The Heat saved about $6 million in luxury tax payments and salary today by shipping Chris Andersen to Memphis in a deal that netted Miami backup point guard Brian Roberts from Charlotte.
This was a pure salary dump for Miami, with the Heat determined to lessen its luxury tax payments. Andersen was making $5 million, Roberts $2.8 million.
The Heat now is exploring more significant moves.
Roberts, whose contract expires after the season, is superfluous on this roster. At 6-1, he’s too small to play two guard and is nothing more than a backup. He has 57 career starts, including none for Charlotte this season and 42 for New Orleans two years ago.
He’s averaging 4.8 points and 1.3 assists and shooting 44.3 percent from the field and 9 for 27 on threes this season, in 30 games.
In more significant news, a source confirmed this morning that Chris Bosh is back on blood thinners to treat clotting in his calf. Bosh went for tests yesterday but he did not need to stay in hospital, unlike last year, because the clots haven’t traveled to the lungs.
Bosh is out indefinitely, but a full recovery is expected.
As AP’s Tim Reynolds noted, Bosh hopes to play again this season. But how realistic is that?
Playing while taking blood thinners would be risky, according to several doctors. How realistic would that be? "Not at the level or intensity of NBA basketball," U-Health Doctor Robert Myerburg told our Manny Navarro. (Check out his story on the home page.)
Clearwater-based physician Brett Levine, asked about playing while taking blood thinners, told me: “It’s all about risk benefit. Blood thinners obviously increase your risk of bleeding, especially… brain bleeds. The newer generation [including] Xarelto [which Bosh reportedly took last year] have less risk of brain bleeds – worse case scenario – but still carry with them an increased risk of bleeding. The worry is someone who is on a blood thinner takes a fall.
“So it is definitely possible to play with. You just worry about the potential for bad luck. An elbow to the head, a fall on the floor, etc.”
He said clotting in the calf, which is what Bosh has now, “is less worrisome than clot elsewhere. It’s a deep vein thrombosis [DVT] so the worry is that the clot has the potential to travel to the lung. If it travels to the ‘right’ spot and occludes the right vessel, it can kill you.”
(Fortunately, it hadn’t left the calf area as of last night.)
Levine said “clots in the leg tend to travel to the lung. Clots in the heart like an atrial fibrillation tend to travel to the brain and cause strokes.”
The other way for Bosh to play this season is if he came off blood thinners after a few weeks. But is that realistic?
“There’s no tapering needed before stopping the medication, so you can suddenly stop it,” Levine said. “But usually if it’s a DVT [deep vein thrombosis], they recommend minimum three months for a DVT.
“Sometimes they will do follow up imaging with an ultrasound to confirm clot is gone. So maybe that’s what they are hoping [in a few weeks].”
Levine said a colleague in critical care said “if the clot is an isolated distal DVT – further away from the lungs – there is less of a chance of it propagating so you can do serial imaging and recheck in six weeks.The problem is he’s had unprovoked clots before so that usually changes treatment.”
UM TO PURSUE CORNER
UM plans to pursue former UF four-star corner JC Jackson, UM cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph told Jackson’s position coach at Riverside Community College. That position coach said Jackson would be eligible to play at Miami or elsewhere immediately if he graduates this spring, and he's on track to.
Jackson was acquitted on an armed robbery charge in November. We’ll have more on this later today.
Twitter: @flasportsbuzz
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