About three weeks ago, the Miami Heat bought out the remainder of James Jones' contract, making him an unrestricted free agent. The aspect of the buyout that surprised some is that Jones restructured the payment, reducing his salary cap hit from $1.86 million to $1.5 million. Now he said that he will re-sign with the Heat.

Tampering? Nah, the NBA is just investigating who Miami will play this Christmas.

Jones, a Miami native, said that he will sign a contract worth the veteran's minimum of $1.4 million, and will also receive the payment from his buyout last month. The way he amortized his buyout gave Heat President Pat Riley the opportunity to sign Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem to a nucleus that includes Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

After starting for Miami during the 2009 playoffs, Jones fell out of the rotation with the emergence of Quentin Richardson and Dorell Wright. He only played in 36 games last year, but he adds needed three-point shooting to this team. Jones is a 39.5 percent career three-point shooter, and I could see him getting more playing time than he did last year. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra could even go with a small lineup of James, Wade, Miller, Jones and Bosh; Jones and Miller would take their positions around the three-point line while the Miami Thrice would operate within the perimeter. That lineup could also have four men on the perimeter and Bosh with the entire paint to himself, reminiscent of the Phoenix Suns lineup of four perimeter players with Amar'e Stoudemire.

Carlos Arroyo, Jamaal Magloire and Juwan Howard are expected to re-sign as well in the coming days. In my last post, I disagreed with the decision to bring Arroyo back, but I now see that it could possibly work. Perhaps Spoelstra could start Chalmers, who has shot 34.6 percent from beyond the arc for his career, with the Big Three and Joel Anthony. Arroyo and three-point specialist Mike Miller could then come with the second unit. We could also see Arroyo play alongside Wade and James sometimes; perhaps Riley saw how well those two played alongside a play-making point guard like Deron Williams, Chris Paul or Jason Kidd in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The return of Jones brings Miami's roster up to 13 players -- Chalmers and Arroyo at the point, Wade and Miller at the two, James, Miller and Jones at the three, Bosh, Haslem and Howard at the four and Anthony, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Magloire and Dexter Pittman at the five. The Heat still lacks depth in the back-court, and it may be better if Riley does not sign another veteran point guard. Last year, Spoelstra shuffled his lineup, giving Chalmers, Arroyo and Rafer Alston the starting job at some point. That type of searching wouldn't be good for the continuity of a team that has championship aspirations. I would rather see 2009 second round pick Pat Beverley take one of those two last spots.

For the final spot, Riley may go ahead and sign 2010 second round pick Da'Sean Butler. He could also go with someone with more NBA experience, like Jerry Stackhouse or Rashad McCants. Whoever Riley signs, those two spots must be filled by a point guard and a shooting guard/swingman.

Riley will bring back seven players from the Heat's 47-win 2009-10 season: Wade, Haslem, Anthony, Arroyo, Magloire, Chalmers and Jones. Just substitute James for Richardson, Bosh for Michael Beasley and Miller for Wright. Need I say more?

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