Wade starts working that damn knee!

According to the Miami Herald, Dwyane Wade will start his off season rehab program in Chicago with Michael Jordan’s former trainer, Tim Grover. It sounds like the goal is for Wade to be ready enough to convince Team USA to allow him to play in this summer’s Olympic Games. Wait…what?

The guy has missed almost 2 seasons with an ailing knee and shoulder and just checked out the final 15 or so games of the regular season to prepare for the next. So how does taking time off for a few months and then crash coursing it during the summer for the Olympics make any sense to the Heat? The guy hasn’t finished a season for 2 straight years and you are going to let him tear his body up right before the NBA season starts? Oh, and new coach Erik Spoelstra wants to play an uptempo, slashing, dunking offense? How on Earth does this make sense to anyone?

I’m afraid we’ve seen the best D-Wade will ever be unless Grover works some miracle or unless Wade really does adapt his game like MJ did to prolong his career.

Shaq traded to Phoenix!

Shaquille O'Neal will hop on a plane Wednesday and head to Phoenix, AZ to undergo an MRI on his ailing hip. If he passes the tests, the trade will be completed sending Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to Miami.

The trade represents a dramatic change for the Suns, whose run-and-gun, small-ball style had revolutionized the league in recent seasons. That same style, however, had failed to bring the Suns a championship, and team officials had become increasingly skeptical about their chances of contending without giving Amare Stoudemire some help on the front line.

Will this change the way the Suns get up and down the court? Were they scared of the recent Lakers trade for Gasol and the Spurs pickup of Damon Stoudamire? I'm not sure this trade makes complete sense, but the Suns needed to do something.

Read more on the story:

Yahoo! Sports: Here and Here

ESPN.com: Here

TrueHoop: Here

Fanhouse: Here

AZ Central: Here

Heat "Quietly" Shopping Shaq?

Are the Miami Heat quietly shopping Shaquille O'Neal before the February 21st trade deadline? Sources have told ESPN that may be the case. Pat Riley seems to be playing this one just a little more sneaky than usual.

''I'm not commenting on rumors and reports anymore, but that's not true,'' said coach Pat Riley on Thursday, refuting an O'Neal trade report for the second time in January.

Shaq is averaging a career-low 14.2 points this season, which ranks second among centers in the conference behind East starting center Dwight Howard. He has missed 12 games because of injury. O'Neal could have been voted in as a tribute to his achievements by the Eastern conference coaches.

Missing an All-Star bid for O'Neal seems to be a big deal, but in my book you need to earn your spot. Shaq has always been a fixture and provides a ton of entertainment at NBA All-Star weekend but I just can't find a reason that his play this season is worthy of a nod. He did say that he would attend whether he made the team or not so hopefully we'll see him doing another worm or shopping cart on the court!

Who could possibly be interested in that massive contract along with that massive broken down body?

The Miami Heat suck.

The Miami Heat have hit an all-time low. Seriously. They just lost to the New York Knicks, at home.

In the middle of a 7 game home stand, the Heat have dropped the first 3 games and it looks to just keep getting worse. To finish it out, they host Cleveland, San Antonio, Indiana and then Boston; they will lose all of these. Miami now has the second worse record in the league only ahead of Minnesota who could probably take down them down at this point.

Miami has now lost 13 games in a row since squeaking out a win against Utah on December 22nd. This home stand was supposed to be the saving grace to the Heat season before the All-Star break, but that has proven to be extremely wishful thinking. I'm really not sure that they will win another game until maybe mid-February when they get the Sixers at home.

Dwyane Wade has shown flashes of his old self over the last couple of weeks, but Shaq-fu continues to wash away into pre-retirement. It's too bad that the Diesel is completely untradeable with his $20 million per year contract and broken down body. Wade deserves better than this.

Off-season moves destroyed this team and I'm not sure it can be fixed any time soon. Who trades for Ricky freaking Davis? The guy is a plague on any roster. Remember now, this is the guy that shot at an opponent's basket in order to get the final rebound needed to complete the only triple double of his pathetic career. He took the Boston Celtics in the the dumpster, made the Minnesota Timberwolves so horrible that they actually decided to trade away KG, and now has taken a championship caliber team into the basement of a sub-par eastern conference.

I feel bad for Dwyane Wade, but can't say that I'm all that surprised.