Miami Heat Rumors: NBA trade deadline idea for Pelicans’ Julius Randle

This trade benefits both parties on the court and on the cap sheet.

The Pelicans will not only dodge the Randle cap situation, but they’ll also have the option to either extend Rodney McGruder, offer him a new contract, or flat out let him walk come summer time providing even more salary cap relief. That would effectively turn Randle’s $9 million player option into a credit they could use to give McGruder a Josh Richardson like extension if they really saw something in him. On the court, they’d get a second guard to pair alongside Jrue Holiday who can make a difference when called upon without standing around waiting for Holiday to make a play.

Yes, Dion Waiters is a bit volatile, but I do believe he will soften up under the good coaching and schematics of head coach Alvin Gentry. A change of scenery might be all he needs. And besides, who wouldn’t want to see a lineup of Lonzo Ball, Jrue Holiday, Kyle Kuzma, Nikola Mirotic, and Jahlil Okafor with Waiters, Moore and McGruder off the bench. To be frank with you, that’s a much more exciting lineup for New Orleans that might end up winning more games than this current iteration that features a healthy Anthony Davis.

To succeed post-trade, the Heat will need to run a starting lineup of Justise Winslow, Goran Dragic, Josh Richardson, Julius Randle, and Hassan Whiteside.

Pat Riley would have to give clear instructions to coach Erik Spoelstra that no matter what, these are our guys and you must play through through them as much as possible. They will also need to avoid lineups with Randle and James Johnson at all costs. My dream scenario would be to see him buried on the bench waiting for the right opportunity to trade him to come along, and if it doesn’t, just let him go as a free agent when his contract expires or buy him out towards the end of his last season.

Since the Pelicans signed Julius Randle using the mid-level exception in the summer of 2018, he will not have Bird rights when coming to the Heat. That means Pat Riley would have to make sure there’s cap space when it comes time to re-sign Randle in the summer of 2020, comfortably.

This is the type of long term planning and simultaneous risk assessment I’d like to see from the Heat.

In the post-Big-Three era, the Heat have often been seen waiting for bigger name free agents to stroll through and decide to sign in Miami. After multiple failures, they chose to skip that and offer long contracts to the “miracle” team from the 2016-2017 season. Every member of Heat Nation now knows that was a mistake and that the first steps taken to correct the issue could be made at this year’s deadline.

Does the organization have the courage to make the moves and take calculated risks? The world shall soon see.