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Andersen is pretty decent. With the way Miami plays defense, a lot of times they funnel penetration into help defense, and it's an area he probably excels in, coming from the weak-side and contesting penetration. Pick-and-roll defense, they probably have more liberty than most teams to switch everything, and Andersen is mobile enough. Guy runs the floor well, and finishes pretty well near the rim on lobs, put-backs, and gimme's. Those are the only kind of shots he'll be expected to make, as a recipient of others' penetration.

Spoelstra and the other players don't ask much from their bigs outside of Bosh and Haslem, they actually dumb down the game as much as they possibly can for them. That's all they ask for, hustle plays, hitting the boards, denying penetration, contesting shots, help defense, etc. With the veteran's minimum, that's a welcome addition.

Strength and size though is a problem. It's not something they have to worry about against most teams, but they'll have to address it when they go up against Andrew Bynum and Roy Hibbert, potentially in the playoffs on the East side of the bracket.

I actually like Harrellson's game. Although, I only watched him during March Madness, I was impressed with his mobility and motor for a guy of his build. Someone will probably get waived or bought out, and ended up being a "value" pick-up for them. There's no rush for the Heat at the moment to go and sign someone, stuff happens during the course of the regular season, as you know.

At the end of the day, we're talking about players for the veteran's minimum. We can get into these technicalities of whether the Heat can sign a center "better" than Asik, but my original point a couple of posts ago was, yes, that I agreed with you that center will always a be a need based on their salary structure. Even though they only have the veteran's minimum to offer now, I still believe they can find a serviceable center, at a better value than Asik was, given that they're the defending champions, and will always be contenders for years to come barring injury. You're free to agree or disagree, I don't really have much more to add besides that.

Some interesting use of terminology there.

Andersen is pretty decent. With the way Miami plays defense, a lot of times they funnel penetration into help defense, and it's an area he probably excels in, coming from the weak-side and contesting penetration. Pick-and-roll defense, they probably have more liberty than most teams to switch everything, and Andersen is mobile enough. Guy runs the floor well, and finishes pretty well near the rim on lobs, put-backs, and gimme's. Those are the only kind of shots he'll be expected to make, as a recipient of others' penetration.

Andersen *was* pretty decent. Now, he will be exactly what the money he gets determines - that is to say, not much indeed. Anything remotely resembling 'team defense', the Birdman will be relatively 'meh'. I think your memories of him are several years old. Even then, his defense - beyond his blocking - was awful.

At the end of the day, we're talking about players for the veteran's minimum. We can get into these technicalities of whether the Heat can sign a center "better" than Asik, but my original point a couple of posts ago was, yes, that I agreed with you that center will always a be a need based on their salary structure. Even though they only have the veteran's minimum to offer now, I still believe they can find a serviceable center, at a better value than Asik was, given that they're the defending champions, and will always be contenders for years to come barring injury. You're free to agree or disagree, I don't really have much more to add besides that.

"Better than Asik" is no 'technicality'. It's a simple reality of what is affordable. I get what you're saying as to 'value-for-money', but given the dollars available, it is going to be a significant weakness for the Heat - this season and the foreseeable future.

I'm not really surprised, to say the least, that you dissected everything I wrote. But anyways, Andersen's also going to get like 3-4 million (you can look up the exact # if you want) in addition from the Nuggets, from being amnestied. Just thought I'd throw it out there, at this point.

I'm glad you understand the point I was getting at. I'll just leave it at that, for the sake of argument.