Highlights from Day 2 of the Heat experience at the Las Vegas Summer League ...
- The biggest news of the day? The Three Kings will get to do their championship chase thing in Miami.
Of course that was the expected. But NBA commissioner David Stern had to give the league's owners a chance to voice their displeasure with the Heat landing LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade in Miami. As expected, talk of potential tampering dominated the early stages of the owners' meetings at The Palms Hotel. But Stern emerged from the meeting declaring that no team formally filed charges and that there would be no investigation for tampering or collusion. Consider it case closed.
But Stern did leave the door open for the owners' Labor Relations committee to look into possible tweaks to the free agency format and how to better monitor the rules and spirit of the process. The plain and simple truth is this: You can't keep players from talking among themselves about future plans. As Stern said: "Those three players were within their rights to talk to one another."
Stern also sternly expressed his displeasure with comments made by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in the aftermath of LeBron's departure from Cleveland. Gilbert was fined $100,000, and Stern said he had a long talk with Jackson on Monday morning about Jackson's "slave" remarks. The commish also was far from thrilled with LeBron's way of announcing his decision on the ESPN hour-long telecast. "The Decision was ill conceived, badly produced and poorly executed," Stern said.
- There's the Big 3 and, now, the Gator 2. Udonis Haslem's decision to turn down more lucrative offers from
New Jersey, Dallas and Denver to re-sign with the Heat on Monday gives Miami significant depth and experience at the power forward spot. The all-but-officially-completed addition of swingman Mike Miller also gives the Heat a needed shooter on the perimeter. Pat Riley just continues to come up with Aces in this free agency process. There appeared to be no way the Heat would be able to carve out enough salary cap space to re-sign Haslem, let alone Mike Miller. But the former UF Gators took less than market value to get it done here.
Miller was a Heat target years ago during his prime years in Memphis. Now that Haslem and Miller are in Miami, the Heat can now focus on picking up two or three players at the veterans minimum. There are center options out there in Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jamaal Magloire, Brad Miller and Kwame Brown. The Heat simply needs a banger down low to eat up rebounds, block a few shots and use six fouls. There's also a need for help at point guard, with Derek Fisher pulling a Lamar Odom by turning the Heat down Monday to re-sign with the Lakers. Among those still available are Keyon Dooling, Jason Williams, Earl Watson and, dare we say it, Allen Iverson.
- The Heat's summer league squad didn't have a game scheduled Monday, but that didn't keep them off the court. The team went through practice Monday morning in advance of Tuesday's game against Golden State at 10:30 et. A look back at the stat sheet from Sunday's game revealed a solid second-half performance from guard Jon Scheyer, who filled the stat sheet with 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. There were the four turnovers. But he also nailed the go-ahead 3-pointer late in the fourth and also drilled four consecutive free throws to close out the 77-72 victory over New Orleans.
"I feel confident, and that's something the Heat is known for, giving guys a chance," said Scheyer, who
was undrafted out of Duke. "I'm going to just keep giving everything I have and that's all I can control."
- The Heat officially finalized the trade that sent Michael Beasley, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 draft, to Minnesota for two future second round picks. Let's repeat that. The second overall pick was traded for two second-round picks. It isn't quite a LeBron-type come up for Minnesota. But the T-Wolves got a big-time something for absolutely nothing. The Timberwolves have a team here competing in summer league, but it's too late to add Beasley to the roster. Instead, Beasley, who was already in Minnesota in advance of the trade being complete, plans to remain there to work out at the T-Wolves facility.
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