The Miami Heat’s Pat Riley and Andy Elisburg don’t have the assets to be active at the NBA trade deadline.
As the NBA trade deadline approaches, many believed this could be an important one for the Miami Heat, and that team president Pat Riley had some decisions to make.
The team could try to build on a 14-2 stretch before the All-Star break and acquire another player for a playoff run, or go the other way and tank by trading away players for future assets.
However, as the Miami Herald’s Manny Navaro writes, Riley is expected to make the decision to not make a decision at the deadline.
"“It appears more and more likely team president Pat Riley will be – pardon the pun – standing pat at the deadline. That’s not to say Riley, 71, wouldn’t pounce on a deal to land an All-Star like Paul George or Jimmy Butler or someone that could change the face of the franchise moving forward.”"
The Heat simply don’t have many options on upgrade this roster. They cannot trade their 2017 first round pick (due to league rules, since they traded 2016’s pick in the Philadelphia 76ers, and still owe the Phoenix Suns two first round picks for Goran Dragic) and don’t even have second-round picks they can move for several years.
Rather, the Heat will have more options over the summer. The team is expected to get back the $25 million in salary cap space for Chris Bosh (whose cap number is expected to be cleared after Bosh missed all season with blood clots) and, while they cannot trade the 2017 pick now, they could trade the player they select on or after draft day.
As far as Thursday’s deadline, though, the Heat just don’t have many assets to move. There may be teams hoping to make a playoff push interested in trading small pieces for the expiring contracts of James Johnson or Dion Waiters, but the return on that probably wouldn’t be worth giving up those players in the short term.
Young players like Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson are dealing with injuries (Winslow is ruled out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery) and Tyler Johnson–after re-signing as a restricted free agent last summer–can veto any trade for the remained of the season.
The Heat might like to unload Josh McRoberts, but don’t have the assets to attach to him in a salary dump. Even then, that would be less of an upgrade and more of a money-saving move.
Next: Dragic not available in a trade, per report
At one point, some reports speculated the Heat could be sellers at the deadline–shopping Dragic and Hassan Whiteside–but that was before the team tore off a 13-0 win streak and entered the playoff fray in the Eastern Conference. Now a hard reset doesn’t seem realistic, as Riley and Andy Elisburg sit back and see what exactly they have with this current Heat team.