Miami Heat: With trade talks fizzling, what to make of the PF situation?

Head coach Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat reacts against the Boston Celtics during the second quarter in Game Six of the 2022 NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Head coach Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat reacts against the Boston Celtics during the second quarter in Game Six of the 2022 NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

The Miami Heat offseason is still in full swing. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t felt that way lately.

With all of the NBA Summer League done and wrapped, the Miami Heat still have what seems like major work to do with their roster. Yes, you’d like them to, potentially, add another high-impact guy to the roster but at the very least, they would need to continue to fill the gaps that were incurred in free agency.

Mainly, they need to add another four-man to the mix to help compensate for losing P.J. Tucker to the Philadelphia 76ers. They have Haywood Highsmith, Darius Days, Nikola Jovic, and Caleb Martin all in tow, who could all see minutes at the spot, but there are caveats.

With Jovic and Days, there may be some adjusting that needs to continue happening, especially with Jovic but possibly with Days on the defensive side of the ball more than anything. With Highsmith, is he ready for that large of a role yet?

The Miami Heat are trying to make a deal, but the prices are high. Even if they can’t make a splash move, they still have to sure up the four-man depth.

He’s shown capable of being able to do a lot of the stuff that Tucker did for the Miami Heat, but how much of it can he give them across an 82-game schedule and at how high a level? With Caleb Martin and perhaps even a bit with Highsmith, is asking them to play a lot of four at their size even completely feasible?

These are all good questions and ones that will only continue to grow more concerning if they aren’t able to accomplish some things. If ranking them, making a splash trade for a big-time player is the first option for the Heat right now, but that doesn’t seem likely right now with the market prices.

The second option is to see if there is a smaller trade out there for a quality four, perhaps Harrison Barnes or a Kyle Kuzma. The last option would be to bring back a guy that’s already been in Miami, either Jae Crowder in trade or an attempt to coax Markieff Morris back into the mix.

Now, they also brought Dewayne Dedmon back and Omer Yurtseven is still around, so you might see Bam Adebayo some at the four, perhaps? It’s not a guarantee, but with the hope that he continues to expand his offensive game, it might finally happen consistently.

It’s not all bad, but it’s not completely solved either when you think about the Miami Heat’s power forward scenario after losing P.J. Tucker. The good thing about it is that they do seem to have a pretty solid foundation to work with.