bigbasketballs wrote:NardDogNation wrote:If Melo wants to win now and win big, the Heat are much closer to that. They are the skeleton of the 2012 and 2013 champions, with better role players and Pat Riley still at the helm. The cherry on top is that Dwayne Wade is a close friend of Melo's (they even vacation together sometimes), which makes it a destination that he'd feel comfortable in. Not to mention....it's freaking Miami aka an actual paradise with the 4th largest economy in the country. What's not to love?
Well, you're putting your eggs in a very small basket here, but okay, I'll play.
Keeping in mind The Heat have the dilemma of whether or not to pay Wade next year, in addition to the fact Whiteside is an UFA and the Heat only have his Early Bird FA rights, and the component of your theory of selling Melo on Miami as a title contender for the next 4 years… construct a trade that works under the CBA.
And I'd be a little weary of turning Kristaps into the leader/franchise player of the team overnight. It's a big reason why I'd want sage veterans like Joe Johnson and Loul Deng on the team. They still have a lot of game left and can provide a smooth transition through the post-Melo era into the Kristaps-era, 3-5 years from now. With a young team, you also have to anticipate setbacks due to immaturity. I could easily see young, good-looking, multi-millionaires enjoying the vices of the best city on the planet....veterans like the ones I mentioned would help to keep them in line and also allow us to bench/DNP-CD our young players should these issues occur.
You know he lives with his parents and two older brothers, right?
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what Whiteside's status is. I was working under the assumption that they could go dollar for dollar with whatever the best offer is out there. For Melo to work, he needs to be there because that could be an incredibly porous defensive team. If Melo prevents them from keeping him then you'd be correct to question whether the deal would be viable. Wade though, would be a non-factor; they've got his Bird Rights and can give him what he wants regardless of Melo being there or not.
But I don't see how the trade couldn't work from a cap perspective. Melo's making $23 million.
Loul Deng makes $10.2 million, Josh McRoberts makes $5.5 million, Chris Anderson makes $5 million and Justise Winslow makes $2.5 million. Add it all up and that is $23.2 million right there.
I suspect that the next argument is going to be "well, what bench are they going to have if they do all that?". To that I say: they still have Beno Udrih, Gerald Green, Josh Richardson, Haslem and Amar'e; if necessary, we could throw in Kevin Seraphin at $2.8 million and Cleanthony Early at about $1 million to flesh their bench out and the deal would still work cap wise. Is that bench any worse than what the Clippers, a perennial contender, have trotted out in year's past? Hell, is it any better than what they had when LeBron was there?
As for Kristaps, I was aware that he was living with his brother but not his parents. Either way, does that really matter? You can't get into **** with 7 digits in your bank account and a little ingenuity? At the end of the day, he still has a dick and from personal experiences, having one makes you do stupid **** regardless of how mature you are. Last I heard, he had a thing for Rihanna and now that he has made a name for himself, how long before that type of woman, or a Kardashian, or the army of gold-digging whores out there compel him to be on the social scene? Same line of reason goes for any of the young players I'd target.
