Miami Heat: The team should target Ricky Rubio at the deadline

With the offseason coming to an end, the Miami Heat need to think about who to target at the NBA trade deadline.

With how badly the Miami Heat are strapped up in the salary cap, there’s only a handful of moves the organization can make to improve the team.

And with the roster mostly capped out (with spots reserved for Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade), there isn’t much more that management can do right now.

That leaves the NBA trade deadline as the main focus for improving the team.

Two-year deals basically become one-year ones, and go from liabilities to assets. Teams are placing all of their focus on either solidifying their playoff rotation, compiling future assets, getting under the luxury tax line, or a combination of all of the above.

When it comes to the Heat though, there are a few ways they could go…

They could work on shedding salary and opening up cap in the near future.

They could make an unexpected push for the top of the Eastern Conference, and go all-in on a high-producing role player (a la Tyreke Evans last year).

They could make the biggest splash in attempting to trade for a disgruntled star, particularly Jimmy Butler.

The player I’m thinking of would be a small combination of two of these options.

My proposed trade would consist of: Ricky Rubio and the Utah Jazz’s 2019 first-round pick for Dion Waiters and the Miami Heat’s 2019 first-round pick.

Yes, there’s some tweaking that needs to be done, but this would be the basis of it.

While it may not sound like the biggest (or best) name to go after, there’s reason to the madness.

Coming off the 2017-18 season, the Heat have somewhat gotten used to playing without Waiters, who was injured for 52 regular season games and missed all of the playoffs as well.

Waiters is also under contract through 2020-2021 at roughly $12M million a year, which isn’t horrible when you realize that players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Courtney Lee, and Jordan Clarkson make more than him.

Looking at the Jazz roster, it’s easy to see that they’re missing out on some scoring alongside Donovan Mitchell. Over the last two seasons with the Heat, Waiters has averaged 15.2 points per game, which would put him at second in scoring on the Jazz last season.

Running Mitchell at the point guard position with Waiters and Joe Ingles on the wings, would give Mitchell enough spacing to operate, but would also give the Jazz another handler who can create his own shot and get the ball in the basket.

In the playoffs, it was easy to see that the ball would stick with Mitchell often, because he was the only isolation scorer on the team. And if Waiters can do anything, it’s isolation scoring.

Think Waiters would shy away from the Western Conference? Think again.

Additionally, the Jazz re-signed their young point guard, Dante Exum, to a three-year deal this offseason.

With Mitchell still on his rookie deal, the Jazz have two to three years before they back up the Brinks truck for him.

While it may be easier to just let Rubio’s contract expire and use the cap space elsewhere, it doesn’t seem that Utah is a major free agent spot for anyone, and this is coming from a person who truly believed Paul George should’ve given them a chance.

Yes, the Jazz take on a longer contract.

But this comes along with a jump in the draft. Taking this past year as an example, Utah would’ve been able to jump from No.21 to No.16. As long as the Heat aren’t in the top-10, I believe they would make this deal.

On the other hand, the Heat were stuck in the middle of the NBA when it comes to assists per game. Meanwhile, Rubio, who actually averaged his career worst in assists, would’ve ranked first on the team with 5.3 assists per game.

Looking at the stats a little bit, you can realize that Rubio’s dip in assists actually came with a rise in his shot attempts.

In 2015-2016, he took 7.7 shots and averaged 8.7 assists a game. In 2016-2017, those numbers went up to 8.7 shots and 9.1 assists a game. But once he went to the Jazz, his shot load increased to 10.7 shots a game and suddenly, his assists dropped.

Bringing on Rubio would allow players on the Heat to resort back to their natural positions and roles.

Last season, Tyler Johnson spent 42 percent of his time on the court as a point guard. Wayne Ellington spent 27 percent.

And yes, the Heat play some positionless ball, so sometimes labels are just labels.

The Heat wouldn’t need Rubio to focus on scoring, but rather putting the weapons around him in the best positions to score.

But having a guy who was once compared to Steve Nash for his court vision, run your second team isn’t the worst of options. Especially when he can make these types of passes…

Watch the video and you see him making a number of alley-oop passes to a backdoor-cutting Mitchell.

Tell me you can’t see Johnson meshing with him perfectly.

On a smaller note, this is the same player who put up a triple-double on Russell Westbrook in the playoffs and continued to give it to him without backing down. Giving up on Waiters and moving back in the first round is a small price to pay for a one-year contract in that type of player, who could also fill a huge role for the team.

Worst case scenario, the team lets Rubio walk in the offseason and clears up approximately $11 million over the next two seasons in the process.

Win-win.