Miami, FL
Miami Heat president Pat Riley announced that they will use their $4 million team option bring back Mario Chalmers next season and keep its starting lineup intact.
Chalmers has spent his entire career with the Heat since being acquired in a draft night deal in 2008 after winning that year's national championship with Kansas. The Alaska native meshed immediately, starting every game his rookie year and averaging 10 points per game.
Although the 27-year-old is the team's point guard, his role as a ballhandler his lessened with the introduction of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade into the lineup.
But his ability to hit spot-up three-pointers has increased, making him more valuable to the Heat for that purpose. He hit a career best 40.9 percent this past season and had some great shooting nights in the playoffs, notably a 20-point effort where he nailed four of five threes in a 103-100 win in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Riley added that the team isn't expected to amnesty Mike Miller, who will make $6 million next year with the team over the luxury tax limit.
Miller began the NBA Finals by hitting nine of his first ten three-point attempts. He was inserted to the team's starting lineup for the last four games of the Finals, where the Heat won three.
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