Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Who will be Miami's starting small forward? No one seems to want Rasual Butler or Wesley Person to take on that burden of responsibility. That may be partially why Michael Jordan's name was floated, and why Ruben Patterson's and Ron Artest's names are floating now. Let's not forget that Caron wasn't the only Butler on this team. Rasual will surprise.
The Heat have some duplication between Person and Eddie Jones and Jones's max contract could be used to extract some very high-priced players, though his own contract would need to be augmented with some cheaper, younger talent. If some of the extraneous Heat pieces can be moved for Artest (and anyone not named Dwyane or Shaq is extraneous), and Artest continues his evolution into the mature player he seems to be becoming, the Heat would be nearly unstoppable.
The thinking in such trades would be to win now. Rasual is a terrific young talent and could be one of the league's top three point shooters. But Artest could lock down the opposing team's swing players, whether it means Tracy McGrady or Kobe Bryant in the Finals. In fact the Heat will meet the Rockets in a preseason game on October 10. We'll see how and who can defend McGrady.
Rumors out of Indiana suggest Artest could be shipped at the right price, though Larry Bird has called him one of the league's top 10 players, perhaps as part of a marketing ploy.
TEAM NOTES
Television Broadcast Schedule: Kicking off their 17th season, the Miami HEAT announced on September 23rd theirtelevision broadcast schedule for the 2004-05 NBA season. All 82 HEAT regular season games are scheduled to be telecast, including 70 contests on Sunshine Network.
Heat Live Wire!: HEAT Fans, all the best offers for HEAT tickets are made via email to fans who have given us their email addresses. Let us “hook you up” with special pre-sale offers available by email only!
Ira Winderman ofThe South Florida Sun-Sentinelwrites: While in no way suggesting the Heat has anything in the works for these players, two names that intrigue are Ruben Patterson and Ron Artest.While we're not about to speak to the character of either, both present the type of toughness the Heat lacks at the position and both face uncertain futures with their present teams.
The Morning Callwrites: Shaquille O'Neal was among several NBA players involved in the shooting of a series of new TNT promotional ads at a New Jersey high school. O'Neal showed up wearing a Miami Heat uniform but Laker shoes.''We'll have to do something about those shoes in post production,'' TNT's Holly Northey said. Maybe TNT can explain it as a wardrobe malfunction.
Paul Angilly ofThe Bristol Presswrites: Already available is the Topps flagship brand, which features Shaq’s first card in his new Miami Heat uniform -- an autographed card limited to 125 copies (his base card in the set shows him with the Lakers).