Miami Heat: 5 potential trade destinations for Hassan Whiteside

Washington Wizards*
Outgoing: Bradley Beal

Let’s be completely real here; this final transaction is a pipe dream.

Mostly because it’s dependent on multiple factors, that are unfortunately out of the Heat’s control.

Still, let’s run with it for a bit.

I think for Bradley Beal to be available to trade, the Wizards have to hit rock bottom.

No matter how bad their season goes, they will only hit rock bottom if they trade Wall. That initial trade would be their version of waiving the white flag.

The Los Angeles Lakers often come up whenever Beal’s name is brought up, so it seems as though they’re first in line to trade for him, since they certainly have better assets to offer like Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Lonzo Ball.

If I were the Wizards, I would wait for them to call and once they do, hold out until you hear the deal you want.

There’s only one problem with that.

The Lakers also appear to be first in line for Anthony Davis, with the Celtics as a close second.

Davis’ contract goes through 2020, with a $28.8 million player option for the 2020-21 season. If he were to indicate that he doesn’t plan on exercising that option, it would throw the Pelicans into a frenzy, and they might be willing to trade him early.

With the Lakers having options for where to dump their young assets, the Wizards may find themselves on the outside looking in, because everyone knows Davis is a generational talent.

The Heat will be there waiting for the right opportunity too.

The Miami deal will provide salary cap relief a year early for Washington, starting in the 2020-21 season.

With Wall and Beal off the books, they’ll have a clear decision to make; either build around Otto Porter Jr., since he has a $28.5 million player option for the 2020-21 season. or trade him as well and blow it all up.

The Heat will have a lot to comb through, since having Beal and Waiters on the roster is a conflict of interest, both salary and position-wise. After trading Tyler Johnson and James Johnson for whatever they can get in return, the Heat would finally be able to see how to further remove themselves from the mess they created, during the revenue spike and after the magical season.

A starting lineup of Goran Dragic, Beal, Josh Richardson, Olynyk, and Bam Adebayo sounds promising, with a bench of Waiters, Rodney McGruder, Winslow, Derrick Jones Jr., Yante Maten, and Duncan Robinson.

There are ways to save the Heat from trusting the process, and being utterly awful for multiple years in succession.

(And I happen to cook up the ones that may not involve the organization letting go of a draft pick.)

It has become quite clear that the team that is currently constructed, is not good enough to consistently compete; something that rang loud and clear on the road against the Toronto Raptors, for example.

The changes above are a few ways the team could start retooling sooner, by addressing the elephant in the room: Hassan Whiteside.