Recently, our Australian correspondent wrote an excellent piece on the 2020 NBA trade deadline. He recaps all 30 teas. If you haven’t read it, do it. Anyway, there was one line that I do, however, want to dive into.
“You have to hand it to Pat Riley. He has balls!”
Really? Are we sure? All because he traded for a 36-year-old Andre Iguodala? If anything, the Iggy trade to me was about clearing out the ugly Dion Waiters and James Johnson contracts. Don’t ask me why Memphis was willing to do that just to swap out Jae Crowder for Justise Winslow. That’s not the point. Isn’t everybody overstating what Andre Iguodala is at this stage of his career?
Jae Crowder fills the role of you gotta have at least one player on the team that isn’t afraid to get into a fight. Miami kind of already had the guy with Jimmy Butler. Andre Iguodala fills the role as the aging mentor that can maybe be a role model to some of the young guns. Outside of that, what are we doing here?
If Miami wanted to make a real splash move, they should have pulled the trigger on the Danilo Gallinari move. Now that’s a splash move. The Heat reiterated that they wanted to maintain cap space for 2021 so they were hesitant to give Gallinari an extension and didn’t want to lose him in the Summer for nothing. Maybe don’t give Andre Iguodala an extension then?
Galo is the one cat that could have actually impacted Miami’s title run. 6-foot-10, over 40 percent from 3, 19.2 points, and 5.7 rebounds a night. That’s a guy who can impact winning. That’s a guy that could have pushed Miami over the top. Imagine the shooting Miami could have had with him and Duncan Robinson on the floor at the same time?
In Iggy’s first game with the Heat, he score 2 points in 23 minutes. Look, I’m not saying the guy can’t play at all, but he’s close to done. He’s no better than being on the 16th hole of his career. If anything, Jae Crowder probably has a better chance to make a positive impact. He’s just not a great shooter.
Miami didn’t really get better. If anything, they might have gotten worse. Winslow has potential to be a solid 3 and D wing in the future who can really distribute. He has youth on his side. For Miami, let’s not go crazy about Andre Iguodala. He may provide leadership but the tread on the tires are all but gone.
