Miami turns up heat on offseason
By Helena Ramirez
May 30th, 1996
One week after gaining the 4th overall pick in this year’s draft, the Miami Heat have pulled off two big trades with that pick serving as the glue. Here are the details:
Trade 1
Heat Trade: C Kevin Willis, 1996 4th overall pick
Heat Receive: 1996 1st overall pick (MIN), PG Terry Porter
Warriors Trade: PG Tim Hardaway
Warriors Receive: C Kevin Willis
Timberwolves Trade: PG Terry Porter, 1996 1st overall pick
Timberwolves Receive: PG Tim Hardaway, 1996 4th overall pick (MIA)
Analysis:
Miami — specifically Coach Bazemore — has made the first big move in his tenure by acquiring the top pick in this draft. All it required was trading Kevin Willis, the center that Miami traded Steve Smith for two games into the 1994-95 NBA season. Willis averaged 17. 1 points and 10.7 rebounds in that season, a not-insignificant part of the Heat’s offense, which itself struggled (ranking only 14th in the league). Willis — 32 — was having one of the best seasons of his career, a trend that started four years previously.
The Heat traded him anyway. Bazemore and the front office for Miami sold high on a player that, in all likelihood, wouldn’t have continued producing at that level for much longer. The Warriors wanted a big man to bang with the likes of Hakeem and David Robinson out West and they got him. They gave up Tim Hardaway for that right, but Hardaway had fallen out of favor with the Warriors coaches — particularly head coach Rick Adelman — and was deemed expendable. Turning 30 this September, Hardaway’s best years may be behind him.
Minnesota gets exactly what it wanted when it signed Terry Porter right before the lockout — a veteran guard who can help lead the team into the playoffs for the foreseeable future; rather than stick with Porter (reportedly dissatisfied with life in Minnesota), the T’Wolves upgraded that position in a major way. Hardaway’s scoring ability, creativity, and propensity to involve teammates will do nothing but help young Kevin Garnett. Minnesota is also able to trade back a small bit in the lottery without losing too much draft capital, allowing them to further bolster their team with young talent.
For the Heat, this trade alone tipped the scales, putting them in the driver’s seat for the offseason. But then Miami struck again …
Trade 2
Heat trade to Clippers: SF Glen Rice, 1996 2nd round pick
Heat Receive from Clippers: SF Malik Sealy, 1996 8th overall pick
Analysis:
The Heat sent franchise star — and what was assumed a Heat lifer — Glen Rice away to Los Angeles, but for the other LA team. The Clippers grabbed a big star and scorer in the league with Rice, but had to give up a top pick to do it; with the depth of this draft, the Clippers should be able to find quality role players with their pair of second round picks.
But for the Heat, the message is clear: this draft will be used to form the foundation of the next Heat team. Armed with the 1st and 8th overall picks, Coach Bazemore has positioned the franchise to set its own destiny and set the tone of the offseason. What Bazemore does in this draft will determine his legacy and the legacy of his time with the Heat, however long that may be.
Trading Rice away, a fan favorite, will not be received well by the people who fill the seats. But nabbing, potentially, two future stars to build the franchise around? That will certainly get ticket sales moving. From a fan perspective, these trades will likely work out better than if the Heat had retained Willis and Rice.
For the team, however, these trades create even more uncertainty than already existed. Bazemore’s proven that no one is safe on this roster and that won’t ease the fears of certain players, who feel the team wasn’t that far away from playoff contention after a down year in the 1994-95 season. With the Heat missing its biggest star and one of its most reliable big men, Miami finds itself with holes in the roster that the draft might not fill.
Might there be more trades in the future? Will the Heat be players in the free agency derby? Only Bazemore knows. Right now, this much is clear: whomever Miami drafts on June 26th will carry a heavy responsibility in determining the course of this franchise.
Let’s hope Coach Bazemore knows whose shoulders can bear that weight without collapse — if the Heat misfire, it could set the team back for the rest of this decade and into the new century.