Wayne “Beef W” Ellington’s last contract saw him get paid almost as much per year (6 million) as he had made in his entire NBA career before he got to the Heat. Now, he’s playing for another one, which, given current trends in the NBA, projects to be even bigger than the contract he’s currently on. And that makes me happy. For a career journeyman who was waived at least once (good job Sacramento) to solidify his spot in the league and then get hella paid for his efforts, that’s just nice to see.
What’s not nice to see is that Wayne Ellington got 37 minutes, yet Rodney McGruder did not see any reduction in minutes at all. I’m not paying enough attention to the Heat to know exactly how the rotations are being handled, but just in this last game I’m seeing four guys who could reasonably be called a “shooting guard” (Richardson, McGruder, Ellington, and Caveman Johnson) get at least thirty minutes apiece. It’s not that I hate McGruder, but I’m a bit tired of making videos for him, and it would be a lot harder for him to generate highlight-worthy numbers if he were getting, say, 20 MPG. Would playing Ellington all 48 minutes resolve this situation? I am willing to pay big bucks directly to Pat Riley and/or Erik Spoelstra (on the order of ten dollars per game) for Ellington to play all 48 and for McGruder’s minutes to be correspondingly reduced.