Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Crowded court
Wayne Ellington’s return gives Heat a glut at guard.
LAS VEGAS — For the Miami Heat, this wouldn’t be an issue if it merely were a three-wing circus.
Instead, the math is starting to get a bit fuzzy in the wake of the team bringing back Wayne Ellington on a one-year free-agent contract, with Dwyane Wade now potentially waiting on deck.
While the Heat agreement on a one-year deal with Ellington was a matter of showing loyalty to a contributor caught in a dreary free-agent market, it also further muddled an already crowded wing rotation for coach Erik Spoelstra.
Recall, in the wake of the Heat closing the regular season at 44-38 and then being eliminated 4-1in the first round of the playoffs by the Philadelphia 76ers, Heat President Pat Riley said, “We have too many good to great players. We have too many.”
He was talking about the entire roster, but he might as well have been talking about the perimeter rotation.
Beyond Goran Dragic as the only true point guard on the roster, and beyond Hassan Whiteside, Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo in the power rotation, the Heat essentially are left with James Johnson, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Dion Waiters, Rodney McGruder, Tyler Johnson, Derrick Jones Jr. and Ellington as mix-and-match pieces on the wing.
And that’s not even getting to Wade’s decision about whether to return, or about the speculation regarding Carmelo Anthony making South Florida his landing spot after an anticipated buyout from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But it is at shooting guard where a thinning out would seem in order. Wayne Ellington: The Heat did right by Ellington after the free-agent market did not.
Thursday’s one-year, $6.3 million agreement with the player who this past season set the franchise record for 3-pointers in a
season likely will be followed up by a more substantive deal in a year, when Ellington will have full Bird Rights.
The Heat did not go into the luxury tax (at least for the moment) without intentions to play the 30-year-old as a rotation player. There may not be full rotation minutes, but there will be minutes. Dion Waiters: The Heat need to provide consistent minutes whether to justify the four-year, $60 million investment a year ago or to showcase that Waiters is all the way back from last season’s ankle surgery.
The time has come for the Heat to determine whether Waiters is the closer going forward, or whether there will be a need to continue to bring back the likes of Wade or make plays for the likes of Anthony. Josh Richardson: Remember, it was no less than Riley who mused at season’s end, “Is Josh a small forward? Is he a two? I think he’s probably more of a two.”
If that is the case, then with the 2015 second-round pick out of Tennessee entering the first year of a fouryear, $42 million contract extension, it could be time to get him to the position that the franchise patriarch believes is the best fit for his skill set.
As it is, the Heat spent summer league attempting to develop Bam Adebayo into more of a power forward, which ultimately could leave James Johnson and Winslow at small forward more often going forward. Tyler Johnson: This is, of course, no less than the $19.3 million question, which is Johnson’s salary these next two seasons as the final two years on his oddly structured four-year, $50 million contract.
It would make sense on so many levels for this to be the follow-up move to the Ellington signing, utilizing Johnson’s deal in a trade to alleviate the Heat’s luxurytax concerns. With salarycap space almost gone around the league in the wake of the latest machinations by the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks, failing a deal with the Sacramento Kings, it could be a matter of the Heat trading Johnson for a less punitive salary.
Johnson has the ability to make the Heat better, but he hardly is essential. Rodney McGruder: The Heat’s starting forward two seasons ago, McGruder’s 6-foot-5, 200-pound build is far more in line with that of a shooting guard.
And in many ways McGruder is what the Heat need at the back of the rotation at shooting guard, a three-and-D player with a cost-effective $1.5 million salary.
The problem is that while he sets up as a perfect third shooting guard, he could fall as far as sixth at the position on the depth chart.
Derrick Jones Jr.: While more of a small forward, Jones does many of the things you would covet from a shooting guard. And in many ways, he arguably would stand as the Heat’s most athletic shooting guard.
The problem with so much clutter at shooting guard is the lack of minutes for a developmental project such as Jones. Dwyane Wade: Yes, he likely would again step in as a Heat closer if he decides for a reunion encore at 36. But the minutes would come in place of whom?