Miami Heat Runner Up Report

[logpmess]

Welcome everybody. As usual, we will talk about last year, followed by our off season, and finally conclude with our outlook going forward.

Last year. What a year. We finally had a healthy roster for the first time in ages. Al Jefferson stepped into a leadership role and solidified his worth to this team. We hoped to have a better regular season, but ended up in the playoffs as the 5th seed. It took us 7 games to beat the very talented Hawks team. After that, we went to the top of our division and faced off against the 76ers. After another 7 game series, we emerged as the victors. We met the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. We have faced the Celtics many times in the playoffs, so we knew we would have a tough series. After losing game 1 at home, we realized we had to do work. We ended up taking the next four games straight to win our first ever Eastern Conference crown. At that point, we went up against the San Antonio Spurs. In an interesting match up of players and roles, the two teams battled to a game 7. The result of that game is a missed shot as time expired by Brandon Jennings, and a Spurs championship victory. I want to say congratulations to Eazy and the spurs. Overall, we definitely consider last year a success. We are proud of our players, and look forward to working with them in the future.

Bring on the offseason. We drafted Miles Plumlee, who had solid potential at the big man spot as a role player, but never really had a roster spot for him. In RFA, we knew we wanted to bring back Serge Ibaka, as well as sign a impact player at either of the guard spots or at small forward. We won the rights to OJ Mayo. We reached out to the Kings, and came to an agreement sending our newest draft pick in Plumlee along with two future firsts for Mayo. People have claimed it was a trape to me, but I got a starting shooting guard with comprable skills to Rip Hamilton, who held the spot on our finals run. I am okay with giving away three non-factor picks (estimated in the 20s) for a key piece to a championship team going forward. After that, we let the idea of either Lebron or AJ leaving in a sign and trade cross our minds. However, no team offered anywhere near a valuable deal for either of these players. We Supermaxed these two players and now we have our team for the future.

Going forward, our lineup will look as follows:
C - Al Jefferson
PF - Serge Ibaka
SF - Lebron James
SG - Rip Hamilton
PG - Brandon Jennings

Look for OJ Mayo to split time with Hamilton, and Gustavo Ayon being our key big man backup. Our expectations are to improve in the regular season, and hopefully make another deep playoff run. We have our team set up for the next four years (with the exception of Jennings, who is a RFA next season), so we are happy with our team going forward.

With that I will open the floor to any questions that you have.

[WigNosy]

While this team is without a doubt talented and a title contender, your projected luxury tax payment with your current salary commitments just for this season is 133 points - how long do you feel your squad can sustain itself before you have to reset your tax status? At what point does fiscal responsibility come into play?

[JNR]

GWR: You touched on this briefly, but in light of your tax situation, was Brandon Knight brought in to be Jennings' replacement?

[logpmess]

While this team is without a doubt talented and a title contender, your projected luxury tax payment with your current salary commitments just for this season is 133 points - how long do you feel your squad can sustain itself before you have to reset your tax status? At what point does fiscal responsibility come into play?

I'm not sure where that number came from. Estimating off of last year's luxury tax thread, my estimated tax should be at 57, since I was under the cap last season. Which is quite manageable this year. I will address the future cap situations going forward year by year. I will go into each season considering the tax and pursue trades should the value of the assets traded match the value of the cap support.

[logpmess]

GWR: You touched on this briefly, but in light of your tax situation, was Brandon Knight brought in to be Jennings' replacement?

Brandon Knight was brought in very raw. He played a good backup role for Jennings last season, which will be his role again this season. Although he progressed in some facets of his game, he declined in the key areas of a point guard. We will evaluate his role at the end of the season, but we will be considering him as a prospect to take over for Brandon Jennings at seasons end.

[IamQuailman]

Are you prepared to face the fact that Brandon Jennings could be facing a big money deal this upcoming off-season? Will you limit his minutes to make his stats look worse (in hopes of manipulating GMs)?

[ballsohard]

Are you prepared to face the fact that Brandon Jennings could be facing a big money deal this upcoming off-season? Will you limit his minutes to make his stats look worse (in hopes of manipulating GMs)?

I think Ian Quailman is the only GM that makes his team's stats look worse to manipulate other GMs(bandit)

[garbageman]

Very tight series against the Spurs in the championship. If you had to run it back, would you have done anything differently strategy-wise for game 7?

[IamQuailman]

Are you prepared to face the fact that Brandon Jennings could be facing a big money deal this upcoming off-season? Will you limit his minutes to make his stats look worse (in hopes of manipulating GMs)?

I think Ian Quailman is the only GM that makes his team's stats look worse to manipulate other GMs(bandit)

Trust the process

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[logpmess]

Are you prepared to face the fact that Brandon Jennings could be facing a big money deal this upcoming off-season? Will you limit his minutes to make his stats look worse (in hopes of manipulating GMs)?

No. We are all in for a championship this year again. We will handle the Jennings contract negotiations next season.

[logpmess]

Very tight series against the Spurs in the championship. If you had to run it back, would you have done anything differently strategy-wise for game 7?

It came down to him making his last shot and our team missing our last shot. I wouldn't change anything. The chips fell how they fell.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: You have one of the most talented teams in the league, albeit a very wing-heavy one. Do you foresee having to move one of your many wings for an additional frontcourt piece, or are you confident that Ayon and Villanueva are up to the challenge of being the only bench big men?

[Conroy]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, Lebron seemed to really step up in that Boston series do you think he's starting to live up to the unfair hype that's been placed upon him since high school?

[logpmess]

Random Reporter: You have one of the most talented teams in the league, albeit a very wing-heavy one. Do you foresee having to move one of your many wings for an additional frontcourt piece, or are you confident that Ayon and Villanueva are up to the challenge of being the only bench big men?

I am crazy about Ayon. He is an integral piece to this team and his play will determine a large portion of our success this year. Villanueva knows the player that he is. He is our veteran presence to guide the youth of Ayon and Ibaka to be better players.

[logpmess]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, Lebron seemed to really step up in that Boston series do you think he's starting to live up to the unfair hype that's been placed upon him since high school?

Lebron was truly lifted with the development of Al Jefferson and the acquisition of Brandon Jennings. He didn't feel the burden to do it all on the scoring end as far as Jefferson is concerned, and he didn't feel the need to have the ball in his hands at all times in regard to Jennings. We love this new look Lebron, and he seems to be a healthy, happier player because of it.

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: If you had to come up with a soundtrack for this season ahead, what would it be for the team you have?

[false9]

Lack Zowe, Landgrant:

Serge Ibaka had a career high in 3 point attempts last year. Do you expect him to continue to stretch his game further out this season?

[logpmess]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: If you had to come up with a soundtrack for this season ahead, what would it be for the team you have?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfuAukYTKg

[logpmess]

Lack Zowe, Landgrant:

Serge Ibaka had a career high in 3 point attempts last year. Do you expect him to continue to stretch his game further out this season?

We value Serge as a stretch 4. We have never been a particularly strong three point shooting team, so if Ibaka can keep people honest then we have a better chance of success this year.

[TrayWithAnA]

Have you bounced back yet from the very disappointing Game 7 loss that you suffered, and have the Suns reminded you of this shortcoming constantly since they were able to overcome that game 7 barrier?

[Eazy P]

Great season last year. now that you brought back all of your core how do you feel about this upcoming season? How do the players in the locker room feel about this year? Do they feel like there's some unfinished business?

[logpmess]

Have you bounced back yet from the very disappointing Game 7 loss that you suffered, and have the Suns reminded you of this shortcoming constantly since they were able to overcome that game 7 barrier?

It was tough to get past at first. Our entire franchise was disappointed. But we left it all on the court. We got together as a team and have moved on. We have our eyes on the championship this year as a unit.

I have had no communication with the Suns GM.

[logpmess]

Great season last year. now that you brought back all of your core how do you feel about this upcoming season? How do the players in the locker room feel about this year? Do they feel like there's some unfinished business?

Great season for you as well and congratulations on the 'ship. We felt that these players can win a championship so that the price of bringing them back was worth it. The locker room is starting to become a community. They want this year to be the year more than anything else.


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