Juan Carlos Navarro and Eddie Jones Escape

Any potential deal for Juan Carlos Navarro is all but dead and now Eddie Jones has left the building, once again. The Heat continue to be off in the offseason as it seems.

Coming into the offseason, the Heat needed to address two major areas - point guard depth and small forward depth. The Heat needed to get more athletic and dynamic, seeing as the Bulls were able to pick apart Miami's defense and steal pretty much every matchup at will.

With the signing of Smush Parker, the Heat did meet those requirements even if the signing is practically unheralded. With the Heat being strapped financially, most likely any deal of significance would come via a trade. Juan Carlos Navarro was one such target, but it never emerged.

I have to disagree with Ira Winderman about Juan Carlos Navarro. He would have been an excellent pickup for the Heat to play alongside Wade. What the Heat need is not a point guard - that is just an archaic title that doesn't apply to NBA players in today's game. Navarro is a combo guard; he can shoot, he can pass and create, he can run the offense or sit back and be a complimentary player in that he can stick the open shot and work the floor. Basically, Navarro is what the Heat need from Jason Williams - and he's young (27) and has plenty of hard core international experience, some of it against Team USA. That is, until the championship rounds where the American teams have not made it.

Navarro would have been an excellent complementary player for Wade and Shaq, spreading the floor and taking over ball-handling duties as well as being able to be marketed to the South Florida Spanish-speaking crowd. Sure he wouldn't play lock down defense, but that is what Smush is for in the first place - to be Gary's replacement off the bench.

However, the Wizards were asking a lot and the Heat's first round pick would have been very similar to the Grizzlies offer and it wouldn't necessitate the Wizz to deal within their own division. Yes, I think Navarro is going to be an excellent NBA player - he has the skill set to score and create on offense. So it would be wise for the Wizards to not risk getting torched by the guy they traded away.

But let's hope that is the reason why Navarro slipped through the Heat's fingers. Pat Riley did go all the way to Spain to meet with Navarro to see if he was interested in playing in Miami. Turns out it was a trip for the tapas and a hangout with Woody Allen, too (who was also in Spain and met up with Navarro - I have no idea why). Because the Heat missed out on Mo Williams due to money, and Francis due to his desire to play in Houston. Let's hope Navarro isn't going elsewhere because Riley couldn't muscle up to the table.

As for Eddie Jones, this is a blow in terms of depth potential. Realistically, EJ would be a perimeter defender off the bench and shouldn't offer too much more. He would have basically slipped into the Shandon Anderson role, but EJ could drop some buckets on opponents when needed. Still, one can help but feel that the Heat did not miss out here - Riley would have most likely been overly dependent on EJ and would have given him tons of PT instead of focusing on getting Wright those crucial minutes. Also, the last time EJ was on the Heat before, they missed going to the Finals and exited early (ECF in 2004-2005). Maybe he is the black curse for the Heat.

Well, it's a thought.

There are potential replacements for both targets, however, and maybe this is the true message: the Heat may not have valued Navarro anymore than they value Sarunas Jasikevicius. He is about to be let go by the Warriors and maybe the Heat really do know the market.

Same goes for EJ - why re-sign him when they could get younger and more athletic by way of a Dahntay Jones? Or perhaps Jumaine Jones? All have the same brand-name last name...

Eventhough it is tempting for us Heat fans to get down on these latest moves, or lack thereof, we also should be mindful that there are plenty of other options still remaining and the Heat are just biding their time until they can find what they want at the price they want.

Kind of like a garage sale.