Miami Heat Rumors: Facilitating hypothetical 3 team trade for Joel Embiid

The Grand Finale!

Oh, Chicago! Where do we begin?

There are some teams in the NBA that just can’t seem to get it right. They’ve had entire decades to right the ship.

No complicated hypothetical trade would be whole without the neighborhood sucker. I mean a team with no identity that’s looking to rebuild.

For today its Chicago. Next time it could be Minnesota, New York, or even Charlotte (sorry MJ).

I didn’t want to leave the third team in this deal high and dry. It appears as though they’ve set themselves up to participate in the arms race of the 2021 fee agency.

As currently constructed, they’ll head into the 2021 season with Zach Lavine’s $19.5 million expiring contract, Thaddeus Young’s 14.2 million salary (partial guarantee of $6 million), Tomas Satoransky’s $10 million (partial guarantee of $5 million) salary and five contracts that are all under $7 million. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but they’ll have to be content to wait it out.

Lauri Markkanen, on the other hand, may tell the Bulls he’s going to pull a Kristaps Porzingis and sign the qualifying offer inevitably headed his way during the 2021 offseason with intent to become an unrestricted free agent the following summer. If Chicago plays nicely with his attempt to force his way out and trades him to a contender like Philadelphia, his new team could negotiate an extension or use his Bird Rights at season’s end to retain him if both sides wish to reunite.

In our scenario, Chicago gets a pretty decent haul for their young piece but quite frankly, they missed their opportunity to build around him ala Anthony Davis in New Orleans. For their troubles, they net Zhaire Smith, Kendrick Nunn (whom they would be wise to extend immediately), the Knicks 2020 2nd round pick which is projected to be good, and the Lakers 2020 second-round pick which is really a throw-in because, why not?

The bulls would have $104.1 on their cap sheet, with enough left over to re-sign Kris Dunn and Denzel Valentine if they wanted to. They’re starting lineup would look like Coby White, Zach Lavine, Otto Porter, Thaddeus Young, and Wendell Carter Jr./Luke Kornet. It’d be a sad time to be a Chicago fan.

All in all, this is a product of Embiid trolling the city of Philadelphia and a bored Heat fan throughout the All-Star break. Will either of these teams ever say yes to a deal like this? Probably not.

But that doesn’t stop us from doing it anyway, for the culture. I like our team and believe in its ability to pull the best out of players.

Just like every other Heat fan, I want to see what Tyler Herro can become in a Miami Heat uniform. I’ll admit though,  it’d be tough for me personally not to trade him if Embiid really was available for the right price, so the good thing is that we likely won’t ever have to find out.