Top prospects for Miami Heat this summer: Tracy McGrady Jr., Earl Boykins, Allen Iverson, and Shaquille O’Neal
As it turns out, critics believe that the Miami Heat roster is still not complete. They say that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh still need a backup in the squad. Heat has been heavily criticised for signing on Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Udonis Haslem. On one end, Zydrunas might be considered as a professional player and has a lot of experience under his belt but his performance throughout the previous playoffs has been awful. As far as Udonis is concerned, he has faced several injuries in the previous years and has considerably slowed down the team.
There are still over 40 free-agents roaming about in the NBA, and 80 percent of them want to be part of the Miami Heat’s newly formed dynasty. Carlos Arroyo, Shaquille O’Neal and Jamaal Magloire all want to taste the Heat.
Let’s break down the list of the prospects that have a chance of landing on the Miami Heat roster.
Tracy McGrady Jr. who is famously known as T-Mac has now joined the free-agents summit as well. Regardless of getting so much attention this summer, Tracy had his down fall a few years ago and since then, the player has not seemed to resurface. Experts are shocked at how much interest is being drawn towards him in the free-agency. Although there are very few chances of Miami considering Tracy, he could certainly mix well with the team i.e. if he agrees on getting less minutes to play than the newly formed trio. Most expect that this is not going to happen.
Earl Boykins is the shortest player in NBA standing at 5 feet 5 inches, but don’t be fooled by the tiny point guard as he is faster than lightning and can reportedly bench press more than 300 pounds. He came to the league more than a decade ago and is considered as an experienced player. Boykins is known to be a sharp shooter and can get around big players with ease by making space for himself. Although his major issue remains that he cannot catch rebounds and is not a very keen assister, experts say the key factor about the short player is that he has been around the league for a long time who knows how to mix in with a pool of talented players.
Allen Iverson, a man who is considered as a legend who took a short break from basketball to attend to his family, wants to make a comeback. Allen is a free-agent and has not signed up with any team as yet. Rumours of him have recently surfaced about his disruptive lifestyle. Allen has apparently become an alcoholic and is addicted to gambling which has come to a point that he has been banned from many casinos in Detroit. This image of him can really weigh in on the clean team. However, the upside to Allen is that he is a ruthless player, with a great jump shot who plays without fear. He is a player who can certainly contribute to the team in many ways while his work ethic and comprehending complex situations is his forte.
Talks about Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat have been going on off late, although it makes no sense because everyone knows that Shaquille departed from the team after burning his bridges with the management at Heat. This talk could very well be just another rumour created to keep some sort of spark in the NBA-free agency intact. Miami Heat has already signed on a centre named Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and has showed interest in Joel Anthony. Regardless of the signings, the team could still use Shaquille O’Neal as the centre because he could be a great mentor and has had former experience with LeBron and Dwyane. However, it can only occur if they can manage to hold the big bag pack that he seems to carry around which includes his pride and big ego, and most importantly, if Pat Riley, who is the head coach for the Miami Heat can forgive Shaq for his attitude towards him some 3 years ago.
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