Miami Heat: Grading the Wayne Ellington trade; paired with a farewell letter
By Trey Flynn
The Miami Heat were arguably going to be fairly stagnant at the NBA trade deadline, however, they ended up traded Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington to the Phoenix Suns for Ryan Anderson.
At first glance, the Miami Heat trade for Ryan Anderson and his $20 million bag looks a bit puzzling, as the Heat lose one of the first pieces to their, “culture,” in Tyler Johnson, as well as the, “Man with the Golden Arm,” Wayne Ellington.
The news first broke from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, relaying via Twitter that the Heat were finalizing a deal to send Johnson to the Phoenix Suns, and while there were whispers surrounding T.J. Warren, the obvious linear move would be acquiring Ryan Anderson. Woj ended up tweeting there was a finalized deal between the Heat and Suns that included Johnson and Anderson, with no Ellington name in sight.
And then there it was, Ellington’s name in the form of a Shams Charania tweet, via The Athletic/Twitter:
"“Here’s a strong rotation trade candidate who is part of Miami/Phoenix trade: Heat guard Wayne Ellington is being sent to the Suns”"
As my heart dropped for about 5 minutes, I woke back up and realized this could be the best move for both organizations, as Ellington and his agent Mark Bartelstein have been very transparent about finding Ellington a new home while he is in his late-prime as a 3-point sniper. However, with Ellington’s lack of adequate playing time this year under the reign of Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, it seems like the Heat killed Ellington’s trade value as we got closer to the February 7th trade deadline.
2017-18 stats (77 games in 26.3 MPG): 11.2 PPG – shooting splits 40.7/39.2/85.9
2018-19 stats: (25 games in 21.3 MPG): 8.4 PPG – shooting splits 35.8/36.5/84.6
Just by looking at those numbers, most would conclude that all Ellington needed was solid minutes to have tangible success for a playoff contender, as he never does too much or too little. It now seems like Ellington could be bought out by Phoenix, as that has been rumored to be the internal deal they had with his party, so that Ellington could sign with a winning organization (my guess, Philadelphia 76ers).