The Miami Heat & Greg Oden Need Each Other

Jul 31, 2013

In a few days free agent big man Greg Oden will be making his choice on which team he will sign with next season. A lot of teams have shown interest in Oden but one team stands out above the rest and that’s the defending champs. The Heat need Oden and Oden needs the Heat.

Nobody can say that the Heat haven’t tried to sign big men to over the last few years of the Big 3 era. To be completely honest they’ve signed countless big men to try and address their size and rebounding issues and none of them have worked out. The best thing that happened to them in their big man search over the years was signing Chris “Birdman” Andersen but still they need more than just him.

Year one of the Big 3 era in Miami, the Heat had Zydrunas Illgauskas, Jamaal Maglaoire, Erik Dampier and Juwan Howard all warming the bench in suits come playoff time watching Joel Anthony play his heart out to get his 2 points, 3 rebounds, and block. The next year they let Eddy Curry, Dexter Pittman, & Ronny Turiaf roam the bench while Anthony joined them. These big men were so garbage Erik Spolestra would rather let Shane Battier play power forward, it worked out and they won but we still can’t ignore the fact they need size.

With all these failed attempts to get players with size the Heat have had to rely on Udonis Haslem way more than they should and have Chris Bosh playing at center most of the time. It’s time to get a big man, it’s time to get Greg Oden.

After reading that long list of failed big men, the Heat shouldn’t be afraid to take a risk on Oden, I mean if you can take a risk on Eddy Curry then why not Oden. The worst that can happen is he’s injured and he sits on the end of the bench for the ride, you guys do have LeBron so I think you’ll manage. Last time I checked, (about 4 years ago) Oden played defense and rebounded so that’s a huge positive. They wouldn’t even have to give him a lot of minutes but he would definitely be needed against those big boys the Eastern Conference has to offer. Every top tier team in the East has nice big men who routinely eat the Heat alive, well except the Knicks, I just don’t see Tyson Chandler’s slapback rebound as a killer or Amare Stoudemire striking fear on opponents these days.

Anyways, it’s time for Greg Oden to prove his worth. He was the number 1 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft and has only played in 82 games since then. Nobody’s expecting him to be Dwight Howard out there but he has to go out better than a worse draft bust than Kwame Brown. Oden is still young also and if he performs well he can get big money next year. It’s time to join the Heat and fill their biggest need. I don’t want to hear anything about how he doesn’t want a lot of pressure by joining a contender; Greg Oden is going to have pressure to do well regardless.

In my personal opinion, I expect more out of Oden if he decides to join a garbage team, in Miami he can do what he does best on the best team in the league. Also they still have Andersen and Haslem so he won’t have to play too much. I think Oden to Miami is the best move, nobody else needs him more than they do.