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Heat sign talented, troubled Woods
In a move somewhat reminiscent of the Lamar Odom signing, where a talented, but troubled young player was brought into Miami, the Heat scooped up Qyntel Woods yesterday.
Woods, 23 and 6′8″, was the 21st pick in the 2002 draft by the Trailblazers out of Northeast Mississippi Community College where he averaged 32.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 23 games.
Currently, there has been some off-court trouble with Woods. After pleading guilty to abusing his pit bull (over an investigation into dog-fighting), he was sentenced to 12 months probation and 80 hours of community service. Woods is also due to serve a 5 game suspension for failing his drug test. The suspension could not be served while he was dismissed from the Trailblazers, so it began when he reported to the Heat for the first time last night, against the Raptors. He will be available Feb. 5th against Chicago.
“This gives us an opportunity to go after somebody that we were very high on three years ago when we drafted Caron [Butler],” Riley told ESPN Radio 790 (WAXY-AM). “We feel like we want to replenish the youth a little bit too here. He’s a very talented kid. He’s a legitimate small forward with loads of talent. We’re willing to take a shot at it.”
With Riley on board, Stan Van Gundy feels confident that Woods will get his act together. “Pat Riley has tried his hardest in Miami where guys are treated like adults and professionals and expected to act as such, and most guys fall in line,” Van Gundy said. “Qyntel was a very young guy when a lot of this stuff happened…As guys get older, they learn some things and they tend to mature. I don’t think that there’s anything there that people should be overly alarmed at.”
As for the rest of the roster, Jerome Beasley was waived and Wesley Person was moved to the IR. Beasley has been somewhat of a project and has never seemed to progress enough for the Heat, who selected him 33rd overall in the 2003 draft. As for Person, he has fallen out of the rotation and may be dealt – but a team would have to swallow his $1.6M salary.
With frustration mounting, Heat about to define season
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Every championship team has a toughness about it, a quiet confidence that is almost tangible. It radiates somehow, someway, that the job will get done.
This toughness Riley associates with teams like San Antonio and Detroit. Do the Heat have this quality yet? Not quite, but maybe, that is about to change.
Riley said, almost prophetically, that these teams develop this quality of toughness out of some sort of ‘debacle’. “What you need is you need some debacles along the way. We haven’t had any.” That was from an interview on Jan. 23rd. A ‘debacle’ seems to be brewing with the Heat, however.
Recently, an article claimed that Shaq was calling out Eddie Jones in the press. “Some of the guys on this team have to take it personal. When your man leaves you to go double on somebody, you have to take it personal. Because other teams are hitting shots when we double, so you have to hit shots.”
That quote by Shaq came on the heels of a frustrating loss to Philadelphia which saw EJ shoot 3-12. It’s speculative, at best: Damon Jones wasn’t exactly setting the net on fire (2-6), either, and Wade hobbled his way to a 3-13 performance on a sprained ankle.
Yet, the history of EJ and Shaq may prove too tantalizing to ignore. The ’soft’ comments begin to resurface. Perhaps Shaq’s lack of confidence in EJ is looming and when things go bad, he will be quick to point the finger at EJ.
Stan Van Gundy will have none of it though. “When we get our focus on those things, on making effort and on playing harder and defending better and rebounding better and doing all those things rather than saying it’s all about shooting, then we’ll be headed in the right direction.” That is the truth and a subtle, yet bold, stance for Van Gundy who continues to impress as a coach in this NBA and its all-about-me atmosphere.
Shaq has come forward and said he was not targeting anyone in particular, that he was “…not in the business of calling my team out. We all need to play better. That’s what I said.” There seems to be some backpeddling going on, which actually is a good sign that this team is on the same page. Stan Van Gundy, with the shadowy figure of Riley looming in the background, will see to it that this team stays focused.
The Heat is in the midst of a slump losing 6 of its past 11 games. Wade is banged up as is Eddie Jones and Laettner. Coupled with the mumblings of a frustrated superstar, which have a historic precedent (but seem to have been controlled for now), that ‘debacle’ Riley may be looking for seems to have surfaced. “Quit looking for all the different excuses and places to point the finger. Point it at ourselves and be responsible and go out and get the job done.” Van Gundy may prove to be the most prophetic of them all.
Wannabes?
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The Heat lost last night to the Pacers in OT 106-100 and a Pacer team that has seen so much adversity – although self inflicted – has a reason to smile again. Under manned, the Pacers came into the Heat’s house and stole one from them in front of a disappointed home crowd.
How? Why? “The big thing is free throws,” Van Gundy observes. “If we make some free throws we’re not sitting here talking about any of this.” This is definetly a part of the problem. The Heat shot 47% as a team last night from the charity stripe. Shaq was horrible – even for Shaq – at 4-13. Wade wasn’t much better at 8-12 and Haslem shot 4-7 – normally an 85% free throw shooter himself. In fact, he missed a big one at the end of the 4th quarter which could have prevented Tinsley’s shot from tying the game at 93.
But that isn’t all. There are other reasons why Van Gundy should look like a prophet, calling the Heat “wannabes” before last night’s game. There was also the 21 points the Pacers scored off of Heat turnovers – in which the Heat answered with only 9 points themselves. That is a -12 difference right there. Couple that with terrible free throw shooting and it is amazing the Heat were in this game altogether.
That should bring us to another point, though. Should the Pacers really feel good about themselves? Tinsley, after hitting a shot, jogging back down court with a smirk on his face jawing at anyone that will listen – this is the image the Pacers left town with. And the 30 Tinsley dropped on the Heat. So, what, Pacers? You beat the Heat at home – sure. But did you beat the Heat? Or did they do it to themselves?
The Heat didn’t help their case at all last night. The best illustration is a play made by Dwyane Wade and Damon Jones. A pass was made and seemingly out of nowhere, Wade leaps up and takes the ball right out of the sky. Something special in the air, indeed. Wade then lobs the ball ahead to a breaking Damon Jones who, in an interest to provide entertainment over substance, decides to bounce the ball hard off the backboard where Wade would catch it and dunk it. Would have been one of the most spetacular plays all season. But Fred Jones leapt up from behind Damon Jones and snatched down the rebound before a flying Wade could get to it. The Heat watched as their game was taken right from them because they failed to play good enough to beat the Pacers and instead opted to go for style points.
The verdict is certainly in – the Miami Heat, at this stage, are pretenders. They have a questionable record against the West – which I contend means nothing until they play a Western team in the playoffs. And even then, it means nothing. Yet, the way they choose to play against opponents seems more like play than business. Much has been said, within the Heat’s own organization, about this team lacking a killer instinct and putting a team away when they need to. Until we see that happen, until we see the Heat step on the neck of a team and put it away early, I think it is safe to say that the Heat are not legitimate contenders. At least, not yet.
Pacers still provide strong test for Heat
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Don’t be fooled by their record of 19-18. The Pacers are still going to challenge for the East title and will definetly still make the playoffs. The ‘BasketBrawl in Detroit’ may have slowed down both Detroit and Indy, but rest assured that both teams will have plenty of weapons to overcome the adversity.
Tonight, the Pacers come to face Miami in a nationally televised game down at the AAA in what seems to be a fight among contenders. Jermaine O’Neal is already back as is Anthony Johnson (and Stephen Jackson will be back January 27th). But it is obviously the return of O’neal that means the most to this team and he has helped put Indiana back on track immediately. The Pacers were 5-10 without him but are 8-5 since his return.
The Heat will be faced with a strong test tonight and definetly are aware of this. “Their record is a result of what happened in the brawl,” Van Gundy said. “But they’re going to get close to whole again, and they’ll be a major force.”
The Pacers remain very talented and deep and will try to expose the Heat’s weakness of rebounding. Van Gundy has been critical of the Heat’s efforts in this area. “Right now, I think we rely way too much on one guy to rebound the ball,” Van Gundy said, referring to O’Neal. “If you look down the league stats and look at rebounds on a per-minute basis, Shaq’s good at his position…But everyone else is middle-of-the-pack or lower, particularly at the defensive end. Everyone else is way down. We have to get more guys involved on the boards, and we have to get more guys taking responsibility to rebound the ball and not leave it to one guy…We just don’t have a lot of guys in there mixing it up and grabbing the ball.” You can be assured that Jermaine O’Neal will look to bang down low against the Heat’s power forward rotation of Haslem and Laettner.
The question is, will the Heat respond and put forth the energy and intensity necessary to dominate this game like they should? The fact is Indiana is still a strong team but not nearly as strong as before the Detroit incident. With no Artest and no Jackson, will the Heat slacken in their focus for tonight’s game? If Van Gundy has his say, the Heat will be ready and waiting for the Pacers tonight. On the line is the Heat’s 21-2 record against Eastern Conference foes and a shot to stay ahead in the standings and hold on to that home court ticket throughout the playoffs. A lot has changed in a year.
Flash in M.A.S.H.?
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The chart reads, “bruised ribs, bruised left knee, sprained left ankle and back spasms”. Is this a boxer? Or perhaps a crusty old vet making his way through the regular season on his way to that allusive title? The pain before the glory, sweetening the fruit that can be quite bitter when plucked too early.
Nope, this is the medical status of one rising young superstar, Dwyane Wade.
He has missed all of four games this year; his team’s record being 1-3 in which there was no presence of Shaq’s notable sidekick. An double OT loss to the Clippers being the most recent example.
Recently turning 23, Wade has talked about the pain he has gone through, quite literally. “It gets frustrating because I can’t explode all the time the way I want for different reasons. It gets frustrating, but I continue to keep pushing and keep pushing.” Suffering a headache, which is only the least of how his opponents would describe his growing game, Wade seems worn. Not so much that he is any imminent danger, no. He is too young for that. But, caution must be taken if this superstar wants to have a long career and not be the flame that burns quickest.
This is from a recent article detailing Wade’s new rise to national attention, found in the recent copy of Sports Illustrated, “Many of Miami’s plays begin with Wade coming up from near the basket to set a hard screen on the outside, then bouncing off and getting the ball to initiate the attack. That’s how the Utah Jazz offense often ran when John Stockton was at the point, and Stockton garnered a lot of respect because he wasn’t afraid to give up his body. Ditto for Wade.”
Now, you can see where I am going with this. Sure, Stockton had a long career almost injury free. But Wade is different; he is demanded – no, expected – of more. He is the catalyst to this Heat team, the new power in the East. I remember Jordan, when getting established in the league, decided to work out more and build up his body. He also developed his game more to take away from some of the punishment he put himself through every night during the regular season. Perhaps it is not irony that as he got older, he got better because he played smarter. A lesson Wade could certainly benefit from.
But there is more – it involves more than just Wade adjusting his game, but the team as well. Reading the quote from SI helps illustrate what has to be done. The Heat needs to find a less jarring way to generate their offense through Wade. He is the catalyst, yes, but if he takes that much punishment each night, he won’t be around to be the catalyst for long. Perhaps another player landing on this team – with more offensive skill – could help alleviate some of the abuse Wade puts up with. Or maybe, run different plays that demand less on Wade’s person.
Whatever the case, these past 5 days of rest will give momentary relief to Wade as an oasis amid the torturous NBA regular season.
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