The Miami Heat are prepared to get right to it in NBA Free Agency. With the chances that they are to lose several of their own players to free agency, namely P.J. Tucker and Victor Oladipo, they are gearing up to go about replacing those guys.
While the external market typically brings in guys that are totally unfamiliar with a team, an organization, or a certain group of guys, the Miami Heat have the chance to do something uncommon and great all at the same time.
According to multiple reports, if they are unable to retain Tucker on the free-agent market, they will, once again, look to the services of Jae Crowder. Here is some reporting on the subject from Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
"Should the Heat lose out on Tucker, the team, according to an NBA source, is considering either a trade for former Heat power forward Jae Crowder, who is entering the final year of a contract that pays $10.2 million next season with the Phoenix Suns, or a possible free-agent move for Indiana Pacers forward T.J. Warren."
The Miami Heat should be hoping that P.J. Tucker again chooses them in Free Agency. However, if he doesn’t, Jae Crowder is a proper fallback plan.
"Those, however, only would be fallback positions if current Heat teammates are unable to convince Tucker to stay."
While we should all be hoping that Tucker remains, as he was amazing for the Miami Heat this past season, Crowder wouldn’t be a bad fallback plan at all. Though he isn’t an upgrade from Tucker, he isn’t necessarily a huge downgrade either.
It’s not an option to take lightly either. Though the above reporting emanates from the Miami Heat side of things, here is another similar report from the Phoenix Suns side of things, Crowder’s current team.
Not 100% sold that Phoenix will trade Jae Crowder, but Miami if they lose PJ Tucker does make a lot of sense. Heard Boston is not that interested in him, maybe into the exception if they didn't have to give up anything of value. But I would be surprised if it was the Celtics.
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) June 30, 2022
It’s not a guarantee and that’s on a few levels, as the Suns aren’t guaranteed to let him go, the Heat aren’t guaranteed to pursue a trade, and most hopefully, P.J. Tucker isn’t guaranteed to leave Miami.
However, if the event rises that he does, it’s good to have an option like this to go to. You can be sure Pat Riley will do whatever needs to be done.