Report: Birdman to stay south, re-signs 2-year, $10M deal with Heat

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It's been a busy weekend for the Miami Heat after losing LeBron James in free agency, with the franchise moving expediently to retain the rest of the core while also adding to it.

The latest in that effort came Sunday night, with Chris Andersen re-signing with the Heat on a multi-year deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. ESPN's Marc Stein reports that the deal could pay Birdman "in the neighborhood" of $10 million over two seasons, which is an awful lot.

The market for Andersen was said to be pretty strong, with New York and former Andersen stops New Orleans and Denver said to have been in the mix. At age 36, a two-year deal may represent Andersen's final contract, so total guaranteed money was almost certainly a deciding factor, though the familiarity and comfort with the Heat could also have played a part.

This will mark Andersen's third season in Miami, and despite his age, there's not much reason to expect he'll be ineffective any time soon. Andersen actually had one of his best seasons in 2013-14, averaging 6.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 19.4 minutes while shooting 64.4 percent from the floor. He proved valuable in the playoffs, too, shooting 69.3 percent over 38 playoff games the past two seasons.

Once expelled from the league for violating the league's anti-drug policy with "drugs of abuse," his return to the league in 2008 was the beginning of a pretty terrific reclamation story. That was nearly derailed in 2013, before Andersen was cleared of all charges in an elaborate internet hoax that had Andersen and an underage girl as the victims.

Since entering the league undrafted out of Blinn College in 2001, Andersen has appeared in 596 games, averaging 5.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while shooting 52.9 percent.