Miami Heat Free Agency Report Card

Free agency is still under way, and NBA execs nationwide are still falling over one another trying to slap together their game-day rosters.

The Miami Heat, for their part, got the majority of their Christmas shopping (and cleaning) done early, and we pretty much know what the team will look like at tip-off. Excluding the possibility of a minor tweak in the next week or so, it's safe to say the Heat are done shaking things up.

So how did they do?

That question will be answered in six parts:

1) How much net talent was acquired (i.e. both gained and lost)

2) Do the new faces make sense on the court?

3) Did they miss out on a better opportunity?

4) Was their money well spent?

5) How much better did the team actually get? and

6) Their final grade.

For the record, they added Shane Battier and Eddy Curry, extended Mario Chalmers and James Jones, and let Mike Bibby and Jamaal Magloire walk.

First off, Bibby will probably not be missed, having been the only Heat player to be consistently bad through all four rounds last spring. Drop that Mike Bibby, and you're still about even.

As far as Magloire goes, I personally couldn't tell you the last time I saw him on the court for Miami, so again... not exactly a teary-eyed farewell there, either.

As far as who they kept, it's doubtful there will be many complaints. James Jones is worth the relative pittance (blasphemy, I know) he commands just as long as you don't ask him to get within 20 feet of the bucket. They also could have let him go, but keeping him won't hurt.

Mario Chalmers, meanwhile, should prove to be worth the money provided, his play in the Finals wasn't just some overachieving tangent. He has the benefit of a year in the media cauldron—which is equal to about a dozen—and as long as he doesn't visibly regress, hanging on to him will prove wise.

Shane Battier has played pretty much his entire career under the national radar, so some people might not be aware of what a high-quality player he is.

In many ways, his perimeter defense is on par with either Wade or LeBron, and he'll give them a reliable spot-up shooter (for a change). You could call him the best of the low-key free agents available, and his presence will make everybody's life a little easier.

Mostly good news, with a few if's...

On the floor, keeping Chalmers makes sense as long as he maintains form and justifies the investment the team is making by starting him full-time. If his progress stalls, suddenly people will be speculating on who Miami should have gotten instead of him.

James Jones equals one more target for aborted penetration plays. Always good to have.

Shane Battier will be a breath of fresh air for LeWade, since they won't be the only competent defenders tasked with guarding the other team's entire wing unit all night. Plus, the three of them together will be enough to completely stifle the NBA's best mid- to long-range offenses on most nights.

Offensively, he's perfect for Miami in that he's low-maintenance—because who needs another diva, am I right? Battier could care less about going all night without shooting because he revels in making himself useful at the little things that win games. Still, if you do get him the ball, he can put up his share of points.

Eddy Curry, to me, is an iffy pickup inasmuch as they actually plan to use him each night. As a rainy-day bit player, his offensive style (think singularity) stands to do little damage to the team, and from time to time, he might mess around and make himself useful.

He can score, after all, which is the only conceivable reason they'd want him.

However, if they plan on giving him actual minutes every game, they will quickly learn the bad side of his game, which is to say he takes to ball movement, rebounding and defense like he takes to steamed broccoli... Next thing you know, he's getting dunked on, wasting possessions and testing Spo's poker face.

The Heat were rumored to be pitching the likes of Nêné, Samuel Dalembert and Greg Oden to fulfill their pivotman pipe dreams, but really they were never in the running for them at their respective asking prices. The fact that they took their talents elsewhere is no knock on Heat management.

Same thing goes for Caron Butler, who was reported—via a blurb on a slow news day mid-lockout—to be intrigued by the thought of returning to Miami. That was, as conveniently omitted, if they could afford him... they couldn't.

Being able to attract one more quality player was enough of a get for this team. Furthermore, of all the options they had, realistic or not, Shane Battier is much likelier to make a positive difference without making waves. In case you haven't been watching, that's a major plus on this team.

For his part, Eddy Curry might feel like a consolation big man, but in reality, he was all their budget would allow. They couldn't have done much better, although it was most likely not for lack of effort and/or ring-waving on Pat Riley's part.

All told, between who they got and who they could have had instead, it's rather difficult to think of anybody whose absence from the team will make them regret their free agent decisions.

While it's not like they landed any steals in Battier, Chalmers or Curry's contracts, they spent a perfectly reasonable amount on each of them.

One would think they had no choice but to be shrewd with what little money they had to spend, but how many times has a modest budget failed to prevent terrible contracts?

On the whole, people around Pat Riley should be patting him on the back (i.e. helping him pat himself on the back) for the moves he made in what has already been a messy if not downright ugly free agent period.

Just the name Eddy Curry conjures up thoughts of one of the worst free agent contracts in NBA history, and to see him go for the league minimum certainly seems to restore some balance to the universe. Throwing bad contracts at questionable players is one habit Riles continues to avoid in his time as a GM.

The mere fact that Miami was able to land Shane Battier means they spent wisely, again due to their modest means. Without even knowing the specifics, one can tell asking price was not Battier's main motive in picking a destination.

Overall, between extending Chalmers and Jones and being careful not to overspend on new faces, the Heat had a fine showing in terms of financial efficiency. And why wouldn't they? The demand for easy success will never disappear.

This is kind of a trick question in Miami's case...

When you're already the world's easiest no-brainer to cruise to every championship for as long as you damn well please, it's hard to figure there's much room to get better. Or, more to the point, their chances of winning it all are no greater than they already were.

Sure, the Heat addressed some issues they had, but were these ever really obstacles to their ultimate success? Would Miami be any less likely to devour, digest and pass the entire NBA, had they not made these moves?

Of course not.

Wing defense and low-post scoring (sans rebounds and defense) were not the reasons Miami laid that egg in the Finals, were they?

Oh sure, there has been ample talk—most of it dating back to last February—of their "most glaring needs," which is really just a function of the public's denial-induced need to find faults with a team viewed as unstoppable.

Let's stop kidding ourselves and admit that these guys simply cannot be stopped, save via miracles and perhaps holy water. Plugging holes at this point is like a body-builder getting a bit more ripped heading into a fistfight with an eight-year-old: it wasn't exactly a fair fight to begin with.

Since there's no way to improve on overkill, essentially the Heat have gone from "absolutely terrifying" to "absolutely terrifying plus Shane Battier." While they did a decent job with free agency, it's not like they're better than they were, because they were already the basketball equivalent of Galactus, eater of planets.

The Heat didn't need to do much in the current free agency period. They didn't need to pull off any big trades, and they didn't need to talk any big names into a mega-paycut. They're the Heat, for crying out loud; the NBA is designing their championship rings as you read this.

Still, instead of staying put entirely, they pulled the trigger on one move that has a good chance to make their already luxurious on-court experience even easier. For that, you can call it a success. Not a rousing success, but nothing to sneeze at either.

Will Eddy Curry be useful? Perhaps, sparingly. Hey, at least he's not overpaid. Will he hurt the team? Probably, but when he does, it will likely just spell the difference between a 25-point blowout and a 15-point nail-biter.

I repeat: they're the Heat, for crying out loud.