Blowing Up Miami

Back in the summer of 2005 I was giddy about the way Pat Riley was wrecking the Heat's future in a desperate and doomed-to-fail effort to win the championship in 2006. Unfortunately, he actually did win the championship. But now, as John Hollinger observes, the team is totally screwed and needs to blow things up:

All year, speculation has had Miami trading its expiring contracts (Jason Williams, Ricky Davis, Dorell Wright) to get another player and kick-start a playoff push. But actually, the Heat needs to go in the opposite direction. They should begin unloading the likes of Mark Blount, Williams, Davis, and perhaps even Udonis Haslem, tell Wade to take a break until he's truly healthy, and figure out how to get back into the mix another year or two down the road. Because at 8-27, it sure as heck ain't happening this year.

Sounds like good advice to me. I'd keep Haslem, though, he's young and pretty good. You just need to let the expiring contracts expire, let the team be bad, get a draft pick, let Wade get healthy, etc. I'm not sure what you can get in exchange for "the likes of Mark Blount," though. He doesn't seem like an in-demand player.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/01/blowing-up-miami/47861/