Miami Heat Free-Agent Targets: Why Greg Oden Should Stay Put

The truncated free-agency period is under way, and among the more visible participants this year are everybody's favorite underdog, the Miami Heat (pause for laughter).

To address their most glaring hole (besides humility,) the Heat are reported to be pursuing several free-agent big men, namely Nêné, Greg Oden and Eddy Curry. No word yet on whether Tyson Chandler has laughed off a Pat Riley phone call.

Unless Nêné takes a particularly painful pay cut compared to what he could earn, he's probably not on board. Those who point to the big three as proof he could take (a lot) less, might I remind you that Nêné is worth nowhere near as much as they were, having never earned max money in his career.

He simply can't trade off perhaps dozens of millions for easy success, and it seems unlikely he's itching that badly for a title to begin with, so Nêné is a longshot to take his talents to Mouth Beach.

Eddy Curry is a possibility, commanding a much more modest salary which more than likely will be less than the mid-level cutoff. So Curry makes financial sense. On the court is another story altogether...

What does Curry do? Score...and little else. The Heat need scoring under the basket, don't they? Yes, but not as badly as they need rebounding. Go check Curry's career high in season rebounds, and try not to be depressed afterward when you double-check to find he is indeed the largest man on the market.

The last thing Miami needs is a black hole who doesn't rebound, and yet I suspect their extended use of Joel Anthony has them sufficiently starved for a scoring center to do something stupid like sign Curry. We'll see, I suppose.

Who's left? Apparently Greg Oden's name has popped up, and this is where that headline comes in.

Before saying a word, it's important to remember that Portland has extended a qualifying offer Oden's way, which is worth 175 percent, give or take, of Miami's mid-level exception. What this means is Oden's financial future is not in Miami-Dade.

And yet, you can bet Riley will try his darnedest to work his Don "Magic" Juan magic and sweet-talk Oden into joining his little gravy train. Knowing the kind of awe he's capable of commanding, I wouldn't put it completely past him, which pulls the Oden rumor back into the realm of plausible discussion.

Would Oden be a good fit on the Heat? Absolutely, inasmuch as he's a defensive stalwart and elite rebounder when healthy, who gets most of his offense from garbage plays. The Three Banditos would not need to give up touches to incorporate Oden into the team system, and he'd be there to clean up countless bad shots for them.

So other than the good old fashioned ducats, what's the downside of joining the Heat for Oden? Just ask LeBron. The public and the media will slap the turncoat label on him faster than he can say his own name. 

Now, a question: did LeBron James owe the Cavs or the city of Cleveland anything? Absolutely not; he gave them several years of incredible basketball, and even a glimpse at the Finals they may never get again. LeBron had no moral obligation to Cleveland—aside from a far classier exit—when he left.

It's very rare you'll find a good reason to say a player owes a franchise something, but Oden is just such a rarity. The Blazers took a measurable risk in drafting him over Kevin Durant, and they've been betting on him ever since despite discouragingly long odds.

The city has gotten behind him when other towns (I'm looking at you, New York) would have been calling for his prompt removal after their version of patience ran out in 2009.

The fans continued to embrace him far beyond the call of duty, when the rest of the country was mocking Portland's failure to disown him and move on. He's about as close to family as a player can be to a town of strangers, and has little to do with the 82 games he's actually played in his four years there.

There was talk of the Blazers severing ties amicably (i.e. the Blazers were rumored to reconsider throwing more good money after bad), but it's now clear they're willing to match even heftier contract offers to keep him.

If Oden were to turn around and defect (especially to Miami...especially if his health were to return,) he'd be the national public's newest Benedict Arnold, without the benefit of having given all that much back before skipping town.

To borrow from wresting terminology, Oden is one of the NBA's biggest babyfaces (an ironic term in that he looks 74 years old,) a guy people can't resist rooting for at every step. Were he to ditch his team, his image would take a steeper plunge than even LeBron, who was already on speaking terms with controversy even before "The Debacle."

Oden should be smart enough to know he has enough turmoil in his career right now without half the continent lobbing stones at his character every night. Perhaps a more seasoned Oden could handle it, but a heel turn of this magnitude would be a brutal experience for him at this point, and potentially not worth the reward.

He needs a positive environment (which he has) in which to come into his own, and the more people supporting him, the better. He's used to everyone wishing him well, and hasn't been forged in the media crucible; bringing national disgust on himself would be a massive obstacle on the road to a happy career.

Oden already has the distinct advantage of being counseled by literally anyone on this earth besides Maverick Carter, so here's hoping the advice he's given (and his own reported preference) leads him to remain a Trail Blazer.

Unlike the Cavs—or even the Raptors—the Blazers (and more importantly, their fans) have yet to see much of a return on their massive investment. Most people, it seems, are still willing to gamble on Oden having a fruitful career. If those golden years do come, it would be something of a travesty if they weren't in Portland.