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Heat Options At Center Are Curry & Pittman

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – The center position has been a relative weakness in the Miami Heat's plans since the Big Three signed up with the team during the 2010 offseason.

Heading into the mad dash of free agency set to commence Friday afternoon, there's not a lot of quality talent that the Heat can afford at the center position.

The Heat was believed to be targeting Samuel Dalembert. He's originally from Haiti and lives in South Florida; but he would have to take a large pay cut to play for the Heat and that's not likely to happen.

But the Heat may not be out of ammunition at the center position.

The Heat have last season's backup center, Joel Anthony, coming back. He's a sparkplug off the bench and is not afraid of tangling with the biggest players in the NBA.

Speaking of the biggest player in the NBA, former New York Knick flameout Eddy Curry is also expected to be at camp starting Friday for a tryout with the Heat. Curry's weight ballooned at one point to nearly 350 pounds.

But reports emerged just a month or two ago that Curry had lost 50 pounds at that point and was continuing to work on getting back into NBA shape.

It makes Curry the perfect low-risk, high reward prospect for the Heat.

For his career, Curry has averaged 13.3 points, 5 rebounds, and nearly one block per game.

He's 7-feet tall and if he ends up weighing in the neighborhood of 275-285 pounds and can give the Heat 15-20 minutes a game for the minimum salary; the Heat will have hit paydirt.

But the Heat still have one more card left in the center position shuffle.

The Heat drafted center Dexter Pittman out of the University of Texas last summer. He never made much of a contribution to the Heat during the season.

Still, Pittman has reportedly slimmed down a lot from his college playing weight of 310 pounds.

He's 6'11" and if he weighs in the neighborhood of 260-275 and has improved his game, he could be the true linchpin to getting the Heat to the NBA title.

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