Who can explain Heat Draft Pick trade??

[JerryD]

I casually follow basketball, but am confused by the Heat Draft Pick trade??

Cook and the No. 18 pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 32nd overall pick

Is my understanding correct?? That the Heat essentially threw the #18 pick in the garbage ... to simply not pay the pick & create cap space? I know they got the 32nd, but that's piddle.

Or did they have to pay someone the #18 to take that Cook guy off their hands ... can't just cut him???

I've never seen anything like this in Sports ... What am I missing??

 

[JCane]

What's happening is that yes, we are essentially throwing the #18 pick in the garbage. But the real deal is that we clear enough cap space to bring in two max contract guys. The two guys being LeBron James and Chris Bosh. We had to clear the necessary cap space to show LeBron and Bosh that we can sign the two of them and still retain Dwyane Wade. This makes us viable suitors for LeBron and Bosh no questions asked. If we can retain Wade and bring these two in, we're looking at dominating the Eastern Conference for at least the next five years. I loved what Daequan Cook brought to the team and I hated to see him go but I do understand the move.

 

[JCane]

Also...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5338472

 

[Possum]

beasley looked like he stepped up his game too. sad to see him go, but what must be done must be done.

 

[Ferretsquig]

They dumped the pick along with Cook to clear space. Cook had a salary of 2.2 mil and the first round pick would have cost 1.2 mil. The 32nd pick comes with a non-guaranteed contract, which means it counts nothing against the cap until the player is signed. As of now they still cannot offer three max contracts. In order to do that they'd have to dump Beasley as well, which Riley appears reluctant to do.

Assuming they buy out James Jones, which appears inevitable, Riley could offer three players a starting salary of 15 mil, 1.6 mil below the max. Its up to him and Wade to convince those two that its worth forgoing ~10 mil over 6 years or ~40 mil over 7 if they went the sign and trade route. Another option is for all three to go with 2 or three year deals like they did before, but that's considered a more of a risk now because most assume the new CBA will have lower max salaries.

There's plenty of local optimism, with talk of Bosh, Lebron and Wade meeting in Miami. But call me a skeptic until I see the signatures on the contracts. Too many times I've seen players express a great desire to come to Miami and play with Wade only to be lured by greater dollars. It would be hard for anyone to turn down that much money.

We'll see how it plays out......Wade, Lebron, and Bosh on the court together sure would be a sight to behold.

 

[JerryD]

Sure hope the Big Plan comes together. Riley's a guy who could pull it off.

I just find it weird that a good pick must be used to ditch players/salary. Every sport has flaws in the system, but for this to come about is a Lolla-Palooza flaw.

I moved out here to the Bay Area & the Kings & Warriors never have much success ... always figured it was the lack of money & the system. What can you guys tell me about them & other perennial cellar-dwellars? where do they go wrong?

 

[Ferretsquig]

Every league has its issues....as far as player salaries go, I think the NBA has the best setup out there.

Success is dependent on individual stars. In my mind good management and coaching have very little to do with winning championships.......location and luck are far more important factors. If Curry becomes what I think he will, the Warriors will be relevant again, no thanks to their abysmal front office and staff.