This guy is going to be putting a lot of dudes on posters. If he can shoot the 3 ball, this could be big time.
I think the worry isn't that he'll be Reid in year 1. It's that he'll never become much more than that. I think he has considerably more upside, and obviously Riley does too when he's talking about his jersey eventually hanging in the rafters, and comparing him to The Rain Man. But that's what the worry is with some fans.
Just read a rumor that Blake Griffin is fed up with Chris Paul and the Clippers and wants no part of either one. I'd prefer Hayward, but if Riley could land either guy, it would be a really good offseason.
Man, I've just never really thought Blake Griffin was all that. When he was rumored to the Knicks way back when I cringed.
I'd be thrilled with Blake I think because of the injuries and Clippers playoff struggles he's become underrated I think Hayward fits a bit better but I would not complain
A wrinkle that I didn't realize. JJ and Hayward have the same agent, Mark Bartlestein Wouldn't shock me if we know how much JJ will take with/without Hayward
By contrast, Blake shares an agent with Isaiah Thomas and there has been Boston speculation about him too
I used to agree. I thought he was the most overrated player in the league. Then he really developed a more well-rounded offensive game and became one of the best players in the league a couple of years ago. Then injuries took their toll a little bit. That will be the key for him IMO. If he stays healthy, I think the Heat are a team that can bring the most out of him. If he can't, then he'll be a bust.
I just watched a Bam highlight where he got the steal from a PG at half court then euro stepped in the lane for a finger roll.
I haven't seen much of him passing, he just ****ing catches and thinks slam lol. He's got nice moves around the basket.
Not sure if anyone listened to the PC yesterday, but Riley and Spo talked up Bam like he was going to be a REALLY good player. There were KG comparisons, Shawn Kemp comparisons, talk of his jersey eventually hanging from the rafters. Listening to them it seemed like they were genuinely excited about this guy. That had me wondering if despite everything we've heard about their interest in Mitchell, if this wasn't their guy all along. Well, on 790 just now, the host (not sure who it was) just said this was in fact the guy they wanted all along. He said someone at the station with good sources with the team was told 4 hours before the draft that Bam was their guy. If that's true, it makes me feel even better about the pick. EDIT: I think Ethan Skolnick is the source at 790. Apparently he said that he heard this before the draft. And he's about as good a source with the Heat as there is.
"Bam is their guy" is not mutually exclusive with Donovan Mitchell being above him on their board. Simple fact is by that point (4 hours before the Draft) it had come out that Donovan Mitchell was going to Charlotte at 11 (which didn't happen but was very credible) and that there's very little to no chance he gets to 14, one way or another. They had Bam higher than #14 overall on their board (maybe #13 or #12?). But I'd bet Donovan was higher.
You're right that those aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. But the way they talked about Bam, it would be somewhat surprising if they felt that two players outside the top 10 of this draft would be that good. Also, this radio host said they were taking Bam ahead of the guys most people thought they wanted. Does that mean that for sure they wouldn't have taken Mitchell? No. But reading the tea leaves, it suggest that there is at least a decent chance they still would have taken Bam.
ESPN says Heat feel "very good" about adding Blake Griffin and "very great" about adding Gordon Hayward.
We probably tend to assign too much acumen and intention to the Heat front office but it did come out the day before the Draft that the Heat intend to take Donovan Mitchell and as a pretty direct result the pick that was targeted for Mitchell in the trade-up was to pick #13. So I mean, if the intention was to make sure Bam fell to pick #14 then that worked. Then again I'm not sure it was a read, credible threat that anyone in the top 13 was going to take Bam. I guess the question is would you rather believe the much more likely but boring truth or the very unlikely but fun story.
Did it come out that they intended to take Mitchell? I know Section said that's what Ford said, but I read him quite a bit and never saw him say anything definitive. I know he was one of the guys that was being talked about, but Ford and Barry Jackson also mentioned guys like John Collins, Harry Giles, and TJ Leaf all of whom they passed on.
I know Riley is a professional, but I hope this Utah trading right before us is motivating him to get Gordon. Sell the **** outta gh
So, I was thinking about another interesting angle to the Bam pick. Riley joked about finally drafting a player from Kentucky, but there is something to Kentucky players taken in the lotto. If you look at lottery picks from John Calipari's time at Kentucky, it's a pretty impressive list. 2010 - John Wall (1), DeMarcus Cousins (5), Patrick Patterson (14) 2011 - Enes Kanter [He was ruled ineligible, however, and didn't play there] (3), Brandon Knight (8) 2012 - Anthony Davis (1), Michael Kidd-Gilcrest (2) 2013 - Nerlens Noel (6) 2014 - Julius Randle (7) 2015 - Karl-Anthony Towns (1), Willie Cauley-Stein (6), Trey Liles (12), Devin Booker (13) 2016 - Jamal Murray (7) Not a single guy on that list has become a bust. They aren't all stars, but every one of them are at least a role player for their team, and most of them are starters.
Three team trade in the works that involves sending Paul George to Cleveland and Kevin Love to Denver...
Wonder when things will start to heat up with respect to Miami's pending free agency. Also, when is summer league? I wanna see these guys in action.
The Orlando League starts July 1st. Miami plays Charlotte at 11:00am. Ironically, that's when all the **** will probably be going down with FA, as the moratorium starts that day. Hopefully we'll have some good news before the game starts. http://stats.nba.com/schedule/summerleague/#!/?rfr=nba&League=14
Lol the knicks and/or pacers should take kevin love... whats the problem really? Kevin love is still a top pf and gives you 20/10.
Like I said at first when I was sitting down to watch Bam Adebayo, pretty much at the insistence of Barry Jackson who kept insisting the Heat were looking hard at bigs for the #14 pick and maybe not with quite the tunnel vision for a Zach Collins that we'd think, I didn't think I was going to like Adebayo. I kind of had him pegged for what I thought he was going to be. And at first you're seeing a bunch of lob dunks and stuff like that, nothing to change my mind. But then there were some things that DID change my mind. This is one of them (two plays consecutively): I already had him pegged for a big, strong, brute under the basket. But above is when you start to see the explosive strength and explosive movements. That's a different quality to add to the mix. It's one thing to be big and strong on the inside, and another thing to really dominate. I saw the plays against Louisville and thought OK that's not Hofstra or Cleveland State, and that wasn't him just being big and strong, either. Here's another example of that brutal, explosive strength in action against Ole Miss: And again versus Tennessee: Once I saw that you watch the rest of his highlights and you start to see how difficult it was for defenders to face him. They knew they'd have to put some rebar into the floor and stay rooted, use their full body to resist his explosive strength. But then that opened them up consistently to the explosive movement skills that freed him to the basket. Here is a great example of what I'm talking about against Texas A&M: The leverage that these other defenders need to achieve in order to resist Bam Adebayo's natural strength and explosiveness drags down their speed and reactiveness. He's able to kill them with explosive movements to the basket because of that. That's what I saw and immediately thought to myself yeah this guy is Willie Reed right out of the box, which I wouldn't necessarily have said about any of the other bigs in the draft. Long term you're hoping those isolated instances where he euro stepped on Texas A&M or beat Donovan Mitchell in transition with a nifty move to the basket, or those instances where he displayed his mid-range shot, including in Heat tryouts and other workouts, you hope that's all indicative of stuff he can add to his game as he goes from a 19 year old physical phenom to a more seasoned ball player.
https://theringer.com/2017-nba-free-agency-blake-griffin-point-guard-eeae6cd3b18d Very interesting article about Blake and the possibilities for his game if a team will let him be his best self rather than trying to turn him into Karl Malone. Spo is exactly such a coach
This whole time Hayward has been at the top of my list for this free agency period. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder if Griffin doesn't offer more upside. The concerning thing with Griffin is the injuries and what happens when his athleticism starts to fade somewhat. He's 28 and so much of his game is predicated on that athletic ability. I agree with the point that schmolioot made about him thriving even more in the right system and under the right coach, and I think the Heat are a good match for him. I think Hayward has more room to grow a little as well, and would also be a good fit. And with him, the ceiling may not be quite as high, but the longevity might be much better. I think I'd still prefer Hayward because I think he's safer, but if it's Griffin I'd still be pretty excited to see what he can do, and it might end up paying off even more.
If you look at how we used JJ in the 2nd half last year, I think that is how Blake could best be used, and he is obviously far more talented than JJ Everything being equal I'd still probably take Hayward for the 3point shooting but it's close
Woj Bomb Hayward will meet with Boston and Heat once FA begins Boston trying to secure commitment from Hayward then trade for George. If Boston can't get Hayward they want Griffin to pair with George on hopes that he stays
The crux of Woj's story is that Boston believes it can keep George long term if they pair him with Hayward or Griffin I don't know what information they have on that, but if it's the case, why don't we try it? The story says Indy may not want to wait until July to make the deal. Why don't we swoop in now?
I dunno. I could see why Blake Griffin wants Miami. The marketing opportunity for him is tremendous in Miami with the Heat. Whatever Miami pays him, he plays in Miami and you can forget about just the state taxes he saves, he'll get a lot more money from marketing as well. What I'm having trouble with is after drafting Bam Adebayo, why does Miami want Blake Griffin? I'm not trying to count on Bam for more than I should, I don't like falling into that trap. But I'm just trying to figure out how do a Hassan Whiteside, Bam Adebayo, and Blake Griffin coexist? It would be a very contrarian setup, considering current NBA trends. The obvious is the obvious. Right now our backup center is Udonis Haslem, who should retire, and our power forwards are Luke Babbitt and James Johnson. Johnson's leaving most likely, in any scenario where Blake Griffin is here, certainly. Luke Babbitt seems like a pure three ball specialist. So Bam can be the backup center, and Blake Griffin can replace James Johnson. It's body-for-body and I get it. But it's also a lot of resources (counting Whiteside as well) into a front court that has very limited perimeter capabilities. That's a lot of confidence in Goran Dragic, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Wayne Ellington, and Justise Winslow. And possibly Dion Waiters.
I think you first need to look at things at face value. There are 2 premiere free agents that Miami will get a crack at. I think their first priority will be Hayward, and he might be the better fit. If you don't land him, though, you go after the other star player and make it fit. Spo talked about how the Heat are not one thing, and that they pride themselves on being unconventional and taking talent and making it work. I think that's how they would look at it with Griffin. As much as they seem to like Bam, I don't think he should play into the thinking on Griffin very much. Griffin has developed his jump shot and I think he could continue to move it out further from the basket much like Bosh did when he came here. Bam could then be your backup at both the 5 and the 4 and if he does turn into the player Spo and Riley talked about him becoming, then you can move Whiteside or Griffin later on. It's all about asset management, though, and if the Heat don't land a "whale" this offseason, it might be a little while before they get that opportunity again with TJ's contract ballooning the next two years combined with the deals you'd have to give Waiters and Johnson.
We were batting around this idea and it's interesting. Sign Blake Griffin and trade Hassan Whiteside for Paul George?
Is that like a s&t where Paul George signs a new contract with us? I wouldn't let Hassan go for a yearly rental. I think he's going to be better this year. Plus I just love the guy.
I feel great about it. I feel we can definitely get one of Gordon Hayward or Blake Griffin. Even if we don't, and we sign our own guys, last year was a freaking blast to watch. That's pretty much all I can ask for until the warriors get broken up.
