simmytbone
06-17-2014, 12:07 AM
Hey guys,
Here's the latest news on the Miami Heat
What's next for LeBron James?
After a disappointing Finals loss, the talk heats up about where James will play next season. Can become a free agent
Meanwhile....
After Game 5 loss, Shane Battier confirms he's retiring: 'I don't have any more to give'
The Duke product's 13-year NBA career has come to an end.
Plus, Birdman to become a Free Agent and is Ray Allen considering retirement?
Find out the answer
Here are the stories:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/despite-disappointing-finals-loss--heat-may-remain-lebron-s-best-option-next-year-071421653.html
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb296/tnawrestlingfan/tnasuperstarsfan/lebron_635x250_1402908482_zps9cda78f1.jpg
Despite disappointing Finals loss, Heat may be LeBron's best option next year
By Marc J. Spears | Yahoo Sports!
SAN ANTONIO A stoic LeBron James walked briskly with his jersey untucked as he led the Miami Heat to the locker room after losing in the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
As soon as the San Antonio Spurs claimed their fifth title, all the talk about where James will play next season heated up.
Heat fans have just reason to be nervous. A source close to James, however, offered a response that might ease the concern.
"Where is he going to go that is as good or better than Miami?" the source told to Yahoo Sports. "The San Antonio Spurs? The Chicago Bulls? The Los Angeles Clippers? Where is he [realistically] going to go?"
James can become a free agent this summer by opting out of the final two years of a contract that pays $20.5 million next season and $22.1 million in 2015-16. It's safe to assume that at the very least James will explore his options.
James' camp says that a free-agency decision hasn't been made and there isn't yet a plan going forward. One thing that is certain is that this time around there won't be "The Decision," the much-ridiculed prime-time TV show in 2010 in which James announced he was joining the Heat.
James said after the Heat's season-ending 104-87 loss in Game 5 of the Finals that he plays for his teammates, but it's safe to assume he will make the decision that is best for him.
"You guys [the media] are trying to find answers," James said. "I'm not going to give you one. I'm just not going to give it to you. When I get to that point, I'll deal with it."
When James gets to that point, where could he actually go this summer? The options simply aren't that promising.
His home state Cleveland Cavaliers? The Cavs haven't made the playoffs since he left and are about to hire their third coach of the post-James era. The ugly aftermath of James' departure likely can't be forgiven.
The Bulls could have the available money, and they have Derrick Rose and arguably the league's best defender in Joakim Noah. Chicago would have to amnesty forward Carlos Boozer and likely trade forward Taj Gibson to get the needed salary cap space. But can you really see James with an Eastern Conference rival that couldn't beat the Heat even when Rose was healthy?
The big-market Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, neither of whom made the playoffs, won't have the necessary salary cap space until 2015.
The Houston Rockets have the money, but it's tough to say if James would be a good fit with center Dwight Howard.
The Phoenix Suns will have money, but they didn't even make the playoffs this season.
Dirk Nowitzki and the aging Dallas Mavericks? That ship has likely sailed.
The Los Angeles Clippers? Well, a source said James and his wife, Savannah, love Los Angeles. LeBron James also is close with Clippers point guard Chris Paul and he admires coach Doc Rivers. But the Clippers already have at minimum $66 million in committed salary next season, which leaves no room for James' max salary.
So once again, the options are limited.
"I will deal with my summer when I get to that point," James said. "Me and my team will sit down and deal with it. I love Miami. My family loves it. But obviously right now that's not even what I'm thinking about."
Bosh told Yahoo Sports he is confident the Heat's "Big Three" will remain intact. He also reiterated his plans to return to Miami either by opting out and signing a new contract or staying in his current deal. He appeared confident that James and Dwyane Wade, who can also become a free agent, would follow suit, and the trio would remain together for a fifth season in 2014-15.
"I know everyone wants to know and the whole speculation thing. I think everybody is going to make it work out," Bosh said. "We have a chance to continue to play at a high level."
James, Wade and Bosh have played in the Finals in each of the four seasons they have been together since joining forces in 2010 and they have won two championships. And by the looks of the Eastern Conference, the Heat could very well be back in the Finals for a fifth straight season to once again face the best the very dangerous West has to offer.
"I don't think it's just the Spurs," James said. "It's the whole league. The whole league continues to get better every single year. Obviously we would need to get better from every facet, every position. It's just how the league works."
Even if James, Wade and Bosh return, the Heat's supporting cast will be different.
Guard Ray Allen said he still loves playing, but is considering retirement after 18 seasons. Forward Shane Battier is retiring after 13 seasons. Free-agent point guard Mario Chalmers told Yahoo Sports he would like to re-sign with the Heat, but he struggled in the postseason and lost his starting job in Game 5. Forward-center Chris Andersen will opt-out of his contract to become a free agent, a source said. Longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem has a contract option for next season. Sharp-shooting forward Rashard Lewis is a free agent also, and the Heat will have competition for his services, a source said.
"I hope we stay together," Chalmers said. "I think we have a good thing going."
The Heat have strong ownership led by Mickey Arison and respected management led by Hall of Famer Pat Riley. James' two young boys enjoy South Florida and play AAU basketball, and James' wife opened a juice bar in Miami last year. After four seasons in Miami, James' ties run deep.
"He's been amazing," Arison told Yahoo Sports before Game 1 of the Finals. "He has been fantastic for the franchise, fantastic for the city. Honestly, if having the best player in the world is part of your organization, you can't beat that."
By the look of things so far, it's going to be hard this summer for James to find an option better than Miami.
Meanwhile....
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/after-game-5-loss--shane-battier-confirms-he-s-retiring-from-the-nba---i-don-t-have-any-more-to-give-190558403.html
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb296/tnawrestlingfan/tnasuperstarsfan/shane_battier_senate_bid_052814_zps662bc3db.jpg
After Game 5 loss, Shane Battier confirms he's retiring: 'I don't have any more to give'
By Dan Devine | Ball Don't Lie
This time last year, Shane Battier was hammering a Grand Slam to celebrate a back-from-the-dead 18-point explosion that helped the Miami Heat complete a comeback for the ages, ward off the San Antonio Spurs and become back-to-back NBA champions. After going scoreless in Sunday's Game 5 loss to the resurrected Spurs, though, Battier was celebrating something very different than repeat titles: the end of a long race well run.
The 35-year-old forward, who has long said he was thinking about hanging 'em up when his contract ran out at the end of this season, confirmed in the Heat locker room on Sunday that he is retiring after a 13-year NBA career.
"I've given everything I can to the game and I don't have any more to give," Battier said after logging 11 minutes with one steal, one turnover and one last tangle in the paint (with Spurs guard Manu Ginobili), according to Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "And I'm OK with it."
Battier echoed that sentiment in a farewell tweet on Monday afternoon:
Thank you thank you thank you thank you for all of the messages. It is an amazing feeling to be appreciated. It was a hell of a run and I have zero regrets. Proud that so many could feel a part of this journey, I appreciate your encouragement, love, and support. Cheers to all my friends on twitter!
Battier, who will now join ESPN as a college basketball analyst, ends a 13-year career that began with the then-Vancouver Grizzlies, who made him the No. 6 selection in the 2001 NBA draft, the franchise's final draft before moving to Memphis. Coming off a distinguished four-year stay in Durham, Battier stepped right into the starting small forward slot for head coach Sidney Lowe, averaging 14.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game for a very bad Grizzlies squad. All wound up being career highs; from a counting-stats perspective, it would be all downhill from there for Shane-O.
As Battier's numbers dropped, though, his impact as a defender and floor-spacer began to increase for Grizzlies teams that started to prosper thanks to the development of rising star big man Pau Gasol and the tutelage of eventual head coaches Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello. Battier was part of three postseason runs in Memphis, all of which ended in first-round sweeps, before being shipped to the Houston Rockets in the summer of 2006 in exchange for highly touted draft pick Rudy Gay and ex-Grizzly Stromile Swift.
Young Houston general manager Daryl Morey a Northwestern- and MIT-educated exec with a background in computer science, statistical analysis and strategic consulting tapped by owner Leslie Alexander to revamp the Rockets' approach looked at Battier as an undervalued commodity, a player whose contributions never seemed to pop out of the box score, but who often seemed to have success defending top wing scorers like Kobe Bryant and whose teams always seemed to perform better when he was on the floor.
Morey's thought process behind the Battier move, and a glimpse at the advanced statistics underpinning the argument that a guy who rarely topped 10 points a game could be considered a linchpin on a playoff team, became the basis for a February 2009 New York Times Magazine piece by star author Michael Lewis. The lengthy feature heralded the rise of the sort of basketball analysis that would eventually become its own industry through events like the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, and rebranded Battier as "The No-Stats All-Star."
After 4 1/2 years and three more playoff trips in Houston including his first trip beyond Round 1, ending in a seven-game second-round defeat at the hands of Bryant, former teammate Gasol and the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers Battier found himself on the move again. He was sent back to Memphis at the 2011 trade deadline to help fortify a grind-it-out Grizzlies roster built around the interior heft of Zach Randolph and Pau's little (well, "little") brother Marc Gasol; the wing scoring of Gay, the player for whom he'd been traded back in 2006; and the odd-couple backcourt of Tony Allen and Mike Conley. Battier played his part as a defensive hound and gap-filler in the eighth-seeded Grizzlies' historic first-round upset of the No. 1 seed San Antonio Spurs before struggling in Memphis' second-round loss to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and the young upstart Oklahoma City Thunder.
After another tough seven-game second-round defeat, Battier hit free agency and decided to move southeast to join up with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat. He proved to be a hand-in-glove fit for a Heat team in need of offensive and defensive redefinition, serving as a capable wing defender, consummate glue guy and reliable floor-spacer, especially from the corners. He helped give head coach Erik Spoelstra the flexibility to turn Miami's offensive scheme from a traditional two-big set in which James and Wade largely took turns facilitating offense into a streamlined, small-ball attack in which Bosh would serve as a nightmare matchup five, Battier would play the stretch four, and James and Wade would have much more room to attack the basket and set things up for themselves and one another. By playing that small four spot, Battier also helped save James the exhausting physical beating of having to handle big power forwards on the defensive end, helping keep Miami's top gun in fine form for long postseason runs.
The restructuring worked beautifully, as the Heat became the first team since the 2008-09 and '09-'10 Lakers to win consecutive championships, and the first since the mid-1980s Boston Celtics to make four straight trips to the NBA Finals. That fourth trip ended, though, as the first trip did, back in 2011 with a disappointing defeat owed in large part to an inability to stop a rampaging Texan offense from scoring, and with perhaps even more questions than answers heading into the postseason. From Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick:
"It was a difficult year," Shane Battier said after his final NBA game, repeating a sentiment he'd privately expressed several times during the season. "It was a trying year from the standpoint that there were very few pure moments. That was the biggest difference between the past two years.
"And we were always trying to conjure something. And for a while there, in the second half, it worked. But you can't win a championship trying to conjure something. It has to be who you are, and it has to be pure, and that wasn't the case for us this year."
Battier was speaking collectively, but it's easy to see the personal and specific in there, too. As this season wore on, though, the veteran could no longer conjure the capacity to fill the role Spoelstra set forth for him two summers earlier. It became evident that the burden of punching above his weight class against the David Wests of the world for the last three years had driven Battier into the ground. He shot a career-low 38.2 percent from the floor, his 3-point accuracy dropped more than 8 percent from a year ago, and he routinely struggled to provide the same sort of defensive productivity that we'd been accustomed to seeing from him. He was excised from Miami's rotation in an opening-round sweep of the Charlotte Bobcats; reintroduced in a starting, albeit, limited role with some success against the Brooklyn Nets; curbed to just 12.3 minutes per game in defeating the Indiana Pacers; and mostly mothballed in the five-game beating at the hands of the Spurs, capping things off with 11 undistinguished minutes in the Game 5 blowout. The end of the line had arrived.
"My goals when I started this whole crazy thing, they weren't to win championships or make the All-Defensive team," Battier said during a recent interview with Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. "It was to play 10 years and to be able to walk away from the game before the game kicked me out."
He managed three more years than he'd bargained for, earning more than $56 million in salary and coming away with a pair of rings in the process. Not a bad deal.
As he leaves the league, Battier stands as one of 30 players in league history with at least 8,000 points, 4,000 rebounds, 900 blocks and 900 steals, a list that includes nine Hall of Famers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Robert Parish, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Julius Erving), three active players who will waltz into Springfield when their careers end (Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki), and several other interesting potential Hall cases (including Shawn Marion and Chris Webber). Factor in long-range proficiency say, guys who made at least 500 long balls in their careers and the list gets winnowed down to seven: Dirk, Pippen, Marion, Clifford Robinson, Rasheed Wallace, Sam Perkins ... and Battier.
Now, that's not to say that Battier's a Hall of Famer. Only 26 players who have played in the NBA and scored less than 9,000 points have been inducted into the Hall. Eighteen completed their careers before 1970. Three had legendary international careers (Drazen Petrovic, Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis). Two boasted remarkable ABA accomplishments (Connie Hawkins, Mel Daniels). Two had their curtailed NBA careers augmented by their dominance in the NCAA ranks (Bill Walton, Ralph Sampson). One was, pound-for-pound, arguably the greatest rebounder and defender ever (Dennis Rodman).
Battier (8,408 career points) played in the modern era and doesn't have an especially remarkable international rιsumι, having been part of not-exactly-Dream Team, non-Olympic U.S. men's national squads that won gold at the 2001 Goodwill Games and bronze at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. He had a strong four years at Duke, earning two All-American berths and winning the 2001 national championship while sweeping the major National Player of the Year awards that year, but was nowhere near the game-changing force that Walton was at UCLA or that Sampson was at Virginia. And while Battier made his bones in the NBA as a tough, smart, versatile defender, twice earning recognition on the NBA's All-Defensive Second Team, he wasn't Rodman, or anything resembling Rodman.
Again: I share that list not to argue for Battier's Hall of Fame candidacy, but rather to note that, while we tend to think of him as an orthodox, conventional, square-back-and-sides type, the sum total of his career output marks him as something of a weird NBA player.
Dirk, Uncle Cliff, 'Sheed, Big Smooth, the Matrix, Andrei Kirilenko, Josh Smith, KG, Vlade Divac, Dr. J, Shawn Kemp, Marcus Camby ... there are a lot of guys on that list whose NBA games featured an odd confluence of skills and, in many cases, offbeat personalities to match. We don't necessarily think of Battier in that same light, what with all the "getting headhunted by campaign operatives" and "aggressively seeking out watery beer," but he's certainly possessed of plenty of his own peccadilloes Battioke, anyone?
He might've been a no-stats dude with a lack of swag to match, but in his own ways the possession-shifting, the option-creating, the gem-of-a-quote-dropping ways Battier still found ways to let his personal brand of freak flag fly. The league will be a little less interesting without his boring brand of weird in it. Vaya con dios, Shane.
credit: sports.yahoo.com
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24589755/report-heats-chris-andersen-will-opt-out-become-free-agent
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb296/tnawrestlingfan/tnasuperstarsfan/061614_birdman_zps76915e0b.jpg
Report: Heat's Chris Andersen will opt out, become free agent
By James Herbert | NBA writer
June 16, 2014
Miami Heat big man Chris Andersen will decline his $1.45 million player option for next season and become a free agent, according to Yahoo Sports' Marc Spears. Miami's supporting cast could look quite different in a few months.
Guard Ray Allen said he still loves playing, but is considering retirement after 18 seasons. Forward Shane Battier is retiring after 13 seasons. Free-agent point guard Mario Chalmers told Yahoo Sports he would like to re-sign with the Heat, but he struggled in the postseason and lost his starting job in Game 5. Forward-center Chris Andersen will opt-out of his contract to become a free agent, a source said. Longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem has a contract option for next season. Sharp-shooting forward Rashard Lewis is a free agent also, and the Heat will have competition for his services, a source said.
Andersen's decision is essentially a no-brainer financially. He has been an absolute steal since he joined the Heat, finishing around the basket and providing solid pick-and-roll defense and rim protection in addition to his vaunted energy and activity. A key part of Miami's playoff run, he appeared to be much less than fully healthy in the NBA Finals, where he averaged just 2.6 points per game and made 25 percent of his shots.
While Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has always been a big Anderson fan, his future with the team is uncertain simply because the organization has a lot of other questions to answer. All three of its stars could opt out, and it looks like the roster needs an injection of athleticism and shooting. Andersen could surely still fit in, but there are a lot of moving parts.
and....
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24589804/ray-allen-to-consider-retirement
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb296/tnawrestlingfan/tnasuperstarsfan/061614_rayray_zps243b39e9.jpg
Ray Allen to consider retirement
By James Herbert | NBA writer
June 16, 2014
Miami Heat guard Ray Allen will consider retirement, he told reporters after losing Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday. He hasn't made a decision yet, but the 38-year-old will do so soon, via ESPN's Brian Windhorst:
"I've had a great career, I'm content with what I've done," Allen said. "It's hard to think past this moment. In the next couple of days I'll think about it and see where my true heart lies."
"One thing is for certain, to [make retirement decision] on my terms is the most important thing," Allen said. "Whether that is me retiring, staying here or going somewhere else it will be on my terms. I've made it to this point and I felt great that I have the choice to make it for myself."
Allen is one of five players from the famed 1996 NBA Draft class, arguably the best ever, who played in the league this season. The others are Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal and Derek Fisher, who is now the head coach of the New York Knicks. Allen has kept in remarkable shape, suiting up for 73 games in the regular season and all 20 of Miami's playoff games. He averaged a career-low 9.6 points per game, but shot 37.5 percent on three-pointers and had occasional scoring outbursts.
Despite a 1-for-8 shooting performance in the season-ending loss, Allen is still one of the best marksmen on the planet. A 10-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion, it would be understandable if he wanted to walk away. There's certainly still a place for him in the league, though, if he wants to give it another go.
credit: cbssports.com
Here's the latest news on the Miami Heat
What's next for LeBron James?
After a disappointing Finals loss, the talk heats up about where James will play next season. Can become a free agent
Meanwhile....
After Game 5 loss, Shane Battier confirms he's retiring: 'I don't have any more to give'
The Duke product's 13-year NBA career has come to an end.
Plus, Birdman to become a Free Agent and is Ray Allen considering retirement?
Find out the answer
Here are the stories:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/despite-disappointing-finals-loss--heat-may-remain-lebron-s-best-option-next-year-071421653.html
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb296/tnawrestlingfan/tnasuperstarsfan/lebron_635x250_1402908482_zps9cda78f1.jpg
Despite disappointing Finals loss, Heat may be LeBron's best option next year
By Marc J. Spears | Yahoo Sports!
SAN ANTONIO A stoic LeBron James walked briskly with his jersey untucked as he led the Miami Heat to the locker room after losing in the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
As soon as the San Antonio Spurs claimed their fifth title, all the talk about where James will play next season heated up.
Heat fans have just reason to be nervous. A source close to James, however, offered a response that might ease the concern.
"Where is he going to go that is as good or better than Miami?" the source told to Yahoo Sports. "The San Antonio Spurs? The Chicago Bulls? The Los Angeles Clippers? Where is he [realistically] going to go?"
James can become a free agent this summer by opting out of the final two years of a contract that pays $20.5 million next season and $22.1 million in 2015-16. It's safe to assume that at the very least James will explore his options.
James' camp says that a free-agency decision hasn't been made and there isn't yet a plan going forward. One thing that is certain is that this time around there won't be "The Decision," the much-ridiculed prime-time TV show in 2010 in which James announced he was joining the Heat.
James said after the Heat's season-ending 104-87 loss in Game 5 of the Finals that he plays for his teammates, but it's safe to assume he will make the decision that is best for him.
"You guys [the media] are trying to find answers," James said. "I'm not going to give you one. I'm just not going to give it to you. When I get to that point, I'll deal with it."
When James gets to that point, where could he actually go this summer? The options simply aren't that promising.
His home state Cleveland Cavaliers? The Cavs haven't made the playoffs since he left and are about to hire their third coach of the post-James era. The ugly aftermath of James' departure likely can't be forgiven.
The Bulls could have the available money, and they have Derrick Rose and arguably the league's best defender in Joakim Noah. Chicago would have to amnesty forward Carlos Boozer and likely trade forward Taj Gibson to get the needed salary cap space. But can you really see James with an Eastern Conference rival that couldn't beat the Heat even when Rose was healthy?
The big-market Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, neither of whom made the playoffs, won't have the necessary salary cap space until 2015.
The Houston Rockets have the money, but it's tough to say if James would be a good fit with center Dwight Howard.
The Phoenix Suns will have money, but they didn't even make the playoffs this season.
Dirk Nowitzki and the aging Dallas Mavericks? That ship has likely sailed.
The Los Angeles Clippers? Well, a source said James and his wife, Savannah, love Los Angeles. LeBron James also is close with Clippers point guard Chris Paul and he admires coach Doc Rivers. But the Clippers already have at minimum $66 million in committed salary next season, which leaves no room for James' max salary.
So once again, the options are limited.
"I will deal with my summer when I get to that point," James said. "Me and my team will sit down and deal with it. I love Miami. My family loves it. But obviously right now that's not even what I'm thinking about."
Bosh told Yahoo Sports he is confident the Heat's "Big Three" will remain intact. He also reiterated his plans to return to Miami either by opting out and signing a new contract or staying in his current deal. He appeared confident that James and Dwyane Wade, who can also become a free agent, would follow suit, and the trio would remain together for a fifth season in 2014-15.
"I know everyone wants to know and the whole speculation thing. I think everybody is going to make it work out," Bosh said. "We have a chance to continue to play at a high level."
James, Wade and Bosh have played in the Finals in each of the four seasons they have been together since joining forces in 2010 and they have won two championships. And by the looks of the Eastern Conference, the Heat could very well be back in the Finals for a fifth straight season to once again face the best the very dangerous West has to offer.
"I don't think it's just the Spurs," James said. "It's the whole league. The whole league continues to get better every single year. Obviously we would need to get better from every facet, every position. It's just how the league works."
Even if James, Wade and Bosh return, the Heat's supporting cast will be different.
Guard Ray Allen said he still loves playing, but is considering retirement after 18 seasons. Forward Shane Battier is retiring after 13 seasons. Free-agent point guard Mario Chalmers told Yahoo Sports he would like to re-sign with the Heat, but he struggled in the postseason and lost his starting job in Game 5. Forward-center Chris Andersen will opt-out of his contract to become a free agent, a source said. Longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem has a contract option for next season. Sharp-shooting forward Rashard Lewis is a free agent also, and the Heat will have competition for his services, a source said.
"I hope we stay together," Chalmers said. "I think we have a good thing going."
The Heat have strong ownership led by Mickey Arison and respected management led by Hall of Famer Pat Riley. James' two young boys enjoy South Florida and play AAU basketball, and James' wife opened a juice bar in Miami last year. After four seasons in Miami, James' ties run deep.
"He's been amazing," Arison told Yahoo Sports before Game 1 of the Finals. "He has been fantastic for the franchise, fantastic for the city. Honestly, if having the best player in the world is part of your organization, you can't beat that."
By the look of things so far, it's going to be hard this summer for James to find an option better than Miami.
Meanwhile....
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/after-game-5-loss--shane-battier-confirms-he-s-retiring-from-the-nba---i-don-t-have-any-more-to-give-190558403.html
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb296/tnawrestlingfan/tnasuperstarsfan/shane_battier_senate_bid_052814_zps662bc3db.jpg
After Game 5 loss, Shane Battier confirms he's retiring: 'I don't have any more to give'
By Dan Devine | Ball Don't Lie
This time last year, Shane Battier was hammering a Grand Slam to celebrate a back-from-the-dead 18-point explosion that helped the Miami Heat complete a comeback for the ages, ward off the San Antonio Spurs and become back-to-back NBA champions. After going scoreless in Sunday's Game 5 loss to the resurrected Spurs, though, Battier was celebrating something very different than repeat titles: the end of a long race well run.
The 35-year-old forward, who has long said he was thinking about hanging 'em up when his contract ran out at the end of this season, confirmed in the Heat locker room on Sunday that he is retiring after a 13-year NBA career.
"I've given everything I can to the game and I don't have any more to give," Battier said after logging 11 minutes with one steal, one turnover and one last tangle in the paint (with Spurs guard Manu Ginobili), according to Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "And I'm OK with it."
Battier echoed that sentiment in a farewell tweet on Monday afternoon:
Thank you thank you thank you thank you for all of the messages. It is an amazing feeling to be appreciated. It was a hell of a run and I have zero regrets. Proud that so many could feel a part of this journey, I appreciate your encouragement, love, and support. Cheers to all my friends on twitter!
Battier, who will now join ESPN as a college basketball analyst, ends a 13-year career that began with the then-Vancouver Grizzlies, who made him the No. 6 selection in the 2001 NBA draft, the franchise's final draft before moving to Memphis. Coming off a distinguished four-year stay in Durham, Battier stepped right into the starting small forward slot for head coach Sidney Lowe, averaging 14.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game for a very bad Grizzlies squad. All wound up being career highs; from a counting-stats perspective, it would be all downhill from there for Shane-O.
As Battier's numbers dropped, though, his impact as a defender and floor-spacer began to increase for Grizzlies teams that started to prosper thanks to the development of rising star big man Pau Gasol and the tutelage of eventual head coaches Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello. Battier was part of three postseason runs in Memphis, all of which ended in first-round sweeps, before being shipped to the Houston Rockets in the summer of 2006 in exchange for highly touted draft pick Rudy Gay and ex-Grizzly Stromile Swift.
Young Houston general manager Daryl Morey a Northwestern- and MIT-educated exec with a background in computer science, statistical analysis and strategic consulting tapped by owner Leslie Alexander to revamp the Rockets' approach looked at Battier as an undervalued commodity, a player whose contributions never seemed to pop out of the box score, but who often seemed to have success defending top wing scorers like Kobe Bryant and whose teams always seemed to perform better when he was on the floor.
Morey's thought process behind the Battier move, and a glimpse at the advanced statistics underpinning the argument that a guy who rarely topped 10 points a game could be considered a linchpin on a playoff team, became the basis for a February 2009 New York Times Magazine piece by star author Michael Lewis. The lengthy feature heralded the rise of the sort of basketball analysis that would eventually become its own industry through events like the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, and rebranded Battier as "The No-Stats All-Star."
After 4 1/2 years and three more playoff trips in Houston including his first trip beyond Round 1, ending in a seven-game second-round defeat at the hands of Bryant, former teammate Gasol and the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers Battier found himself on the move again. He was sent back to Memphis at the 2011 trade deadline to help fortify a grind-it-out Grizzlies roster built around the interior heft of Zach Randolph and Pau's little (well, "little") brother Marc Gasol; the wing scoring of Gay, the player for whom he'd been traded back in 2006; and the odd-couple backcourt of Tony Allen and Mike Conley. Battier played his part as a defensive hound and gap-filler in the eighth-seeded Grizzlies' historic first-round upset of the No. 1 seed San Antonio Spurs before struggling in Memphis' second-round loss to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and the young upstart Oklahoma City Thunder.
After another tough seven-game second-round defeat, Battier hit free agency and decided to move southeast to join up with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat. He proved to be a hand-in-glove fit for a Heat team in need of offensive and defensive redefinition, serving as a capable wing defender, consummate glue guy and reliable floor-spacer, especially from the corners. He helped give head coach Erik Spoelstra the flexibility to turn Miami's offensive scheme from a traditional two-big set in which James and Wade largely took turns facilitating offense into a streamlined, small-ball attack in which Bosh would serve as a nightmare matchup five, Battier would play the stretch four, and James and Wade would have much more room to attack the basket and set things up for themselves and one another. By playing that small four spot, Battier also helped save James the exhausting physical beating of having to handle big power forwards on the defensive end, helping keep Miami's top gun in fine form for long postseason runs.
The restructuring worked beautifully, as the Heat became the first team since the 2008-09 and '09-'10 Lakers to win consecutive championships, and the first since the mid-1980s Boston Celtics to make four straight trips to the NBA Finals. That fourth trip ended, though, as the first trip did, back in 2011 with a disappointing defeat owed in large part to an inability to stop a rampaging Texan offense from scoring, and with perhaps even more questions than answers heading into the postseason. From Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick:
"It was a difficult year," Shane Battier said after his final NBA game, repeating a sentiment he'd privately expressed several times during the season. "It was a trying year from the standpoint that there were very few pure moments. That was the biggest difference between the past two years.
"And we were always trying to conjure something. And for a while there, in the second half, it worked. But you can't win a championship trying to conjure something. It has to be who you are, and it has to be pure, and that wasn't the case for us this year."
Battier was speaking collectively, but it's easy to see the personal and specific in there, too. As this season wore on, though, the veteran could no longer conjure the capacity to fill the role Spoelstra set forth for him two summers earlier. It became evident that the burden of punching above his weight class against the David Wests of the world for the last three years had driven Battier into the ground. He shot a career-low 38.2 percent from the floor, his 3-point accuracy dropped more than 8 percent from a year ago, and he routinely struggled to provide the same sort of defensive productivity that we'd been accustomed to seeing from him. He was excised from Miami's rotation in an opening-round sweep of the Charlotte Bobcats; reintroduced in a starting, albeit, limited role with some success against the Brooklyn Nets; curbed to just 12.3 minutes per game in defeating the Indiana Pacers; and mostly mothballed in the five-game beating at the hands of the Spurs, capping things off with 11 undistinguished minutes in the Game 5 blowout. The end of the line had arrived.
"My goals when I started this whole crazy thing, they weren't to win championships or make the All-Defensive team," Battier said during a recent interview with Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. "It was to play 10 years and to be able to walk away from the game before the game kicked me out."
He managed three more years than he'd bargained for, earning more than $56 million in salary and coming away with a pair of rings in the process. Not a bad deal.
As he leaves the league, Battier stands as one of 30 players in league history with at least 8,000 points, 4,000 rebounds, 900 blocks and 900 steals, a list that includes nine Hall of Famers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Robert Parish, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Julius Erving), three active players who will waltz into Springfield when their careers end (Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki), and several other interesting potential Hall cases (including Shawn Marion and Chris Webber). Factor in long-range proficiency say, guys who made at least 500 long balls in their careers and the list gets winnowed down to seven: Dirk, Pippen, Marion, Clifford Robinson, Rasheed Wallace, Sam Perkins ... and Battier.
Now, that's not to say that Battier's a Hall of Famer. Only 26 players who have played in the NBA and scored less than 9,000 points have been inducted into the Hall. Eighteen completed their careers before 1970. Three had legendary international careers (Drazen Petrovic, Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis). Two boasted remarkable ABA accomplishments (Connie Hawkins, Mel Daniels). Two had their curtailed NBA careers augmented by their dominance in the NCAA ranks (Bill Walton, Ralph Sampson). One was, pound-for-pound, arguably the greatest rebounder and defender ever (Dennis Rodman).
Battier (8,408 career points) played in the modern era and doesn't have an especially remarkable international rιsumι, having been part of not-exactly-Dream Team, non-Olympic U.S. men's national squads that won gold at the 2001 Goodwill Games and bronze at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. He had a strong four years at Duke, earning two All-American berths and winning the 2001 national championship while sweeping the major National Player of the Year awards that year, but was nowhere near the game-changing force that Walton was at UCLA or that Sampson was at Virginia. And while Battier made his bones in the NBA as a tough, smart, versatile defender, twice earning recognition on the NBA's All-Defensive Second Team, he wasn't Rodman, or anything resembling Rodman.
Again: I share that list not to argue for Battier's Hall of Fame candidacy, but rather to note that, while we tend to think of him as an orthodox, conventional, square-back-and-sides type, the sum total of his career output marks him as something of a weird NBA player.
Dirk, Uncle Cliff, 'Sheed, Big Smooth, the Matrix, Andrei Kirilenko, Josh Smith, KG, Vlade Divac, Dr. J, Shawn Kemp, Marcus Camby ... there are a lot of guys on that list whose NBA games featured an odd confluence of skills and, in many cases, offbeat personalities to match. We don't necessarily think of Battier in that same light, what with all the "getting headhunted by campaign operatives" and "aggressively seeking out watery beer," but he's certainly possessed of plenty of his own peccadilloes Battioke, anyone?
He might've been a no-stats dude with a lack of swag to match, but in his own ways the possession-shifting, the option-creating, the gem-of-a-quote-dropping ways Battier still found ways to let his personal brand of freak flag fly. The league will be a little less interesting without his boring brand of weird in it. Vaya con dios, Shane.
credit: sports.yahoo.com
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Report: Heat's Chris Andersen will opt out, become free agent
By James Herbert | NBA writer
June 16, 2014
Miami Heat big man Chris Andersen will decline his $1.45 million player option for next season and become a free agent, according to Yahoo Sports' Marc Spears. Miami's supporting cast could look quite different in a few months.
Guard Ray Allen said he still loves playing, but is considering retirement after 18 seasons. Forward Shane Battier is retiring after 13 seasons. Free-agent point guard Mario Chalmers told Yahoo Sports he would like to re-sign with the Heat, but he struggled in the postseason and lost his starting job in Game 5. Forward-center Chris Andersen will opt-out of his contract to become a free agent, a source said. Longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem has a contract option for next season. Sharp-shooting forward Rashard Lewis is a free agent also, and the Heat will have competition for his services, a source said.
Andersen's decision is essentially a no-brainer financially. He has been an absolute steal since he joined the Heat, finishing around the basket and providing solid pick-and-roll defense and rim protection in addition to his vaunted energy and activity. A key part of Miami's playoff run, he appeared to be much less than fully healthy in the NBA Finals, where he averaged just 2.6 points per game and made 25 percent of his shots.
While Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has always been a big Anderson fan, his future with the team is uncertain simply because the organization has a lot of other questions to answer. All three of its stars could opt out, and it looks like the roster needs an injection of athleticism and shooting. Andersen could surely still fit in, but there are a lot of moving parts.
and....
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Ray Allen to consider retirement
By James Herbert | NBA writer
June 16, 2014
Miami Heat guard Ray Allen will consider retirement, he told reporters after losing Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday. He hasn't made a decision yet, but the 38-year-old will do so soon, via ESPN's Brian Windhorst:
"I've had a great career, I'm content with what I've done," Allen said. "It's hard to think past this moment. In the next couple of days I'll think about it and see where my true heart lies."
"One thing is for certain, to [make retirement decision] on my terms is the most important thing," Allen said. "Whether that is me retiring, staying here or going somewhere else it will be on my terms. I've made it to this point and I felt great that I have the choice to make it for myself."
Allen is one of five players from the famed 1996 NBA Draft class, arguably the best ever, who played in the league this season. The others are Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal and Derek Fisher, who is now the head coach of the New York Knicks. Allen has kept in remarkable shape, suiting up for 73 games in the regular season and all 20 of Miami's playoff games. He averaged a career-low 9.6 points per game, but shot 37.5 percent on three-pointers and had occasional scoring outbursts.
Despite a 1-for-8 shooting performance in the season-ending loss, Allen is still one of the best marksmen on the planet. A 10-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion, it would be understandable if he wanted to walk away. There's certainly still a place for him in the league, though, if he wants to give it another go.
credit: cbssports.com