Miami Heat: Is The Josh McRoberts Era Over?

Josh McRoberts signed a four-year deal with the Miami Heat worth nearly $23 million this past offseason. Unfortunately, the team has yet to see the benefits of that signing with McRoberts having spent most of the year on the injured list.

It appears they may never get a chance to see it either, as CBS Sports’ Zach Harper recently expressed on a South Florida radio show.

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When asked if McRoberts might try to make a comeback should the Heat make it into the playoffs, Harper said, “I don’t think there’s any chance,” before adding this about the forward’s long-term future in Miami:

“I actually would be a little shocked if he returned next season because I think they’ll try to move him. With Whiteside in tow and Bosh back healthy, I don’t think he’s extraneous but I think you can move him and try to get something for him.”

And there it is. The end of the McRoberts era in Miami before it even began

A little background might be needed: the well-traveled player agreed to sign with Miami this offseason, shortly before LeBron James decided to go back home to Cleveland. McRoberts, to his credit, didn’t renege on his agreement with the Heat after James bolted and signed his lucrative deal (one that the Charlotte Bobcats Hornets, his former team, was reportedly willing to match).

It represented a healthy commitment from both the player and the organization. McRoberts has been in the league for eight years, spending that time on part of six different teams, including Miami. The Heat, for their part, wanted to keep their salary cap situation flexible as part of a large “master plan” based on the 2016 offseason.

It’s expected that teams will have much more money in the salary cap at that point and the Heat – like they did in 2010 – wanted to position themselves to make a big run at key free agents. Other than McRoberts, Miami is committed to only one other player past the 2015-16 season: Chris Bosh.

So what happened? Why the sudden departure from this shift in philosophy?

Like many transactions in the NBA, it’s all a matter of context and timing. McRoberts was seen as a complementary skill set to James’ varied skills, a slick-passing big man who can score from the perimeter or at the rim and help create an offensive scheme not unlike what the San Antonio Spurs employed to carve up Miami during last season’s NBA Finals.

When James unexpectedly joined the Cavaliers, the Heat shifted to Plan B, bringing in Luol Deng to, along with McRoberts, fill the rather large void left by James. The plan never got a chance to come to fruition during this injury-marred season, as McRoberts would only play limited minutes in 17 games, amassing pedestrian numbers of 4.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists in just 17 minutes per game.

Once McRoberts went down for the season with a torn knee ligament, the Heat moved Chris Bosh to his natural power forward position and had Chris Andersen starting at center. But, like so many Heat players this year, Andersen would miss time due to injury and the Heat would bring aboard Hassan Whiteside.

This is where the philosophical change takes place. Whiteside has exceeded expectations by such a wide margin that the team recognized a need to make him a long-term piece of the puzzle.

And while an offense predicated on passing (like the Spurs or this year’s Atlanta Hawks) works with McRoberts, it doesn’t work with Whiteside at the pivot and with limited passing skills yet to develop.

Whiteside’s quick growth also forced Miami’s hand for this season’s goals – team president Pat Riley saw this team could compete for a title this season – and they made the move to acquire Goran Dragic from the Phoenix Suns. Suddenly, you have a starting lineup of Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside – as good a starting unit as any other.

Bosh’s season-ending blood clots would ruin that plan but, to Harper’s point, this team is looking beyond this remaining season toward the next one, when that strong starting unit would be in place to legitimately compete for a title (a lot has to happen, including getting Dragic to re-sign with the team and convincing Deng not to exercise the player option on his current deal).

McRoberts has the skills necessary to make this team truly elite as a very skilled backup (think San Antonio’s Boris Diaw without the extra girth) but his contract presents a problem. As Harper would elaborate, McRoberts would be “fantastic” in this new Heat model but at too high a price:

“He really does fit into the system it’s just now for the cost, do you need that depth necessarily? I guess if you’re worried about Bosh long-term, then, yeah, you need that depth but in terms of fitting the system he can shoot, he can pass, he can defend, he’s really good…just to kind of reappropriate where you’re spending your money. Maybe you need more wing depth, whatever you feel like you have to move.”

Ultimately, the Heat may have to move McRoberts just to re-sign Dragic, obviously a much-bigger piece of Miami’s contending puzzle. The Heat have had to evolve on the fly so frequently this year that they’ve become a team that can compete without McRoberts’ varied skill set. Like I stated earlier, it was about the timing.

And unfortunately it seems that McRoberts’ time has run out in Miami.

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