30-year old PF/C Jermaine O’Neal has exercised his player option and will return to the Heat for the 2009-2010 season. He played in 27 games (all starts) after coming over in a trade with the Raptors and he averaged 30.0 minutes, 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. O’Neal will likely serve as the Heat’s starting center next season providing interior defense, rebounding and scoring. O’Neal has now played in 793 games (576 starts) in his NBA career and he has averged 28.3 minutes, 14.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.9 blocked shots per game. Having O’Neal back next season is a good thing but he will make $20 million dollars plus which will limit the off-season moves the Heat can make.