The Miami Heat needed to find ways to be created, while also adding more impactful talent to their roster. They were able to do so on Saturday.
The Miami Heat needed to find ways to improve their roster without going crazy. Well, they couldn’t go that crazy with their cap restrictions, but they found a way to get it done anyway.
On Saturday, the Miami Heat inked two deals that immediately make them better. They found two Miami Heat type of guys that were willing to take efficient deals.
The first chip to fall was Maurice Harkless. Coming off of a down year, some would say, Harkless accepted a one year $3.6 million dollar deal from Miami.
Here is what ESPN had to say of Harkless. It speaks towards what the Miami Heat have built.
"Harkless turned down more lucrative deals for a chance to play a prominent role with the defending Eastern Conference champions and reenter a more cash-flush free-agent marketplace in 2021, sources told ESPN."
That wasn’t all though. Miami then inked another defense-first guy who can knock down the three-ball with efficiency.
The Miami Heat needed to add depth, defense, and replace Jae Crowder. They did it all simultaneously with these two moves.
After landing Harkless, the Miami Heat swooped in and weakened the enemy by signing Avery Bradley to a two-year deal. The deal is for two years and $11.6 million, with the second year being a team option for the Heat.
According to the Twitter of The Athletic’s Shams Charania, “Bradley was sold on the Heat’s culture and Pat Riley and Jimmy Butler recruited him to leave Los Angeles, sources said.” Culture wins most of the time.
When you have a living, breathing, walking, and talking representative of that culture in Jimmy Butler to nail the point home, that all but does it. The Miami Heat ended up losing Jae Crowder to Phoenix, but they did really well in replacing him.
They landed two guys who offer similar things that Crowder does and across two positions. They filled a need, a guard who can flat out defend while also getting another tweener, like Crowder, who can offer similar production we hope.
The Miami Heat are still maintaining flexibility for next offseason, but as of now, they did well with what they were willing to spend in this one. Now, we see if they can pull it together to make another run to the Finals.