The top 10 free agents in Miami Heat history
MIAMI — With the Thursday NBA trading deadline approaching, it is worth noting that many of the Miami Heat’s best personnel moves instead came on the freeagent market.
For every Shaquille O’Neal in February, there has been a Chris Bosh in July.
For every Tim Hardaway and Goran Dragic at the trading deadline, there have been LeBron James and Lamar Odom in the offseason.
And it’s not even about the summer, with prospects such as Hassan Whiteside arriving early in the season and the Heat’s first-ever point guard put in place through free agency just a day before the season.
Yes, Pat Riley is not shy when it comes to blockbuster deals, particularly at the trading deadline. But he also appreciates that there is something to be said about heading into the free-agent market, when the only art of the deal is face-to-face with a single target, rather than dealing with the vagaries of an opposing front office.
Throughout this 30th-anniversary season, the South Florida Sun Sentinel will look back at three decades of the Heat, at the men and the moments that have made this an exhausting, exhilarating and enduring ride.
Today we look at the franchise’s Top 10 free-agent acquisitions. Clippers for Elton Brand days earlier, which was promptly matched. Then, with the Clippers on the hook for the Brand contract, the Heat followed up with an offer sheet to the Clippers for Odom, which the Clippers effectively could not match. The Heat then flipped Odom a year later to the Lakers as the centerpiece of the trade for Shaquille O’Neal.