South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
IN THE LANE
Coach Pat Riley and guard Greg Anthony spent four seasons together with the New York Knicks. Anthony knows why Riley is a winner.
As mentioned in last week’s column, Heat guard Wayne Ellington is now trade eligible with the passing of Dec. 15 (the first day players signed in the offseason can be dealt). But while it also was noted that Ellington has the right to veto any trade because he is on a one-year deal with Bird Rights, there is a Part B to that equation. By approving such a trade, a player such as Ellington would then relinquish his Bird Rights, rights that allow a player to be signed beyond the salary cap to any level up to the individual-player maximum. So if Ellington were to approve a deal to a team capped-out for 2019-20, he then would be limited to a slight raise or exception money, money such a suitor could eventually earmark for a higher-priority free agent. So it would not be as simple for Ellington to agree to a trade and then recoup elsewhere what was bypassed this past summer with his one-year agreement with the Heat.
END GAME: To put into perspective how Dwyane Wade’s farewell season transcends his fan base, Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul considered attending last week’s Heat game against the Memphis Grizzlies the night before the Rockets played in Memphis. It turned out that Wade missed that game due to soreness and the Rockets got in a bit too late to make it. “It’s crazy. He ended up not playing that game. I would have been [upset] if I went over there and he didn’t play,” Paul told the Houston Chronicle. “But I wanted to go watch because, obviously, I play against him, but I actually wanted to sit and watch him.” Paul then left Thursday’s game at AmericanAirlines Arena in the first half with a hamstring issue. Wade’s final career game against Paul is scheduled for Feb. 28, when the Heat make their lone visit of the season to Houston.
SECOND CHANCE: The last time LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team fell into disrepair until James reappeared in free agency four years later. It was a stark contrast to the Heat pushing back within one game of the Eastern Conference finals two years after that James 2014 move back to Cleveland from Miami. Now, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert insists his team won’t be going on a lottery binge. “It just feels way different, way better, more optimistic,” he told Cleveland.com, making it curious to see if the Heat’s post-LeBron standard can be matched. “We feel we have more assets, more talent to trade, not necessarily to trade but more assets to deal with, options to trade if we want to or to make moves to improve the team so, that’s the good news. The first time we did end up making a ton of moves and being able to deliver a championship to Cleveland and a lot of that work started in those four years. I don’t think it will be four years here before you start seeing significant improvement.”
GOING UNNOTICED: The upside of playing on a rebuilding team is plenty of opportunity for a young player to build his stats. The downside is there are not many noticing. That’s where John Collins, the former Cardinal Newman standout out of West Palm Beach, finds himself with the Atlanta Hawks. “I’m on a bottom-feeding team in the East,” Collins told The Athletic. “We’re a really young team. We’re an organization that the league knows is rebuilding, so there’s not going to be a lot of national attention, even when I am putting numbers like I am.” Collins said a goal is consideration for this season’s dunk contest during All-Star Weekend.
Points from 500 for his career against the Memphis Grizzlies for Dwyane Wade, one of three teams he has not scored 500 in the regular season against (the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs are the others). With Wade, amid his retirement season, missing the recent visit to Memphis, his final opportunity will come Jan. 12 against the Grizzlies at AmericanAirlines Arena.