Tonight is draft night, and I'm sure all basketball fans are pumped up as they see who their team selects and which pieces their team adds to compete for a championship, or to get their franchise back on track. The Heat hold a very low draft pick, so they will not be expecting to get a future all-star at that spot, but will be looking for someone who can be good off the bench and can perhaps start in the future. With that, I present my personal favorite pick, and an overwhelming favorite for the spot, Syracuse center Fab Melo.
The Heat have a major hole at Center, and you can read about some of the free agents they might target here and here. But, just adding one or two free agents isn't going to shore up this crucial spot. Even though the Heat have found some recent success using the small-ball approach, and going with Chris Bosh at center, that isn't something that they will be able to regularly do when faced with dominant big men. The Heat need a 7 foot guy who can rack up the blocks and the rebounds. Enter Fab Melo.
Fab Melo, 22 year old Brazilian sophomore out of Syracuse, boasts a 7'0 frame with an even longer wingspan. Melo has shown throughout his college career how dominating he can be defensively in the paint. His long wingspan, height and strength make him a tough guy to beat in the low post and off the drive. He has put up great blocking and rebounding numbers through his college career, and will add that dimension that the Heat has been missing by going with (relatively) diminutive center Joel Anthony or power forward Chris Bosh.
One issue with Melo, however, is his inability to translate his natural skills to the offensive side of the floor, where he is essentially a non-factor, If he was unable to become a dominant offensive force in college, I think it is a stretch to imagine that he could be one in the NBA. I think that weakness is fairly moot for the Heat, however. It is hard to imagine he would've gotten many offensive opportunities anyways on a team with scoring options like Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, James Jones, Udonis Haslem and potentially Ray Allen. So, due to the amount of scorers available to the Heat, his defensive dominance should make him high on the Heat's draft board tonight. So, we'll see how tonight's draft goes and if the Heat heed my advice and go for the big, defensive center out of the Syracuse Orange.
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