Whiteside pissed after being benched for final 21 minutes of Heat's OT loss to Nets

Spoelstra is usually a pretty good coach, but even the good ones make mistakes once in a while.

Kind of sounds like Whiteside is tired of this season, and cannot wait to get out to do some golfing

Spo`s decision not to use him was detrimental to the team.

If this guy becomes available, I surely hope that Danny Ainge will NOT make a call to Miami or even pick up the phone if Miami calls.

Too many problems with this guy for the size of his salary for the next two years even if the Cs would not have to give up players to match his salary.

I very much doubt he is on Ainge`s radar

yeah, IF Ainge wants to add a big man (and there is no reason to think that right now) next year, there would be other options than Whiteside.

as was noted above, since we are OVER the cap we'd have to send salary's out to match (or close) Whitesides' $25M salary.

Which would mean sending Horford, Hayward or Irving out in return....NO THANKS.

now I have in the past proposed possibly moving Hayward out for an elite big man (because of the play of Tatum and Brown). But Whiteside does not fit my idea of Elite big man.

in fact it is a short list:

Anthony Davis
JOel Embiid
Karl Anthony-Towns
Rudy Gobert
Nikola Jokic

and MAYBE

D. Cousins - in a sign and trade with NO (depending on the contract and his injury).

it's a short list for me and frankly only Gobert and Cousins could even be possible I think.

I’ve never seen a team with an all star at every position, okay maybe 86 Celtics or 87 Lakers, but with salary cap etc, don’t see how we can afford to acquire one without gutting key players on the team. For the immediate future I’m happy with Al and Baynes, both still have good years left, both can defend inside and on perimeter, something a lot I’d bigs on that list cannot do. As we get all our pieces healthy and back, and you know how good those players are coming back, our bigs can coast even more and save energy for the really big games. We still have a developing Yabu who I think will improve his game and Theis and Semi to add to the 4 mix, with so much depth I’m in no rush to gut the team for a big right now. We can draft and develop a big in 19.

cowens/oldschool wrote:I’ve never seen a team with an all star at every position, okay maybe 86 Celtics or 87 Lakers, but with salary cap etc, don’t see how we can afford to acquire one without gutting key players on the team. For the immediate future I’m happy with Al and Baynes, both still have good years left, both can defend inside and on perimeter, something a lot I’d bigs on that list cannot do. As we get all our pieces healthy and back, and you know how good those players are coming back, our bigs can coast even more and save energy for the really big games. We still have a developing Yabu who I think will improve his game and Theis and Semi to add to the 4 mix, with so much depth I’m in no rush to gut the team for a big right now. We can draft and develop a big in 19.

that certainly makes sense and in the long run Danny would have to decide that any moves were better over all for the team now and in the future.

out of my list, I see only Cousins and Gobert as possible deals to be had. if that's the case, then the question becomes does replacing Hayward with either one of them make us a better team.

arguments could be made on both sides for sure and may be had here later after the NBA finals.