The Miami HEAT announced last week that it will continue with its ongoing uniform progression plan by unveiling new uniform designs during the 2012-13 season. The uniform designs to debut this season include a completely new design (White Hot), a 25th Anniversary Hardwood Classics uniform (Mid 1990’s Red), special event uniforms (Trophy/Ring/Banner Ceremony and Christmas Day uniforms), an updated uniform (“Miami Black”) as well as the recurring “Noche Latina” uniform. Each uniform will highlight specific parts of Miami HEAT history while generating enthusiasm among HEAT fans around the world.

Trophy / Ring / Banner Ceremony Uniform

As the reigning NBA Champion, the Miami HEAT will wear a special version of its home white uniform for the Opening Night Trophy / Ring / Banner ceremony and game. As is customary for the defending champion in the NBA, the team uniform will feature gold trim elements outlining the team name, along with the Larry O’Brien Trophy affixed to the right shoulder of the uniform and on the back of the warm-up jacket.

White Hot

In a nod to the immensely successful and nationally recognized White Hot playoff campaigns that preceded the team’s two championships in 2006 and 2012, the HEAT will unveil their White Hot uniform on Saturday, November 24 when the team takes on the Cleveland Cavaliers at AmericanAirlines Arena. The team will re-christen the traditional “Black Friday” date as “White Hot Friday” and will make the uniform available at retail for the first time on the same day as the game. The White Hot uniform is bold and sleek, an all-white garment with white team name, numeral and logo elements, highlighted by black trim. The White Hot uniform will become the team’s Saturday game uniform for the season, with two other nationally-televised home game dates included amongst the wearing schedule. Below is a complete list of the dates the HEAT will wear the White Hot uniform:

NBA Christmas Day – BIG Color

As the marquee match-up in the NBA’s traditional Christmas Day slate of game broadcasts, when the HEAT take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in a rematch of the 2012 NBA Finals, the team will be sporting a special red Christmas Day uniform. As part of the NBA’s BIG Color initiative, all teams participating in a Christmas Day game will wear a new uniform highlighting one of their team colors. The HEAT red Christmas Day uniform is all red with white trim outlining just the team name, player name and numerals. The Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Miami HEAT game will air on ABC on Christmas Day starting at 5:30p.m.

Red 25th Anniversary Hardwood Classics

To commemorate the franchise’s 25th Anniversary season, the team will unveil a special Red 25th Anniversary Hardwood Classics uniform. This red throwback uniform pays homage to the mid 1990’s HEAT teams and features chunky numbers with a large drop-shadow and a scoop neck silhouette, as well as the original design of the “flaming T’ element in the HEAT word mark. While the team will be recognizing its anniversary throughout the season, the HEAT will dedicate the month of February to wearing the Red Hardwood Classics uniform. Each home and road game during the month of February (with the exception of the February 10th game) will showcase the HEAT wearing the Red Hardwood Classic uniform.

In addition to wearing the 25th Anniversary uniform, each of the Hardwood Classics games will include a variety of special in-game features and activities which will celebrate the team’s history. The Red Hardwood Classics home game schedule includes:

2013 Noche Latina

With one of the largest Hispanic fan bases in the NBA, the 2012-13 season marks the seventh year the Miami HEAT will celebrate the NBA’s Noche Latina initiative, an annual celebration honoring both players and fans alike who hail from Latin American countries. The HEAT will celebrate the Noche Latina initiative at AmericanAirlines Arena during three home games in March. During those games, the team will wear a special 2013 Noche Latina black uniform featuring “EL HEAT” on the front. During the Noche Latina games, South Florida’s cultural vibrancy will be highlighted with Latin-themed music, performances, and in-game activities. The 2012-13 Noche Latina games include:

The HEAT has updated its primary black road uniform, replacing the word “HEAT” with the word “Miami.”

Miami Black

The HEAT has updated its primary black road uniform, replacing the word “HEAT” with the word “Miami.” The result of this change is that now each primary home uniform for the team now says “HEAT” while each primary road uniform for the team now says “Miami.” Because “Miami Black” is simply an update on an existing uniform, there will not be a specific schedule of games for which the uniform will be worn. It will simply become part of the uniform rotation and will be worn at the team’s discretion.

25th Anniversary Patch

As a season-long acknowledgement of the HEAT’s tenure in Miami, the team will wear a special 25th Anniversary patch on selected team uniforms this season. The special patch will be seen on the following on-court uniform elements:

Home White Jersey
Road Black / Road Red Jersey
Alternate Road Red Jersey
Red Hardwood Classic Jersey
All Warm-up Jackets

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MIAMI, FL – The Miami HEAT announced today that they have signed guard Garrett Temple. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Temple has appeared in 51 NBA games (four starts) over the last three seasons with five different teams and averaged 3.8 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 11.1 minutes of action. He has also appeared in 54 NBA Development League games (16 starts) over that span averaging 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.30 steals and 34.6 minutes while shooting 42 percent from the field, 36.9 percent from three-point range and 77.5 percent from the foul line.

He spent last season with Junior Casale Monferrato of the Italian Serie A2 League, appearing in 28 games and averaged 9.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.50 steals in 27.3 minutes while shooting 39.8 percent from the field and 83 percent from the foul line.

Temple split the 2010-11 season between the Charlotte Bobcats, Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs while also spending time in the NBA D-League with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and the Erie BayHawks. Prior to that during the 2009-10 season, he spent time with the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Temple attended Louisiana State University, appearing in 134 collegiate games for the Tigers.

The HEAT’s roster now stands at 17.

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MIAMI, FL – The Miami HEAT announced earlier today that they have re-signed guard Terrel Harris. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Harris appeared in 22 games (one start) last season with the HEAT and averaged 3.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 14.5 minutes.

Harris grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds in a 116-109 triple-overtime win at Atlanta, becoming just the third rookie in HEAT history to grab at least 14 rebounds off the Miami bench and paired with Udonis Haslem (11) to become only the fifth pair of non-starting teammates to each grab double figure rebounds in the same game.

Harris appeared in four postseason games last season during Miami’s championship run totaling five points and three rebounds in 10 minutes of action.

Prior to joining the HEAT last year, Harris split the season between the Rio Grand Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League and EnBW Ludwigsburg of the German Bundesliga League. He appeared in seven games (three starts) for the Vipers and averaged 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.14 steals and 25.0 minutes while shooting 56.6 percent from the field, 42.9 percent from three-point range and 75 percent from the foul line. He also appeared in six games for EnBW Ludwigsburg and averaged 2.5 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 12.7 minutes while shooting 33.3 percent from the field. Additionally, he has spent time with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA D-League and Strasbourg IG of the France ProA League. The Oklahoma State product was originally signed by the HEAT as a free agent on December 10, 2011.

The HEAT’s roster now stands at 16.

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By: Steve Rawnsley

The Lakers made news by acquiring franchise changer, Chris Duhon. Okay, he is a part of the trade, but he is not the piece that everybody is talking about. The Dwight-mare is finally over. The Lakers, 76ers, Magic, and Nuggets worked out a four team deal.

First, as expected, any trade involving Dwight Howard going to LA, Andrew Bynum was leaving. Bynum ends the whole saga with Philadelphia. The 76ers feel like Andrew Bynum is the second best big man in the game. The 76ers have been in the news this offseason. They were an average team last year, and felt like changes needed to be made. The 76ers have been shopping Andre Iguadala for a while now, as they wanted to get rid of the $29 million remaining on his contract for the next two seasons.

They are willing to take the chance on Bynum not resigning. From their point of view, they are too good to get a good pick, but not good to really make much noise in the playoffs. They needed to do something. Bynum is a guy Philadelphia can build around. Before they did not have that player. Trading Iguadala also frees up room for Evan Turner.

Andre Iguadala goes to the Denver Nuggets. This is a big upgrade for the Nuggets. Iguadala might not score at the rate he used to, but his improved passing ability makes up for that. His best attribute though is his defense. He is probably the best perimeter defender in the league.

The Nuggets have a very good rotation. Starting lineup is probably Lawson, Iguadala, Galinari, Farried, and McGee. Good, but not great. Here is where the Nuggets are loaded: Their bench mob is Andre Miller, Corey Brewer, Wilson Chandler, and Mozgov as the main pieces. Just about every player on the team can play multiple positions. Galinari is one of the most efficient scorers in the league. Lawson might be the fastest guy in the league. McGee is emerging. This team will be one of the most exciting teams to watch, as they averaged the second most possessions last year, and they will probably run even more now.

From Orlando’s end, they received Aaron Afflolo, and Al Harrington from Denver, Nikola Vucevic, and Moe Harkless from Philadelphia, and Josh McRoberts, and Christian Eyenga from the Lakers. The Magic also got five draft picks over the next five years.

Nothing from the Magic point of view really stands out. The draft picks will be mid to late first round picks. The other three teams were playoff teams last year, and all got better. The Magic selection of getting Aaron Afflolo is an interesting choice. This probably means that JJ Redick is not in their future plans. He has a $6.1 million dollar expiring contract. Maybe they move him soon to save money and get additional assets?

Nikola Vucevic is interesting. He averaged 16 minutes his rookie year last year, and averaged just under 5 boards, along with .7 blocks. If he can improve his 45% shooting from the field, he should be good. However, the 52% from the free throw line shows he has a lack of touch, and his offensive game might be limited. Al Harrington’s final two years are only partially guaranteed. This could be a valuable trading chip also. Not picking up his options after the year, would be a money saving move also. I do like McRoberts who should battle Glen Davis for the starting PF position. He got lost in LA as the season went on, but looked like a solid backup in Indiana.

The disheartening thing for the Magic on top of getting rid of Dwight for marginal talent is not getting rid of their worst contract. Jason Richardson is not as overpaid as people think in my opinion at $18.6 million for the next three years if he picks up the $6.6 million dollar option in the final year. Hedo Turkoglu is the worst contract. He will make $23.8 million this season and next, assuming he picks up the final year option. I do not see anywhere in the deal where they won. They will try to go with the OKC model, but that takes a lot, and I mean a lot of luck.

Last but not least, the Lakers. This is very nice for the Lakers. Consider, they went 7 games in the first round last year, and really got destroyed by the Thunder in five games. The Lakers were no longer a title contender before the offseason. The one negative about the Steve Nash signing was defense on opposing PG’s. Westbrook, Parker, and CP3 can blow by Nash at will. That is why Kobe would probably guard them, and can Kobe guard them at this stage of his career? Now, Dwight Howard helps negate this problem. Dwight Howard is the best help-side, defender I have ever seen. Now, these PG’s blow by whoever guards them, and they have to deal with Dwight.

They gave up Andrew Bynum, who was no bum on the court when his head was on. The Gasol acquisition was bigger than this, because they only gave up Kwame Brown’s expiring contract, and Marc Gasol, who nobody knew would explode like this. (There is a reason why he was a second round pick.) Now, Dwight is better than Bynum, but Bynum is probably the second best center in the game.

I have always thought Howard would explode when he got out of Orlando, and we will see. Orlando was one of the worst passing teams. Howard would constantly get inside position, and they would miss the opportunity to give him an easy basket. Now, with the collective IQ of the Lakers, and passing ability of Gasol, Nash, and Kobe, they will not miss him. Not only this, but along with the acquisition of Nash, the Lakers are back to being title contenders. Does anybody have a 4th player as good as the Lakers have, whoever you say their 4th wheel is?

Very rarely when trading a superstar, does a team get equal talent back, or does it help them. The same happened here. The other three teams besides Orlando got better. Denver might be the favorite to take the fourth seed and get home court in the West in the first round. Philly got a guy they can build around. LA got the best center in the league.

Orlando gave up the best defensive player in the game and a reigning All-Star and didn’t get either of the other two All-Stars involved in the trade.  Orland will be hurting for a while.

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