Penny for Your Backcourt?

Looking at the past three months for the Heat, it’s hard to tell whether the team took the off-season off or merely had an off off-season. In one of the deepest drafts in memory, the Heat came away with all of Daequan Cook, who played fewer than 20 minutes per game as a freshman at Ohio State last year. The team also added the mummified remains of Penny Hardaway, along with Lakers enigma Smush Parker. It may be too early to tell for sure, but the guess here is that if a team’s answer is “Penny and Smush,” it probably misheard the question.

But the Atlanta Hawks – now there’s a team that might actually have drafted its way back to … well, if not respectability, at least a semblance of it. Al Horford (of the Florida Gators’ two title runs) and Acie Law were near the tops of everyone’s draft boards. And it’s preseason still, but the Hawks’ Joe Johnson and Josh Smith might be worth the price of admission to Wednesday’s game all on their own. See Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal in their first Miami home game together at the American Airlines Arena (601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets begin at $10. Call 786-777-4667, or visit www.heat.com.
Wed., Oct. 10, 2007