Luol Deng is a fine basketball player and was an even better offseason pickup, but if he’s still in a Miami Heat uniform after his two-year, $19.9 million contract expires at the end of next season, it likely means something has gone wrong.
The 6’9” small forward is best thought of as a stopgap, a bridge to the next contending Heat team.
Miami’s plan, most observers agree, is to stay pretty good while maintaining maximum flexibility in anticipation for the killer free-agent class of the summer of 2016.
That’s Deng’s directive: keep the franchise respectable until Miami can find someone better to replace him.
This is no fault of Deng’s: He’s been a good to very good player in the NBA for some time now. He’s a two-time All-Star. He was second-team All-Defense in 2011-12. He was a top-three player on a handful of almost-great Chicago Bulls teams. He’s averaged 16 points a game in his 11-season NBA career while playing consistently high-level defense.
The advanced stats second all this good stuff.
Basketball-Reference.com&rsquo ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Tom Sunnergren
Does Luol Deng Have a Long-Term Future with the Miami Heat?
December 2nd, 2014 by Tom Sunnergren Leave a reply »
Advertisement