Category: Miami Heat Blog

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Cavaliers sign Jamario Moon to offer sheet

The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed restricted free agent forward Jamario Moon to a contract offer sheet, Cavaliers General Manager Danny Ferry announced today. Per team and league policy, terms of the contract offer were not released.

Several media outlets are reporting that the offer is for two years, though they aren’t sure what the dollar amount of the deal is. It’s likely Moon is receiving between $2 and $3.2 million per season. We’ll update this info tonight.

The Miami Heat have seven days to match the offer and retain Moon.

Moon played in 80 games (60 starts) this past season for the Toronto Raptors and the Miami Heat. He averaged 7.2 points on .468 shooting, 4.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 25.8 minutes per game. The 6-foot-8 forward scored in double figures on 25 occasions. He led the NBA in steals-to-turnovers ratio (2.0) during the 2008-09 season. In two seasons in the NBA, Moon has career averages of 7.8 points on .478 shooting, 5.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks in 26.8 minutes per game.

UPDATE: The Heat decline to match the offer. So, Cavs get Moon.

Shaq lands sports-reality TV show

USA Today (Gary Levin) reports: NBA star Shaquille O’Neal is getting ready to multitask. The four-time hoops champion, who joins the Cleveland Cavaliers next season, will star in “Shaq Vs.,” an ABC reality series that pits him against top athletes in their own sports. Filming begins Wednesday in Pittsburgh, where Shaq takes on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in football. Future hourlong episodes will pit him against Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, retired boxer Oscar De La Hoya, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, tennis pro Serena Williams and beach volleyball Olympians Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

InsideHoops.com editor says: The show sounds like it should be fun to watch, if done correctly. Ideally, the guest athletes share cool stuff that we wouldn’t normally hear or see and bring something new, aside from showing off skills we already know they possess.

Cleveland Cavaliers sign Jamario Moon to offer sheet

The Boston Herald reports: The Cavaliers have picked up where the Celtics couldn’t get things done. The Cavs have signed restricted free agent swingman Jamario Moon to an offer sheet, the Miami Heat confirmed today. Miami has seven days to match the offer. The 6-foot-8 Moon played 25.9 minutes per game last season for the Heat and Raptors, averaging 7.2 points and 4.6 rebounds.

Antoine Walker arrested in casino

The Miami Herald reports:  Former NBA forward Antoine Walker, a member of the Miami Heat’s 2006 championship team, was arrested Wednesday night in Harrah’s Casino in South Lake Tahoe, Nev., NBC Sports has reported. This came a day after a warrant was issued stemming from Walker’s $822,500 in gambling debts. He is accused of three felony counts of writing bad checks. County prosecutors say he failed to make good on 10 checks totaling $1 million written to Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and the Red Rock Resort.

InsideHoops.com editor says: This is sure to help his NBA comeback attempt!

Heat may offer Lamar Odom a deal

The Los Angeles Daily News (Elliot Teaford) reports (via blog): It seems likely that Lamar Odom could sign a five-season deal with the Miami Heat at the mid-level exception ($5.8 million for next season and $34 million or so for the length of the contract) by the end of the week. The Dallas Mavericks also are interested in giving Odom the same deal, but he seems less likely to land in Dallas. Reports out of Miami indicate the Heat are trying to sign Odom and trade for Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz in an attempt to satisfy Dwyane Wade’s demands for a beefed up roster next season.

Heat hint at extension to Dwyane Wade

The AP reports: Dwyane Wade said Heat president Pat Riley texted those sentiments very early Sunday, in what amounts to a largely ceremonial move. The Heat had to wait until 12:01 a.m. on July 12 to formally offer an extension to the reigning NBA scoring champion, and Wade said Riley didn’t wait too long before pressing the send button. “It’s no rush,” Wade said. “We all know that.” Wade didn’t reveal what the text message said, other than confirming the obvious, that Riley was reaffirming Miami’s hope that the 2006 NBA finals MVP sticks around for many years to come.

Dwyane Wade wants to stay with Heat provided they’re championship contenders

The AP (Tim Reynolds) reports on Dwyane Wade: The reigning NBA scoring champion, who can opt out of his Heat contract after the 2009-10 season, said Monday that simply getting to the playoffs “is not enough” to satisfy him anymore, and that his long-term commitment to Miami hinges entirely on the franchise getting back into the mix for the title trophy he hoisted just three years ago. “I’m going to listen. I owe the Miami Heat that much. I’m going to listen to what they have to say and I’m going to think about it,” Wade told The Associated Press. “But right now, the way I feel, I want to make sure that we’re on track to where I want us to be on track to before I sign back.” Wade made clear that he would like to stay with the Heat, reiterating something he’s said countless times in recent months.

Shaq sells Miami house

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sarah Talalay) reports: Former Heat center Shaquille O’Neal finally unloaded his Star Island home on Wednesday, a day before he was traded from Phoenix to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Philip Freedman, a broker with Flagstone Realty, said the deal to sell the 2.5 acre property at 26 Star Island Drive closed Wednesday. The home sold for $16 million, far below the $18.8 million O’Neal paid for the mansion in 2004 and the $32 million he was seeking for the home in 2005. He was reportedly asking $22.5 million, but couldn’t get nearly that much in this economic climate.

InsideHoops.com editor says: Shaq sold his home for a bit less than I recent spent on one of my new summer houses.

NBA team, D-League team affiliations announced

The National Basketball Association and the NBA Development League, the official minor league of the NBA, today announced the affiliation system for the 2009-10 season, including the announcement of a direct single-affiliation partnership between the Houston Rockets and Rio Grande Valley Vipers.  For the fifth consecutive year, each NBA team has one NBA D-League affiliate to which it may assign players in their first or second NBA season.

The Rockets became the first NBA team to enter into a direct single-affiliation partnership with an NBA D-League team, granting the Rockets full control over the basketball operations of the Vipers.  With the move, the Rockets will be the only parent-club of the team.

In a structure similar to other minor leagues, this new partnership model, previously referred to as the “hybrid affiliation,” allows for NBA teams to secure control over and cover the expenses related to the basketball operations of an NBA D-League team, while partnering with existing local ownership, who maintain responsibility for the off-the-court business operations of the team.

The list of affiliations is on our NBA D-League page.