Miami Heat: Which players are the most valuable trade pieces?
For the Miami Heat, trades could be the only way out for a team strapped for cash through the start of the next decade.
How many ways can we recount the free agents who elected not to join the Miami Heat in the last few years?
Miami offers compelling arguments to contemplative players for keeping it on their radar.
A state tax break for at least 41 games out of the year (players pay taxes based on where they play), a non-existent winter season and one of the best coach-president tandems in the NBA in Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley.
Blockading the allure of these incentives however, is the Heat’s dire salary circumstances.
Miami has exceeded the salary cap for the next two season, thanks to decisions made in the summer of 2016. Though a prospect like Jimmy Butler has a single year left on his contract before he can opt out, his hefty asking price (a max deal), would mean Miami is completely out of the Butler sweepstakes.
Thus, much of Miami’s roster potential this season exists in trades. The Heat have until February to move players and potentially shed salary, which isn’t tallied until the end of the season.
But which players are likely to yield the highest return?
While Hassan Whiteside and Tyler Johnson have been fan favorites to be moved, thanks to their contracts, neither had a season in 2017-18 that would inspire confidence from potential suitors.
Miami’s roster is deep.
Not deep enough that the Heat will be automatic playoff contenders, but deep enough that its rotations lack a steep drop-off in talent and production. The Heat boasted the eighth-highest scoring bench in the Association, at 40.4 points per game.
Although trading players is not uniform from team to team, Miami has at least a few names to throw into the ring.
No one is safe on this youth-driven team (except Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, of course).
And with dreams of a deep post-season run, shuffling the deck is the immediate answer if this team is in fear of under performing.