The Miami Heat are off to as good a start as anyone could have expected to begin this season. Linked to Chris Paul since summer, here’s why it won’t happen.
The Miami Heat are off to a blistering start to the season, currently sporting a 19-8 record, a record good enough to rank in the top half of the Eastern Conference. They are off to such a hot start for a few reasons.
They went out and acquired Jimmy Butler this past summer, and he is doing exactly what someone of his caliber was expected to do once the signing was made. Returning players like Goran Dragic, Duncan Robinson, and Bam Adebayo have all been amazing, with one looking like a 6th Man Of The Year, one looking like one of the absolute best outside shooters in the entire NBA, and the other actually not only being in the running for Most Improved Player but also Most Valuable Player.
Along with all of the prior tidbits, the Miami Heat have their rookies that have made great impacts as well. Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn, and Chris Silva are all the real deal, have very meaningful roles with the team this season, and should be members of the Miami Heat organization for years to come.
It is with this knowledge that we ask the question, “why on Earth would you make a trade for Chris Paul?” Well, in fact, I don’t think the Miami Heat would. While there are probably a ton of reasons to not make such a move, there are three more pertinent than others and here they are.
When thinking about adding Chris Paul to your team, the first thing you think about is his salary. Making 38.5 million this year, 41.3 million next, and 44.2 in the final year of his current deal, that is entirely too much money to dedicate to him under a team’s cap. Not that he isn’t or hasn’t been worth that money, to some team or organization, for the Heat it’s mainly that money of that caliber would absolutely handcuff them in attempting to make other more important and desirable moves.
The second reason also revolves around that salary, but inversely. As a part of a trade, you have to match or get close to the exchanged salaries, which would inevitably mean giving up a ton. Outside of simply matching, what would the Oklahoma City want from the Heat in order to make the deal happen?
Who knows? Either way, the cost of doing business there would probably be entirely too steep for any of our likings. That being the fans, the organization, the rest of the team, Erik Spoelstra, and most importantly Pat Riley.
While we are in the land of perfect segues, the players potentially sent back does that nicely here. When thinking about what it might take to land CP3 from the Thunder, it would be entirely too much.
It comes down to one simple point here. Chris Paul is not worth and/or does not account for all that the Miami Heat could possibly be losing in the players, resources, and/or assets that they may have to send back to the Thunder to get him. This is why everything you are hearing about a Chris Paul to the Miami Heat move is mere, white noise.