The pressure for a team like the Miami Heat to improve is never-ending, as dominance will only bring calls for more dominance, and victories will be met with demands for more victories. It’s only natural, after all, that much would be expected of a team with such potential. But those expectations fly in the face of one important fact: the avenues of improvement for Miami are closing off rather quickly.
That reality brings all eyes to the midlevel-exception-earning elephant in the room.
Mike Miller oscillated between injured and underwhelming last season after being trumpeted as a natural fit alongside LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. A single bad season would typically not be cause for much alarm, but thanks to the new amnesty clause that will be included in the coming collective bargaining agreement, that campaign could mark the end of Miller’s time in Miami.
Miller has been put at the crux of a difficult financial situation because of Miami’s proximity to the luxury tax line. If the Heat choose to cut Miller using the amnesty clause, they would have the ability to sign a player using the full midlevel exception (worth $5 million), another using the bi-annual exception (worth $1.9 million) and any number of veterans for the league’s minimum salary. Without cutting Miller, the Heat would only have access to the “taxpayer midlevel exception” (worth $3 million) and the veteran minimum.
The common logic in favor of cutting Miller points to the full midlevel as the key to Miami’s improvement, as the Heat are rumored to be targeting Samuel Dalembert to bolster their center position for that amount. But cutting Miller merely for the sake of signing a designated center is foolish. The calculus is a bit more complicated than glancing at Miami’s positional breakdown, and the Heat will have to weigh whether losing a valuable shooter is truly worth covering one of their perceived weaknesses.
The Heat aren’t in need of a center, or even a point guard, for that matter. They’re merely in need of players who can successfully play alongside James, Wade and Chris Bosh, whatever their traditional positional designation may be. Miami already has the roles attributed to the center position covered by committee; last season the Heat had one of the league’s most efficient offenses, a top-five defense, posted elite defensive rebounding numbers, and held their opponents to a lower field goal percentage around the basket than any other team in the league. Thanks to rare overlap in skills among positions, Miami was able to make it all work last season.
Additionally, we have yet to see the current Heat roster as a fully integrated product. Because of injuries last season, less competent players were forced to step into the roles Miller and Udonis Haslem were supposed to fill. Then, once both players finally did return to the court later in the season, they often looked out of sync with the practiced flow of the team. Add full seasons of Miller and Haslem to the formula that was so successful last year, and it’s easy to see how Miami could continue to progress this season, center upgrade or not.
With so many productive, versatile players, the Heat can afford to evaluate talent on their own terms. If the team president, Pat Riley, and Coach Erik Spoelstra truly believe that Dalembert can 1) be had for the midlevel exception, and 2) provide more to help the Heat than a healthy Mike Miller (which is certainly debatable), then using the amnesty clause on Miller is the right move. But if Riley is courting Dalembert simply because three of the slots in Miami’s starting lineup are filled, he betrays the unique positional sensibilities that make his team so effective.
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