Talent or Tainted Goods?

Shaun Livingston's addition to the roster Friday was a worthwhile investment.

Sure, we might not know exactly what he brings to the table for a few weeks, maybe even months. But as we mentioned in a previous blog space, it made since to take this low-risk, low-cost gamble.

The Heat may have trickled into the luxury tax - assuming it might not be able to make a subsequent move to clear up cap space for a while. But as it stands, Livingston is not only a player with plenty of potential if he can even get back to 70 percent of what he was, he's also a made guy.

Uh, make that a Wade guy.

And keeping Wade happy and confident in the personnel moves made over the next two seasons (Wade is eligible to opt out of his contract in the summer of 2010), is always a smart move if you're Miami.

Wade and Livingston are Chicago Illinois natives who share an agent and personal trainer. Marion, also an Illinois Chicago native, brings the team's roster to three from the state. A two-year deal also gives the Heat enough of a sample size to see just what Livingston, 23, has left.

Yes, it's yet another reclamation project. But Pat Riley has turned such tasks into championship contenders. Miami now has five players on its roster who were chosen among the first 13 picks in the draft. That group includes Beasley (2nd), Livingston (4th), Wade (5th), Shawn Marion (9th) and Marcus Banks (13th). All are 30 or younger.

But is this group comprised more of talent or tainted goods? There are - or have been - legitimate questions about all five of those players, from health to experience to maturity.

But if this group can come together, stay relatively healthy and develop some chemistry, it's easily a playoff team. Or, at least it should be.

There's no doubt that the talent is there. By the trading deadline, we should know just how much of that talent is also tainted goods.

Comments

[Cyrus Lassus]

The Miami Heat will go from worst to first, according to the NBA Live '09 simulator:

http://www.nba.com/preview2008/easim.html

In 2006 it predicted we would be NBA champs, and that came true...

The top reasons the Heat may surprise people:

1) Wade - he's back

2) Marion - he's in a contract year

3) Spoelstra - he's going to win Coach of the Year

4) Beasley - a younger Antoine Walker?

5) Mourning - the song "still D.R.E." comes to mind

6) The point guards - Banks, Quinn, Chalmers, and Livingston... They are better than we think

7) The trade deadline - we have tradable assets (expiring contracts, solid role players, young talent) even though we are missing a first rounder.

8) The centers - Joel Anthony, Jamal Magloire, Mark Blount and Haslem will have solid seasons and Zo always plays like it is his last season.

9) James Jones - He will supply clutch three point shooting.

10) Payback - This team has way too much pride not to make last season look like an aberration.

There are some points that I am not quite sure I believe, but I do think that this team has gained a lot from last year's debacle (Michael Beasley takes Ricky Davis' spot, which he inherited from Antoine Walker... that has to be an improvement)

[Danny]

wow that simulator was a joke. no way the nuggets are a 4 seed, the utah jazz not make the playoffs, the bobcats make the playoffs, and to be quite frank the heat have the best record in the east. unless lebron james, kevin garnett, 2 pistons, and dwight howard get hurt for the year, and the heat all stay healthy, all have career years, and have insane luck.

well about livingston. i think that he could be really good or really bad or something in between. i think that he will be the in between and that he will actually help the heat. I personally think that there is no reason no to sign him in fact. if money was as much as an issue why did we give qualifying offers to wright and quinn???

[HeatFan]

At the end of the day, the livingston signing is a low risk signing. Looking at the current market, why not take a flier on him? He's 23 years old who hopefully has been working on his jumpshot over the last year and a half since that's about all he's been able to do. Certainly I'd rather take a chance on him than a Matt Walsh (no offense to him). Regardless, if it doesn't work out, it won't matter because he'll be gone in two years anyways. BUT if he pans out, could be an amazing backcourt partner for Wade in the future. I wish him the best b/c that was a brutal injury...

[BillyDAkid WADEforMVP2009]

I like the HEATs chances to win 50 games if a PG shakes-free out of the 3 talented and hungry competitors fighting for the job and a C shakes-free out of the 3 talented and hungry competitors fighting for the job.

With Wade at starting SG, Marion at SF and Beasley at PF you know youre getting great level of play from them 3, so if a good roleplayer shakes out at center and pg we're good to go and will win 50 or more games. (The bench: You know what youre getting from James Jones and Haslem and Cook too so we lookin good there. Zo will be back for playoff time too, dangerous team.)

[maxie]

It's all about building a tea. The Livingston signing in and of itself may have ruined Mario Chalmers; one minute Riley signs him to an enriched contract that makes the kid feel like the PG of the future, the next he goes and pulls the rug out from under Chalmers for a player whose future is, at best, iffy. Livingston may turn out to be Riley's biggest coup since John Starks, or he may be another step on the road to ruination of what a fine prospect in Chalmers. Time will tell -- just as time told in the short-sighted Shaq acquisition.