Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Allen Iverson, Carlos Boozer, Dwyane Wade, Jermaine O'Neal, Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, NBA Free Agency
There must be nothing harder for a professional athlete then to leave a championship team. Of course everyone will say money talks, and they are right most of the time, but leaving a team that finally got things together and won a championship, I just don’t know how you do that.
Well, that is exactly what it looks like Lamar Odom is going to do as he seems to be leaning towards rejoining the Miami Heat. The Los Angeles Lakers obviously want to keep ahold of Odom as he was a key piece to the puzzle for their championship run last season, but the two sides just can’t seem to come to an agreement to keep the forward in LA for the next three seasons or so.
Apparently, the Lakers had a pretty good offer on the table for Odom once the offseason began, but Odom insisted on making at least $10 million a year for the duration for the contract. Now Odom is a great player, perhaps one of the best in the league at small forward, but he has been extremely inconsistent over the years for the Lakers and that is what I think is keeping them for offering what Odom wants to stay in LA.
The Miami Heat on the other hand are doing everything in their power to keep Dwyane Wade in Miami for as long as possible. After next season Wade will be free to pick and chose where he wants to go after becoming a free agent and if he doesn’t think the Heat can contend for a title and it is almost a forgone conclusion that he will hit the road in search for team that he finds worthy.
In an effort to keep Wade the Heat have made a variety of moves which includes bringing Jermaine O’Neal to Florida, exploring a trade for Carlos Boozer from the Utah Jazz and courting Lamar Odom to bring him back to the Heat. There even talks of Allen Iverson joining the squad which would without a doubt instantly turn the Heat into contenders in the East.
If the Heat do manage to get Boozer and Odom that might be just enough to make the Heat contenders in the East once again. They weren’t all that bad last season, but it would be hard to argue that Wade was the only reason for that.
As an attempt to make sure Odom choses the Heat over the Lakers, Wade has flown out to LA to have a little chat with his buddy Lamar and try to convince him to make the move.
Will he sign with the Heat? It is looking highly likely unless the Lakers up their offer to Odom’s liking.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: March Madness, NBA picks, NBA Playoffs
Anyone who has ever bet on March Madness or NBA games knows how difficult it can be to pick a winner and Betting on the sports can be. With some many things like injuries, trades and suspensions in the NBA sometimes you never know what team you will see take the floor. In college basketball it can be even more difficult with so much fierce competition and dedication on the defensive side of the floor.
Sometimes you just need a little help or advice to make the right picks. At March Madness Picks you get some of the top sports handicappers in the country helping you through the tournament of all tournaments. If you have ever filled out a NCAA tournament bracket you know it is no easy task to have your picks in the Final Four.
As for the NBA, one week a team like the Los Angeles Lakers can be smoking hot and almost unbeatable, the next week they can get completely out played by a team like the Charlotte Bobcats, but with picks from the experts at NBA Picks you will never miss out on key information that will lead you to making the right picks!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzles, Miami Heat, Shaun Livingston
In the beginning of the season Shaun Livingston was willing to give his NBA career another shot after arguably the nastiest injury ever caught on tape in an NBA game.
Personally, when I found out that Livingston was going to sign with the Miami Heat I was excited because he seemed to be a perfect fit as the Heat needed a point guard after losing both Gary Payton and Jason Williams (signed with Clippers then retired) to retirement.
When Livingston came into the league with the Los Angeles Clippers he was compared with Magic Johnson because of his size at the point guard position. Well, obviously he didn’t turn out to be even near Magic’s status, but he was talented and had a promising career in this league, but then the injury that will stick in all of our memories happened and his career and his leg seemed unrepairable.
Fortunately for Livingston, the Heat needed a point guard and he was the best fit to play alongside Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley and Shawn Marion, but he wasn’t used very much do to rookie Mario Chalmers playing consistently well as the Heat’s starting point guard.
After the trade sending Livingston to the Memphis Grizzles for a 2012 conditional second round pick rookie head coach of the Heat Erik Spoelstra said:
“It gives us some flexibility.”
In my opinion, if Livingston would have had some more time to get back into the feel of things he would have been huge for the Heat, but I guess he just wasn’t in their future plans. Once the trade was finalized the Grizzles immediately waived him leaving him available to restart his career once again elsewhere.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat, Michael Beasley, New Jersey Nets, Shawn Marion, Vince Carter
The MVP talk is heating up and as of right now Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are at the top of the list!
Wade has proved time and time again this season that he back and quite possibly better than he was before his injury.
Even though the Heat didn’t have Shawn Marion in this match up and rookie Michael Beasley in a little bit of slump, the rest of the squad put up a hell of fight while being lead by Wade.
Although Wade scored a game high 29 points against the New Jersey Nets on Saturday it wasn’t his scoring that saved the day for the Heat it was his tenacious defense down the stretch in overtime.
With three key blocked shots by Wade in overtime the Heat were able to hold off Vince Carter and the Nets for their 18th win of the season.
Although Beasley has struggled as of late, he made up for Marion’s absence by scoring 17 points and ripping down 7 boards. Wade on the other hand didn’t have a great shooting night by only hitting 8 out 23 from the floor, but he filled the rest of the stat with 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals.
The Heat will have their work cut out for them in the next two games a they take on the San Antonio Spurs in Miami and then travel to Denver to take on the Nuggets.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cleveland Cavaliers, Daequan Cook, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Mario Chalmers, Miami Heat
Last season this match up between LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat would have been a joke with the Cavs wiping the floor with Wade’s crew, but this year is another story altogether.
Coming into this season Dwyane Wade was coming off winning a Gold medal with the Redeem Team in China. Wade was arguably the best player on that team over the summer as he seemed to be reborn and out to prove that his injuries haven’t caused him to lose a step or two.
That fire that was sparked during the Olympics has carried over into the NBA season with a Miami Heat team that looks a lot like the young team Wade had before Shaq came to town.
Not only is Wade back to normal, possibly playing better than ever and arguably the leading candidate for the NBA MVP, but he has his team back to contender status in the East conference. With the Heat competitive again, this time around won’t be as easy as it was in their championship campaign a few years ago as the East has drastically improved with the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers and defending NBA champion Boston Celtics as legit championship contenders and leaders in the East.
With that being said the odds are definitely not in the Heat’s favor and with LeBron finally having the team that he can contend with the Heat were definitely not favored to win this game.
Even though they were underdogs, the Heat came out to prove that they can play with anyone and weren’t intimidated by LeBron’s Cavs.
This season Wade has gone back to his scoring was by putting up 25, 30 and 40+ point performance, but against the Cavs Wade turned into a distributor as he dished out 12 assists to go along with 21 points.
LeBron James put on a show as well as he lit up the scoreboard with 38 points, but it wasn’t enough to hold off a Heat team on a mission as they took down the Cavs 104-95.
Rookie Mario Chalmers and Daequan Cook continue to play well as they helped Wade during a poor shooting night. Cook was red hot from deep hitting 5 of 7 from beyond the arc and finished the night with 17 points off the bench. Chalmers was also draining threes all night long as hit was able to hit 6 of 7 from deep scoring 21 points.
I still think the Heat need a couple seasons to get these young guys play some real team chemistry, but when they play well they can beat anyone in the league right now.
