Well, I just read a report on ESPN that is reporting that Steve Francis has reunited with the Rockets. According to the article, Francis turned down a higher offer from the Miami Heat. Reading into this, it seems that players around the league believe that the Heat’s immediate future is bleak; and it is hard to argue with that sentiment. The Heat have failed over and over again to land a quality free agent this off season and it seems that the problems are snowballing and affecting their current bargaining power. Nevertheless, there are still a few names on the market, including Juan Carlos Navarro.

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If you were to ask that question to Pat Riley, he would reply with a resounding “yes!” It seems that wherever Riley goes, wily old veterans follow. And no matter what their age, he will take the proven tested veteran over the young phenom any day of the week. But as any wine connoisseur knows, wine does not always get better with age. At a certain point, the wine turns into vinegar. This is exactly what happened to the Miami Heat this past season. The team waited until the end of the season to uncork the bottle, only to find that many of the players had gotten sour and undrinkable.

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Just in case you’ve forgotten, the Miami Heat did play in the playoffs this season. Against the Chicago Bulls? First round? Four game sweep? No, not coming to you? Well they did, so just deal with it. Now, I’m not saying with a healthy Wade we could have won the whole shibang, but at the very least we could have taken care of the scrappy (see flopping, see sissy, see Dallas) Bulls. Game 1, in Chicago, final 96-91 Bulls. Wade’s night, 21 pt, 3 ast, 2 ribs. Not exactly your classic Dwayne Wade playoff night (see 30+ pts averaged in last year’s finals). More telling than that though was the fact that he dunked only once (to my knowledge) in that game (though my memory is forcibly fuzzy on the whole subject). Three similar games followed, but without defense or the benefit of 20 points from Antoine Walker. The closest, game three, didn’t even have that close of a final score (104-96) due in part (see whole) to the fact that Miami was outscored 32-20 in the final period, something that’s usually the other way around with a healthy Wade on your side. So, no we probably would not have been able to beat the Spurs, but Chicago was well within our ability.
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This is the second part of my Offseason Moves Series. You can use the table of contents above to navigate to any other part of the series that you want to read about! At any rate, in this issue, we are going to be talking Forwads; both small and power. Incidentally, the difference between saying small and power is huge! I mean, who wants to be called a small forward… It is just embarrassing. They should change it to quick forward, or something less demeaning. I mean, look at king James. He is technically a small forward, but there is nothing about him that is diminutive or weak. However, let’s get back to the Heat. This is a position where the team definitely needs to get better. But how? Younger, more athletic players? Bigger, stronger rebounders? Well, let’s analyze the situation.

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You know, I spent 4 long years going to college in Switzerland. That is also the number of years I have gone without Miami Heat basketball. Sure, I caught the tail end of the playoffs last year, but other than that, I have had nothing. I could only wake up the next morning and check out whether the team won or not. Finally, this year comes around and I am back in the US and what do I get?! A lackluster, uninterested team that will be remembered for bookend losses to the Bulls; our season started and ended at the American Airlines Arena with a shameful loss to those young kids from Chicago.

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