he plays a lot of minutes at C which worked very well in the Chicago series, and worked in the Dallas series for the most part). None of those guys have deals as crippling as contracts like Fisher's, Artest's, Blake's, Walton's, Haywood's, Marion's, etc... Those guys are either really old with multiple years of near-MLE money left (Fisher, Walton, Artest), or are completely overpaid with multiple years left (Haywood, Marion, Blake).

 

I never said the Heat were the only team that would be screwed over, but they are the best team without an actual team right now (trying to make sense of that). With the potential of even less of a team, I'm not sure where they go from here.

 

They were within 2 games of a championship after the entire roster being put together in one off-season. Now, after failing, these guys have a much better idea of what to improve on in the off-season, from the coaches down to the players. This year's team had the personel to win...what killed them was not being prepared. Now they know what to expect, and have an entire off-season and another regular season to learn from it and practice how to improve on what Dallas exposed.

[Built Ford Tough]

They need to find a way to involve Bosh in the offense more than what they are doing. Having him literally doing nothing other than standing at the elbow waiting for LeBron or Wade to decide that they don't want to play Iso-ball is a complete waste of one of arguably the most talented power forward other than Dirk. Bosh has a consistent 22/10 on 50% shooting big man for the previous 5 years. If they are goiing to use him as a glorified spot up shooter, they are absolutely wasting his talents, and wasting cap space considering you can get somebody like David West for half the price or even somebody like Troy Murphy for a fraction of the price. Bosh is too good to be misused like this.

 

Either involve him more in the offense or trade him because his role on this team is an absolute waste of talent and cap room.

 

As for trading LeBron, the only player who I would consider moving him for would be Howard, but I'm probably not trading him until at least next offseason. There are definitely issues with whether or not him and Wade will ever be able to co-exist, but I don't think you can trade the best player in the game after one season. If the same issues plauge this team next season and it results in them falling short again, then you have to seriously consider it, but not before then.

 

Well, considering the fact that the Heat were just defeated in six by a real team of players, one all-star (not even sure if everyone considered Dirk a superstar months ago)

 

I did.

[Real Deal]

No reason to reply to everything, but this is something I'll touch on...

 

Now, after failing, these guys have a much better idea of what to improve on in the off-season, from the coaches down to the players.

Obviously, LeBron didn't learn from 2007. Boston forced him into terrible shots last year. He still didn't establish a decent post game. Why would that change?

 

And, if the Heat learn from this experience, why wouldn't other NBA teams learn how to beat the Heat? Zone them up. Dallas trusted it, and it worked. How many times did Dallas stick two guys on LeBron before he reached the perimeter? Hell, there were opportunities where Barea was on LeBron by himself. It's something you saw all year with teams, though, because those teams were all intimidated.

 

Larry Brown claimed that the group of Pistons learned how to defeat the triangle. They took time to learn the offense. It must have been true, seeing how we lost to a real team (ironically) of guys that had zero superstar power, but a ton of defensive talents.

 

If I can be convinced that one of them changes (LeBron or Wade), cool...I'll change my stance. As we go along, they will only get older, Miami could be lacking in talent, and to be honest, I'm not really sure how James will respond to the ass-kicking he just had. In 2007, it was acceptable because he didn't have Wade or Bosh, and he played a dynasty. Last night, Dallas was considered the ultimate chokers for so long, not a single NBA championship in franchise history, and a coach not named Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich. Make one a better off-ball player, or have one develop a nasty post game, and I'll start to worry a little more about the potential of them winning multiple championships.

[Real Deal]

They need to find a way to involve Bosh in the offense more than what they are doing. Having him literally doing nothing other than standing at the elbow waiting for LeBron or Wade to decide that they don't want to play Iso-ball is a complete waste of one of arguably the most talented power forward other than Dirk. Bosh has a consistent 22/10 on 50% shooting big man for the previous 5 years. If they are goiing to use him as a glorified spot up shooter, they are absolutely wasting his talents, and wasting cap space considering you can get somebody like David West for half the price or even somebody like Troy Murphy for a fraction of the price. Bosh is too good to be misused like this.

 

Either involve him more in the offense or trade him because his role on this team is an absolute waste of talent and cap room.

The only problem with Bosh was that he was playing like absolute garbage for at least 3-4 games of the series, and when he played decent (he didn't have an exceptional game), he lacked on the boards or was raped on the defensive end...something was wrong.

 

But, yeah, aside from Wade (who I think had a great series, especially when you remove Game 6 from view), I think Bosh should've had more opportunities. Make Dirk work on the other end of the court, at least, to slow him down. Anything.

[Dash]

They need to find a way to involve Bosh in the offense more than what they are doing. Having him literally doing nothing other than standing at the elbow waiting for LeBron or Wade to decide that they don't want to play Iso-ball is a complete waste of one of arguably the most talented power forward other than Dirk. Bosh has a consistent 22/10 on 50% shooting big man for the previous 5 years. If they are goiing to use him as a glorified spot up shooter, they are absolutely wasting his talents, and wasting cap space considering you can get somebody like David West for half the price or even somebody like Troy Murphy for a fraction of the price. Bosh is too good to be misused like this.

 

Either involve him more in the offense or trade him because his role on this team is an absolute waste of talent and cap room.

 

This is the problem with having 3 ball dominant stars, there is only so many touches Bosh could get with 2 of the top 2-3 superstars/egos in the league. Sure a few more plays with Bosh posting could help but as long as he's a Miami Heat, I don't he'll ever be used to his full capabilities.

 

Trading Bosh for a starting quality center and point guard would make a lot of sense. It fills two needs and opens up some wiggle room, but I would like to see if there are any changes to how he's implemented in the offense next season first.

 

As for trading LeBron, the only player who I would consider moving him for would be Howard, but I'm probably not trading him until at least next offseason. There are definitely issues with whether or not him and Wade will ever be able to co-exist, but I don't think you can trade the best player in the game after one season. If the same issues plauge this team next season and it results in them falling short again, then you have to seriously consider it, but not before then.

 

 

 

I did.

 

Agreed. Lets not forget that we're only one year into the big three experiment.

 

The Heat exceeded my expectations by making the finals so I don't see much reason to trade Lebron (or any of the big three for that matter) just yet.