Pat Riley, Miami Heat Study Draft Picks and Trades

With the NBA draft just over two weeks away, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat have a lot of work to do. The Heat are preparing for what will most likely be a two front offensive to improve the team.

The NBA Draft on June 26 and the Free Agent "conversation period" that begins on July 1 will weigh equally heavy on the minds of Pat Riley and his brain trust headed up by Randy Pfund. 

For the purposes of this article, I am going to lend them a hand and name myself the new Miami Heat Trade Adviser. I'll do it for free just because I'll love traveling to South Beach to admire my handy work. 

Now that I am a member of the front office, I am, amazingly enough, going to draw up a roster that does not include Dwyane Wade.  I am of a growing school of thought that D Wade will hit the prime of his career as damaged goods.

His style of play, while fantastic to watch, lends itself towards Wade becoming a player who is never quite 100 percent. Granted, he will still be an All-Star but certainly not an MVP or even the best player on a championship team.

Luckily for Heat fans, I do think John Paxson and the Chicago Bulls think Wade can lead them back to the Finals and recreate the Jordan/Pippen magic with Luol Deng. They also think Vinny Del Negro is the coach for them, but that is a story for another time. 

So here are three trades to ponder and please suspend any skepticism based on financials. Knowing that it if they were to come any where close to fruition, each proposal would be tweaked by real front office personnel to work under the respective salary caps.

These are more blueprints and not a finished product. I have tried to keep them as close to financially feasible under the cap rules as I could:

1. Heat send Wade & Alexander Johnson to the Bulls for the first pick(Derrick Rose) in the draft, Joakim Noah, Thabo Seflosha, & Drew Gooden.

I realize that Wade is a Base Year Compensation player, which can make a deal tough to put together. But with a draft pick involved (Chicago's), the possibility of a trade exception involved (Chicago's), multi sign and trade options (Miami's) to use, these two teams can certainly make it happen. It all boils down to if they have the guts, which remain to be seen, but almost every NBA trade falls into that category.

2. Shawn Marion & Joel Anthony to the L.A. Clippers for Elton Brand & Brevin Knight.

This means two guys, Marion and Brand, who are both close to the conclusions of their respective contracts, would need to make concessions. However, money talks, and I think the benefits to Miami are obvious. An All-Star caliber power forward and a veteran backup PG are pieces that do not exist on the current squad. Again for this article, we are only concerned about the Heat. Trying to figure out anything involving the Clippers or Marion for that matter, hurts to even think about.

3. Udonis Haslem, Daequan Cook, Roberto Duenas, & cash for Raja Bell, Alando Tucker, DJ Strawberry, and the 14th pick.

The Heat gets defenders in the form of Bell, Strawberry, & Tucker & with the 14th pick they hope Robin Lopez, a 7-foot rebouder/defender off the bench type is still available. Now most Heat fans would pray for Kevin Love to be sitting there, but that may be too much to hope for & Lopez may fill a bigger need. Adding four players who would provide useful depth at the three, four, and five spots would come at a cost. Haslem and Cook both could become key pieces for the Suns the next few years but when building an NBA team it is key to find the guys who can give you a consistent 12, 18, or 24 minutes like these four could do.

So, with these deals, the Heat would send out on to the floor next season a starting five of Alonzo Mourning, Elton Brand, Michael Beasley, Raja Bell, and Derrick Rose. Yes folks, mourning will be coming back. 

In his mind, warriors do not limp off the court and Riley would love to have him on the floor with the kids showing them the right way to play. The rest of the rotation would be rounded off with Noah, Gooden, Brevin Knight, & Seflosha.

Seflosha may push Bell for a starting spot which would certainly help make the Heat a playoff contender. The bench would then be rounded out with a combination of extremely expensive seat warmers Mark Blount and Marcus Banks plus kids Strawberry, Tucker, and Lopez.

It would be heaven sent if the Heat could find takers for either Banks and/or Blount.

The Heat will also have to figure out what to do with Dorrel Wright who while best of friends with the newly departed D Wade, also has new coach Erik Spoelstra in his fan club, which may equate to one more year on the club trying to avoid becoming a star in Europe. 

While I may, to a certain extent, agree with those who will say, "C'mon, those are three big deals with lots of cash & bodies flying back and forth,” I would also point out that Pat Riley has overhauled rosters during the summer before.

Both teams in the finals this year benefited from multiple trades over the past 12 months as well. My feeling is Riley loves Wade and would rather build around him with a stud rookie and a big free agent the next couple of years.

I also can't seem to shake the feeling that Riley would love to ride off into the sunset having shaped and created one more title contender out of seemingly scraps and that's what these deals would do.