If this happens it's a bunch of bullshit! 3 of the top 5 players in the game in one team plus bosh who's still quality is a joke and makes it ridiculously unfair and uneven. Surely lebron would want to try and win titles in a fair competition.

If guys are willing to take a pay cut to win then other organisations need to take notes and make an enviroment that breeds team success over cash.

Also if your Wade/Le Bron/Bosh you can take a reduced deal ($10m to $15m) to add an extra star at the same price tag as you make up any short fall in salary via marketing/third party deals due to the team succes so it is a smart business model as brands want to be associated with successful teams/players rather than max deal guys on avg or middling teams.

A tTeam loaded with Super Players doesn't always win, look at the Lakers when they bought in Payton and Malone to chase a ring.

Plus any team with Carmello in it will struggle when there is only 1 ball to share....

Could be huge if they pull this off,

Even if they dont, if the players are willing to take less to create say $15 Mil cap space there are heaps of options for them, and would make them very strong going forward.

If they dont land Melo id look into a combination of some (2-3)of these guys, obviously the price and role on team would depend on the player, some would be expensive starters, some would be cheap min salary guys with a smallish role but still something to offer imo, some in between.

Deng
Gasol
Randolph
Pierce
Hayward
Gortat
Ariza
Hawes
Livingston
Granger
Meeks
Hinrich
Miller
J. O'Neal
Okafor
Morrow
Rindour
Brand
Bazemore
Kenyon Martin
Baynes

My first option would be to sign Deng for something around 12 mil, then sign Okafor for around 1 mil then 2 mil to spend on another shooter Morrow could work or could try and get a Granger type.

Giving them a line up of something like (im assuming Battier and Haslem retires and hoping they talk Ray Allen into playing atleast another season)

PG Cole/Chalmers
SG Wade/Allen
F Deng/Morrow
F James/Lewis/Beasley
C Bosh/Andersen/Okafor/Oden

Havnt distinguished between sf and pf, both will be combo roles.

Could obviously mix and match line ups,

id be tempted to start LeBron at PG and Lewis or Andersen at PF/C (with Bosh moving to PF if Andersen starts) or something and go really long and versatile, that line up would be atleast used at stages im sure,

Okafor and Oden are only used for 10 mins each against teams with half decent bigs if Bosh needs some help, and to free him up a bit at times. Both could be handy in this role imo and at cheap min contracts, nothing to lose really.

My 2nd best option would be to get Livingston (or Hinrich) and Hayward (or Ariza) for around $7 mil each and then still add a Okafor type for around $1 mil, could even then look to replace Chalmers with a shooter, Morrow??

giving a line up of

PG Livingston/Cole
SG Wade/Allen/Morrow
F Hayward/Lewis
F James/Beasley
C Bosh/Andersen/Okafor/Oden

Again can mix and match line ups with a variety of long, athletic, versatile combos, with good shooting and some defensive bigs available when needed.

The NBA should bring in a points rating like the NBL.

This would solve the problem, make it so teams could only sign 2 superstars

It's like when a rich family wins lotto and a poor family can't even afford a lotto ticket.
Good luck to the Heat if they can pull this one off.

The point of the CBA was to make small market teams more competitive. It has not worked. This is ridiculous. It makes a mockery of basketball and it is not how competitive sport should operate. Saw this from the article:

"The Heat are in essence trying to emulate some of the longstanding policies employed by their current Finals opponent, as the Spurs have been able to keep Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili together for more than a decade -- while routinely strengthening the supporting cast around them -- because their three best players have been repeatedly willing to take pay cuts."

How dare they compare what the Heat are doing to what the Spurs have done. The Spurs drafted their big three (Parker and Manu pretty late in the draft). They built their team, they didn't buy them.

Carmelo to the Heat is a real possibility - Third party deals don’t happen in the NBA; rather they are disguised. Is there any rules regarding endorsement deals? Hypothetically, all these companies could say to Melo’ come to Miami and sign him up on various endorsement deals to negate the lost salary. It happened with Lebron and Nike – because Nike products sold in much stronger numbers than they ever did in Cleveland.

If this does go through, small market teams like Minny, Milwaukee, Utah etc. have to make a stand and hold the NBA accountable. Would hate to see it happen. Its disgusting – the league is in a bad state at the moment in terms of parity of talent. There would be nothing stopping Miami from eclipsing Jordan’s record of 72-10. Jordan did it against NY, Detroit, Indiana, Orlando every year. The East is terrible, the Spurs are at the twighlight and theres no legitimate future contenders. This is sad.

They need a post defender & rim protector.
Not another ISO player, as they already have Wade & Lebron.
I would go after Marcin Gortat if I was the heat.

Rav, I have heard rumours of Ibaka to South Beach.

Micky Arison is also said to be in discussion with Chris Paul.

He has indicated that discussions with Durant hit a road block because KD wasn't too happy about starting behind Lebron James.

Curry is looking to put pen to paper sometime in the next week. Love do has indicated his interest and reckons he can nab the starting PF spot.

Yet the Lakers could not get Paul,

The lakers Paul situation is different, it was a trade that some would have considered lop sided so the NBA who were running the hornets at the time vetoed it to make sure they appeared impartial and not favouring the lakers.

The heat have built there star power through free agency and the draft (Wade).

Nothing wrong with signing free agents to build a contender basically every championship team has signed atleast 1 of there top 2 players as a free agent the Spurs are the exception more than the rule.

Lakers didnt draft any of Kobe, Shaq, Gasol, Odom either.

Caltics didnt draft Garnett or Allen.

You could argue the Heat guys should be congratulated for putting winning ahead of $$$ in a league where many guys chase $$$ over all else. So yes they are building a super team, but its costing them all $$ personally, not that they struggle, so i have no problem with it assuming the Heat are abiding by the Cap rules in place.

If they were putting these guys all on max deals and still signing a deep bench by rorting the system id be against it, but it doesnt appear like this to me. Most of there bench would be on low $$, many of the bench players are old or have injury/a troublesome history so are cheap and they lost Mike Miller, one of there most important bench guys/5th starter, in the off season due to the cap/luxury tax thresholds, so i dont see how they are cheating.

There is nothing stopping the Lakers (or any other club) from trying something similar, except obviously guys ie Kobe are putting money ahead of winning and are not prepared to sign a lesser contract of say $14 mil like the Heat guys did to keep winning. Thats hardly the Heats fault, so i tip my hat off to them for putting winning first. As in reality LeBron is one of the very few players in the NBA actually worth a max deal and if he is willing to take less to play with his mates and win, i say good on him, Duncan has done similar in the Spurs maybe other stars should do similar instead of complaining.

Its not any of the Heats fault that many of the NBAs other stars are not guys that team mates enjoy playing with or wont take anything less than top $$$ (ie too greedy), which is the only thing stopping any other club from doing the same thing.

Honestly how can you say congrats to the heat boys for taking a pay cut there still earning a bucketload, I'm sure they can survive on a measly $10 mil instead of $15 mil that pay cut really has to hurt! Plus all the endorsement money they get, this just makes a mockery of the NBA if this happens.

"The heat have built there star power through free agency and the draft (Wade)."


I like how you had to throw Wade in there just so you could say "and the draft"

I mean in terms that the general rule for many pro athletes is to put $$$ above all else, these guys have actually put friendship/winning first. They are among the very few to do it in the NBA, would Kobe, Shaq, Garnett, etc many of the other superstars ever do it?? id doubt it. They could have though and there teams would have been more successful for it.

Never thought they would struggle, they make truck loads of $$$ but LeBron and others could be earning $5-10mil more, and are far from the top earners in the NBA, despite being among the best players.

Well i think as the general rule for a title team these days, the spurs being the exception is you draft one super star and sign a top notch free agent or 2 to join them, thats how most do it. Nothing wrong with it either. Houston are trying to sign all 3 superstars if they land Melo aswell as Dwight and Harden, nothing wrong with that either.

Heaven forbid if someone were to change job/employer to have more success/make more money/work with friends, almost everyone does that in all industries, dont see why NBA guys are knocked for it.

FWIW what is the difference between the Heat doing this and the Perth guys like Martin, Knight, Redhage, Wagstaff taking less than market value deals to stay together each year and allow the club to sign a top notch import or 2 so that they can win heaps each year.

We applaud those Aussies for taking less $$ and putting winning first, then we knock the Heat for it. For me its essentially the same thing.

Aslong as you abide by the salary caps/rules in your league than put together the best team possible, convincing superstars to join forces at an affordable rate is a pretty good way for the Heat or anyone to build a title contender imo.

Got to agree with Johnno. This is not anything new, teams have been collecting star players for a long time. But the Heat cop a bit from the whingers no matter what they do.

There is nothing stopping other teams running an organisation well and doing the same thing. The problem is that players put $$$ first and their egos are too big to share star roles in a team.

Regardless I think the Heat would be better off getting solid role players to support the likes of James/Wade/Bosh. Too many shooters is not a good thing.

Sick of hearing players like Bynum who say they will 'play wherever a bank is' or Kobe who take max deals to the detriment of their team.

There is nothing stopping other teams running an organisation well and doing the same thing. The problem is that players put $$$ first and their egos are too big to share star roles in a team.

I see your point re the 4 top players against a smaller market team, i guess what do they do to stop it, if the NBA see it as an issue??

obviously the salary cap doesnt, aslong as guys are less selfish and willing to sacrifice some $$$, id say this will be rare as i dont think that too many MVP level guys will do what LeBron has done and not take a max contract as soon as he can, let alone take $5-10 mil less. So long term possibly not a huge issue for the league. Most superstars do what Shaq, Kobe, Garnett, etc did, make as much $$$ as they can, which makes it impossible to sign a super team.

I guess this an instance where a points cap could be implemented to only allow a certain points value per team regardless of guys willing to take pay cuts, etc. Ie if they went down the same path as the NBL, 70 points a team LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Melo would all be 10s, guys like Chalmers, Cole, Allen, Andersen, Lewis would all fall between 5-8 points, putting them over 70 with 9 guys and they need a 12 man squad, which would mean a team this deep would be impossible to assemble.

Imagine that if the points cap actually had some merit too it and the NBL did it first!! I wonder if NBL fans would like it if the NBA adopted it. (FWIW im a fan of it in the NBL, keeps the league somewhat even)

But still no reason to hate on the Heat players, they are making sacrifices and implementing the rules to there best advantage of winning, all clubs should be making the most of everything they can to win, thats the aim of the game.

Superteams are not new, heat are not the first to do it.

I also reckon it presents a challenge to the Heat too, would Melo be happy playing in a lesser role with less shots, spotlight, $$$, etc??? Could make them worse.

As a Heat fan id actually rather see them go for a Deng type and a cheap big like Okafor and a cheap shooter like Morrow with the money, as i reckon that would be better as neither of these guys need the ball heaps to be effective, and potentially plug holes better than Melo would. But would be interested to see how it goes if Melo does go to the heat, remember Wade, Melo, Bosh are 30+ years old and by the time their contracts expire if they team up would be mid 30s and on the decline, so it may not be as much of a 'super' team in say 2 years time as people think, especially if one gets injured for any significant length of time.

I say aslong as they do it within the rules, then good on them for going for it, the Heats job is to WIN not look after parity of the NBA and smaller market teams,

thats the NBA's job and if they think this is hurtful to the league they should change the rules/implement a points cap/tighter salary cap to make it impossible.

A number of players earned their massive contracts and then went ring-chasing late in their career. Shaq, KG and Malone did it.

The NBA will probably turn a blind eye as blockbuster games between super-teams will get huge audiences and the TV revenue will keep the weaker teams afloat.

yea, i guess re the TV audience/potential $$ helping the poorer teams, could be the argument for this type of thing being good for the league.

I think unfortunately the smaller market teams know baring a miracle they will rarely/if ever win a title or even make a Grand Final series. The history of the NBA titles are dominated by only a handful of franchises, not many have more than even 4 titles, in many years, so a super team/dynasty is nothing new to the NBA and all of its fans, like it or not.

If anthony joins the heat though has there ever been a more star studded line up? I mean jordan had pippen but at least they had competition with the celtics pistons, etc. No one in the east can get close to them now let alone with anthony and the only team with any chance of beating them is the spurs but with anthony no one would get close.

There is a number of reasons why every club wont do it:

1. It is extremely difficult managing egos in 'superstar teams'. Look at Kobe and Shaq for one example or kobe and dwight. I think the way Bosh has been in his transition to a smaller role has been admirable and the way Coach Spo has kept there egos in check has been great too.

2. There is always a trade off. Yes the 'superstars' can reduce there salary but to an extent. You are trading off quality support players and a quality bench. Are the spurs great because of their 'superstars' or is because of the quality of their support and bench.

3. 'Superstars' do not automatically fit and play to their superstar level together when they share a roles. Do not assume that Melo will continue to score 30pts and Lebron 30pts and Wade 25pts and Bosh 20pts because their is just not enough time in a game for each player to get those touches.


Also, Melo is a liability in my opinion. He will just take shots off LBJ and play bad D. Get a decent (but not all star) PG and C.

Florida being one of only 2 states that have NBA franchises but without State Income tax certainly would help the decision about taking a 'pay cut'.

For instance, California has a State Income tax of 10.55% on incomes over $1m. In NY its 8.97% over $500k.

So, if Melo took $14M to play at the Heat, that would be the equivalent of $15.47M at Lakers or Clippers, or $15.25M with the Knicks.

This gives Florida, and Interestingly Texas a bit of an advantage over all other NBA Franchises.

Highest state Tax is in Oregon at 11%.

Maybe the league needs to factor this sort of information into salary caps, ie make contracts net of state income taxes.

Exactly Kason Jidd, there are some massive challenges and a real chance it wont work, which will then hurt the Heat and they will be locked into the 4 guys for around 4 years most likely if it happens, so it may not be as much of a 'super team' as everyone is carrying on about.

This is why i have no problem with teams trying it aslong as done by the salary cap,

its a high risk/reward scenario, if it works they would be championship favourites and could dominate the titles for the next few years,

if it doesnt work, chemistry issues/injury to one of the main guys/even less bench depth it may actually hurt them, may not make conference finals, which in a way has helped the rest of the East out.

These are the types of moves that the big clubs in all sports try and get done, cant blame them either, the small teams would do it if they could, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

Thats the beauty of sport!

I'll eat my hat if Carmelo ends up in Miami as part of a Big 4.

How do you stop this?

A "hard salary cap" would go a long way. Not the "soft cap" that is currently in effect.

does the big 3 qualify for the veterans minimum?

in all honesty they could sign for $1 each if they had too .

all they want is the rings

they make enough from nike & Li-Ning etc

they own homes , have nice cars

nobody cried this season when the lakers flushed 30million up Kobes ass

Why would players want more rings if they've got a couple? I would've thought money would be the motivating factor. I can understand chasing a ring if you don't have one (Carmelo) but for guys like Wade, Bosh and LBJ, what's the incentive? It's not like they're going to be a 10 season dynasty.