FanHouse UdonisHaslem

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! has a whopper: Miami is apparently desperately trying to trade for Carlos Boozer and trying to sign Lamar Odom away from the Lakers. Incumbent power forward Udonis Haslem is included in the Boozer trade rumor, which leads one to believe Boozer and Odom would both start under such a scenario, with Michael Beasley serving as either the top small forward or the first big man off the bench.

Whatever way it shakes, such a set of moves would immediately vault Miami into contention for the contested Eastern crown.

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

The 2002 NBA Draft is filled with what ifs. What if Jason Williams had decided not to jump on that motorcycle? What if DaJuan Wagner had been physically able to withstand the rigors of the NBA? What if NBA scouts weren't so enamored with European prospects?

This is a draft of major successes -- Amare Stoudemire, Yao Ming, Carlos Boozer -- and abject failures -- Marcus Haislip, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Frank Williams. And the 2002 class will be best known for not being the 2003 class, perhaps the best in league history. Yao was perhaps the most mysterious No. 1 pick of all time. Few knew more than he was 7-foot-6 and from China.

And what followed Yao was a bunch of question marks, kids who left school too early and unknown international players. The result was an uneven draft that will go down more for its misses than hits.

The Miami Heat made it official on Wednesday. They're the worst team remaining in the NBA playoffs. That's just one conclusion you can draw after Atlanta won Game 5 over Miami 106-91 to go up 3-2 in the series.

How can the Heat be anything other than the worst team remaining when they came into the playoffs as an underdog and, now, Dwyane Wade is not 100 percent? Hey, it's just another way of saying that coach Erik Spoelstra is doing a great coaching job.

Miami was down 23 points at halftime, and the only reason to watch the remaining 24 was to find out who was going to commit the next hard foul and who was going to be on the receiving end of it.

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NBA Playoff 4-5 matchups are often the best of the first round. Usually the two teams are within a few wins of each other. They're not a level of David and Goliath, and both teams are usually mortal enough to make it interesting. Such is the case with tonight's matchup of the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat. As such, we're rocking the live blog action again tonight. Join us after the end of Orlando-Philadelphia for Hawks-Heat. Joe Johnson. Dwyane Wade. Make this happen.

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FanHouse previews the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

If Cleveland-Detroit is the Rolling Stones, and Utah-LA is the Beatles, then Atlanta-Miami is the Velvet Underground. You're not going to catch it on the radio, but if you dig music, it's essential that you take a listen.

This is the matchup that will get the least publicity but features what may be the closest matchup. The Hawks shocked everyone by actually, (gasp) improving on last year's success. What's more, they finished with homecourt advantage in the first round. And next to the Heat, they're the playoff experienced club. It's a crazy world we live in. Meanwhile, the Heat are a reclamation project. Dwyane Wade 2.0 is a one-man army and the world is his enemy. Something's gotta give.

Each Wednesday, Under The Microscope looks at a different player in the National Basketball Association and where they are in the season, how they're perceived on and off the court, and gives you a look at them in detail. Tonight the Miami Heat take on the Denver Nuggets on national televison, so we thought we'd start with the star rookie for the Heat, Michael Beasley. Join us after the jump to see where Beasley is and where he might be headed tonight.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

LeBron James' big day (as if the other 364 are not) was ruined by Dwyane Wade's friends. Wade had a fine game himself (21/5/12), but Mario Chalmers, Miami's starting forwards and Daequan Cook made the real difference in the Heat win.

Chalmers had 21 points on 9 FGAs, and went 6-7 from three. He also had eight assists, three steals and (this is the big one) zero turnovers. On any night, that's lovely. Against an elite defense like Cleveland, that's incredible. Cook helped with some more sharp outside shooting -- 5-7 from three, 17 points on 9 FGAs -- while Udonis Haslem and Shawn Marion did exactly what they need to: Cleveland had only eight offensive rebounds in 40 opportunities. Great work on the glass for the typically iffy Heat.

Shaq Saves Lives: ... or at least Phoenix, down Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire (who earned an ejection in the second quarter). Shaquille O'Neal racked up 24 points on 13 FGAs, shot 8-10 from the line, pulled 13 rebounds and swatted three Grizz shots. Perhaps most importantly, he did all that playing big minutes (38) on the second night of a back-to-back. Diesel is gunning for an All-Star berth.

Sucker Free: A Chris Paul triple-double (15/10/16) no longer shocks anyone. But figure this: Paul had a direct hand in 32 of New Orleans' offensive possessions. He had two turnovers in those 32 possessions. Simply outrageous.

Rook Check takes a look at the progress of NBA Rookies throughout the season.

Heat rookie Michael Beasley was the second overall pick in this year's draft, and with that lofty pick comes some lofty expectations. Beasley was in the starting lineup for the first 15 games of his NBA career, averaging around 14 points and five rebounds per game at the power forward spot.

With the Heat facing the tandem of Shaquille O'Neal and Amare Stoudemire, coach Erik Spoelstra felt a lineup change was in order, and started Joel Anthony at center while moving Udonis Haslem to the power forward spot. This left Beasley to come off the bench for the first time in his career, the expectation being that he would still find a way to contribute. Unfortunately, he did not.

Beasley played just 13 minutes, and was held scoreless, going 0-for-5 from the field. Afterwards, he admitted that coming off the bench was a difficult adjustment, saying he was "lost" and "confused" about what his role was. Beasley's move to the bench appeared to be motivated by the game's matchups, but something Spoelstra said after the game made it seem like there was something Beasley could be doing to earn more minutes.

There were plenty of storylines heading into Friday's nationally televised game in Phoenix between the Suns and the Miami Heat. You had Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal meeting for the first time since the Diesel was traded to the Suns last season, and you had Shawn Marion returning to the team where he spent eight and a half seasons making a name for himself. But in the end, it was the Suns' offensive ineptitude that was the story, and the surprise absence of Steve Nash that helped the Heat cruise to a rare (and easy) 107-92 road victory.

Nash was a late scratch, and sat this one out with a right thigh contusion. The decision not to play came very late in fact, as lineups were revised about 20 minutes before tip-off to let us know that Nash would be unavailable. That left the starting point guard duties to Sean Singletary, who had played decently in a backup role as of late, but was clearly unprepared to run with the starting unit, and it showed from the opening moments.

The Suns have had their problems with turnovers this season, and that problem was exacerbated by the fact that Nash was on the sidelines. The team looked lost offensively without their two-time MVP running the show, and committed seven first quarter turnovers that the Heat were able to convert into 32-19 lead at the end of one. On paper, the Suns appeared to have a huge advantage in the paint, with Shaquille O'Neal and Amare Stoudemire facing the likes of Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem. But the Miami defensive strategy was both brilliant and well-executed, as they continually kept Shaq and Amare from getting the ball in prime position to score.

One of the more intriguing questions floating around basketblog circles this summer has concerned Miami's frontcourt rotation. Shawn Marion has taken up permanent residency on the trade block, but most rumors involving Matrix have died before going public. It really does look like Marion will be in Miami to start the year.

So with longtime Heat forward Udonis Haslem (the team's best defender over the past few years), No. 2 pick Michael Beasley (a popular R.O.Y. choice) and Marion (one of the better defenders in the league, and an explosive match for Dwyane Wade) all needing minutes ... what does Erik Spoelstra do? Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald gets some hints from the rookie coach.

Spoelstra wants to use an undersized frontcourt of Udonis Haslem, Michael Beasley and Shawn Marion "at times, but it will depend on the matchup. I don't know about [using it] in large doses. I feel comfortable with Udonis playing some minutes at" center. He said he hasn't decided whether to open games with a traditional center (Mark Blount or Jamaal Magloire) or the smaller lineup with Haslem at center.

If Haslem starts at power forward, Beasley would come off the bench, because Spoelstra said he sees Beasley as a power forward "right now." (He said he's undecided whether Beasley will start.) He's equally comfortable with Marion at either forward spot.

There you go. I see no practical reason not to roll with the small line-up: Marion is an elite rebounder at power forward, and would be a 25-30% better rebounder than any other small forward in the league assuming his performance maintains at age 30. Haslem is a stellar rebounding forward, and would be at the lower end of average as a center. Beasley projects to be an elite rebounder.

Unless someone taught Blount how to defend this summer, or Magloire sold his soul, there's no way Miami's small line takes something off the table, save maybe a prospective bench scoring boost Beasley could offer.