I found this quote in an article about the Miami Heat and Pat Riley stating that he could possibly use next year's cap flexibility to sign many very good players rather than a superstar:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/heat/content/sports/epaper/2009/09/08/a1c_george_0909.htmlFor instance, he might not spend all of his loot next summer on any one particular star, such as Toronto's Chris Bosh.
"If you go back to the last time that we had significant (cap) room," said Riley, "we were able to sign Alonzo Mourning, Juwan Howard, P.J. Brown, Dan Majerle and Tim Hardaway, all in one year. Why do I want to take a big chunk of money and give it to one guy? Why wouldn't I want to spread it around to get two or three starters that fit better?"
Here's a look at the Heat situation next year from a financial aspect:
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/heat.jspAnd here's a look at the possible available free agents:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=freeagents-09-10So if the Heat renounce some of their bigger contracts like O'Neal, Haslam, and Richardson or sign them to considerably less money(I could see Richardson and/or Haslam doing this but I think there's zero chance O'Neal would) and re-sign Wade, are they better off signing a bunch of good players or signing Bosh and a bunch of veteran minimum type players?
Theoretically they could have Wade, Beasley, Cook, Chalmers, and Anthony with $25-$30 million of cap room, if everyone is renounced. So would they be better doing:
Chris Bosh - $16 million
Brad Miller - $5 million
Steve Blake - $5 million
and a bunch of vets min type players
or
Zydrunas Ilgauskas - $6 million
David Lee - $8 million
Raymond Felton - $7 million
Craig Smith - $2 million
Travis Outlaw - $3 million
Marcus Camby - $2 million
and a couple vet mins.
Now of course the salaries are all my estimates as to what those players might get in next year's market and those could be way off depending on what occurs this year but I think you get the idea. You of course can come up with your own group of players that might be a better combo for the Heat over Bosh and some other players. Feel free and get creative.
But is Pat riley right? Could it be in the Heat's best interest to spread the money around and get a bunch of really good players or are they better off investing in just a couple super-duper stars and some prospects and flotsam and jetsam?