Rousing Draft Success For Heat

After the many seemingly endless weeks of speculation about what Pat Riley would do in the 2008 NBA Draft, he made the biggest possible splash he could by just playing it safe. The Heat is now a viable contender to be a high playoff seed next season, if it remains healthy. A nucleus of Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, and Sean Marion is a force to be reckoned with. Flash is the tried-and-tested superstar, Marion is a tried-and-tested double-double machine and all around energetic pogo stick, and Beasley outshone Kevin Durant's Big XII numbers as a freshman in every way last season and there's no reason not to think he'll make every bit the impact or more as Durant made in his first NBA Rookie of the Year season.

But as many people suspected that the Heat would go with Beasley as that they would not. What WAS surprising was Riley's masterful 2nd Round moves. The Heat traded for the rights to Kansas national championship legend Mario Chalmers, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2008 Final Four. Chalmers was deeply impressive the past couple of seasons at Kansas. He is as smooth a shooter as they come, and we know that he won't shrink from clutch situations - you will remember that he was the ice-vein who hit the 3-pointer that sent the national championship game against Derrick Rose's Memphis Tigers into overtime with time expiring. The Heat weren't done, deciding to pick another Kansas player, Darnell Jackson, but then trading him to Cleveland for their second round pick in 2009.

In the end, Riley, master psychologist, played us all. The talk about Beasley being an immature prankster and about Miami's overwhelming infatuation with O.J. Mayo was all a smokescreen. Riley said, "I don't think there was any question on our part. We love Michael." New coach Erik Spoelstra described the rampant speculation the last few weeks as "a little humorous." You can play me like a fiddle anytime you want Pat, if you can deliver studs like Beasley and Chalmers.