The Miami Heat are doing well this season, while some think they are just one piece away. Well, CP3 won’t be that piece and he told us why on Tuesday.
The Miami Heat are one of the surprise teams in the league thus far this season and the rumors are in the midst. While Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and a resurgent Goran Dragic are all leading the charge, many still tend to want to lean towards the notion of them being one piece away.
While they may be right (not, exactly in my own book), we now know for certain who one of those pieces won’t be. Before we get there, let’s give a quick recap.
After Paul George forced his way out of Oklahoma City this past offseason to run and join Kawhil Leonard with the Clippers, Russell Westbrook exercised his right to nudge the Thunder team as well. While the Miami Heat were said to be right in the thick of the chase to land the enigmatic yet explosive point guard, the Houston Rockets eventually shipped a package revolving around Chris Paul to the OKC team in exchange for Russ. After that, CP3 naturally became a hot name for the rumor mills to associate with the Heat.
Now that we are all caught up, it’s time to ruin the ending. Chris Paul has nixed any possible shot of him coming to the Miami Heat, especially if we know Pat Riley like we think we do. According to Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated, Paul wouldn’t help a team looking to deal for him by waving the gigantic last year of his current deal via opt-out.
Would Chris Paul decline his $44.2 million player option to guarantee a trade to a championship contender? “No chance. That’s not happening. Nope.”
— Rohan Nadkarni (@RohanNadkarni) January 21, 2020
How CP3 found a purpose in OKC: https://t.co/1iDxGMn7NM
That all but guarantees it. Paul is already set to make a whopping $41 million on next season, before being due a massive $44,211,146 in the following season of 2021-22, via his option. Pat Riley wouldn’t dare.
The Miami Heat are actually doing just fine with what they have, while they could stand to maybe add another rebounder or shooter if they were to do anything. No matter what transactions they make, they won’t include Chris Paul and especially if he sticks to what he said above. That is something we know for certain.