The Heat once thought that Dorell Wright was the best athlete on the team (that probably didn’t make D-Wade too happy). But he has never developed that athleticism into production at the NBA level. The real reason that the Heat want to trade Wright is because they don’t want to play the league’s luxury tax. Wright has played in 32 games (0 starts) this season for the Heat and he is averaging 17.9 minutes, 5.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. He has now played in 171 games (55 starts) in his career with the Heat and he is averaging 18.7 minutes, 5.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. The Heat should be able to find a taker for Wright given his youth and possible upside.

Center Alonzo Mourning was a real class act for the Heat. He came back at the end of his career to the Heat with the idea of winning a championship (he did) despite having a very serious kidney injury that turned him into a back-up player. He played in 593 games in his career with the Heat averaging 29.8 minutes, 16.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.7 blocked shots per game. Mourning is all over the record books for the Heat as he is #1 all-time in games played (593), #1 in minutes played (17,700), #2 in points scored (9,459), #1 in rebounds (4,807), #1 in blocked shots (1,625) and #9 in steals (304). Mourning is a class act who will go down as one of the best pro athletes ever to play in Miami.

Michael Beasley has not turned into the star that the Miami Heat hoped he would, but he is putting up some very decent numbers for the Heat this season.  He is averaging 16.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 0.9 steals with a 46% FG percentage.  Beasley has provided some relief for Dwayne Wade on the offensive end, but the Heat need him to get more rebounds and play better defense.  He is also only hitting 26% of his threes, and on bad shooting nights it seems as if it affects his whole game and he lacks intensity, especially defensively.  His lack of effort on the defensive end has often cost him playing time.  He is playing 31 minutes per night, but I think Beasley is capable of playing closer to 40.  Beasley has not developed as quickly as most hoped or thought he would, and his personal life has a lot to do with that.  As Beasley gets older and more mature, I think he will continue to improve on the court.  Hopefully sooner rather than later for the Miami Heat’s sake, as he could play a key role in whether or not Dwayne Wade leaves after this season as a free agent.

Dwayne Wade has been doing just about everything for the Miami Heat the past few seasons, and the superstar guard is getting fed up.  Wade brought Miami an NBA championship and has been a top 3 player in the league for the past few seasons.  He is averaging 27.0 points, 6.2 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.2 blocks while playing 37.3 minutes per game.  The Heat are only 17-16 this season and most of the wins are because Dwayne Wade put the team on his back, like last night where he had 44 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block.  Despite those gaudy numbers, the Heat still lost to the Celtics on an alleyoop inbound pass that Rajon Rondo finished with only 0.6 seconds left on the clock.  The Heat have failed to put enough weapons around Wade to make them Championship contenders, and if they don’t convince Wade otherwise, he will be packing his bags after this season when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

The Heat have signed 33-year old point guard Rafer Alston for the rest of this season. He played in 27 games (13 starts) for the Nets this season and he averaged 28.4 minutes, 9.7 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.0 steal per game despite only shooting 34.3% from the floor. He has now played in 646 games in his NBA career (427 starts) and he has averaged 29.0 minutes, 10.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Alston has always been overrated as a shooter as he has only hit 38.4% of his shots in his NBA career. Look for Alston to bump Carlos Arroyo from the starting line-up soon for the Heat.