Heat president Pat Riley issued a statement in response to all the trade rumors that have Miami shipping forward Shawn Marion and guard Marcus Banks to Toronto in exchange for forward-center Jermaine O'Neal.
"It's typical this time of year in the NBA that people put the cart before the horse -- whoever is saying that is putting the cart before the horse," Riley said. That doesn't mean trade talks aren't ongoing. That doesn't mean the trade talks never happened.
It simply means the trade might not be imminent. And it might not even mean that much.
To recap: Marion is in the final year of a $17.8 million contract. Banks earns about $4 million each of the next two seasons. O'Neal earns $21 million this season and $23 million in 2009-10, and then his contract expires. That would give Miami his $23 million salary to use on that free agent class of 2010.
Marion said Friday he's sick of the trade talk.
"There's just so much speculation about me being traded," he said. "It's a distraction.
"I like my teammates. I like the coaches. I like the organization. I like the city. I'm kind of tired of it. That's it. I'm done with it. What happens, happens."
Marion, by the way, missed Sunday's game against Oklahoma City because of a groin injury.
HEAT 104, THUNDER 94: Guard Dwyane Wade had 32 points, 10 assists and three blocks and F Udonis Haslem had a double-double (11 points, season-best 15 rebounds) as the Heat finished with a 4-3 record on its longest road trip of the season.
It was a huge victory. F Shawn Marion missed the game because of a groin injury. Haslem was battling a bad back from a scary fall he took against Houston the previous night. G Daequan Cook was battling a sore knee that forced him to miss a game earlier this month. And it was the last game of a 13-night trip against a team that was hot.
"In some ways I think that might have been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, character wins of the season," coach Erik Spoelstra said.
