Heat are finally desperate enough to trade for polarizing star player

The Miami Heat offense is in the gutter. It's not good when Tyler Herro goes for 40, when Terry Rozier is benched, when Bam Adebayo has it going, or with or without Jimmy Butler. The Heat have one of the muddiest offenses in the association.

We can harp on Erik Spoelstra being a defensive mind. Maybe there should be an offensive coordinator-type coach on the bench beside him. But do you know what all the successful offensive coordinators have in the NFL? An elite playmaker.

That player isn't always the quarterback. Elite playmakers exist at WR, RB, and even TE in 2025. All of these weapons play one way, as that's the nature of football, but even on the hardwood, there's a one-way star that would make this Heat offense bearable.

The Miami Heat must trade for Trae Young to get out of purgatory

If you ask 10 people their opinion about Trae Young, you will get a mix of answers, including defensive liability, All-Time playmaker, chucker, and deep-range mastero. Like most things, there should be a middle ground.

Young is not a good defender. With his height and physical profile he never projects as great on that side of the ball. But size isn't what made Young the worst defender in the league years ago. It was his physical traits paired with his lack of trying. From the ball watching to not showing any effort is what got Young labeled as the worst of the worst.

The effort over the past two seasons hasn't been as poor as it was in his younger days. Since Young has reached veteran status, he's been more disciplined and attempts to make plays. There's no way one could put together a complication of Young stops in the clutch in the past, but he's shown he can man up and fight when it's time.

Again, he'll never be a "good" defender. If he joined the Heat's franchise, we'd need him to fight and carry the offense. Now, that's something he's more than good at.

Young on the Heat immediately becomes the best offensive player by a wide margin. He's an elite creator. He can't make every pass in the book like Nikola Jokic or Luka Doncic due to his 6-foot-1 frame, but there's nothing he can't do in the pick-in-roll. (putting two on the ball would affect Young because of his height, but he's smart and good enough to give the rock up and allow his teammates to play 3-on-4. Do teams want to commit to that every trip down?)

Bam is more than a solid big in the PnR and he'd feast on the passes Young has in his repertoire. The Heat were offered a front-row seat Monday night to the wizardry Young passes.

Imagine Bam receiving can't blink looks from Young like this instead of Onyeka Okongwu. Kel'el Ware is detonating the rim with lobs (not as much in the last two games), with sky-high passes coming his way. He doesn't need an elite lob thrower, but imagine him with one.

Young has one of the best floater games, and his floater into a lob has gotten even the best defenders caught on posters. Ware's life would be so much easier with a facilitator like Young.

Tyler Herro should be relieved if he could get off the ball more. Herro is having a career year playing exclusively on the ball. This experience has made him a better player, but he's still an off-ball demoralizer. Who knows if that's how he views himself, but that's his best role on a contender.

Envisioning two of the best deep-range shooters playing off each other would surely raise the Heat's 20th-ranked offensive rating. Herro is one of the best shooters overall, and from specifically 30 feet, Young is one of the best. That shot isn't the most efficient, but it forces defenders to get up. While defenses respect Young's range, he creates easy beelines to the cup for himself, leading to less contested paint shots from Bam and Ware.

When Young attacks, he can go to his pattened floater or dime up one of the Heat bigs. That decision is based on how the backline defenders play his drive-by, and Young often makes the right decision.

A Herro and Young backcourt is food defensively. Offensive weapons will be licking their chops, knowing the Heat's backcourt is miniature. No matter how much grit and effort these two display, they won't consistently be forces on that end.

Well, that's why Bam Adebayo is a max player. His DPOY hype has died down even with Victor Wembanyama out for the year, but he's still arguably the best and most versatile defender in the league.

With Ware hopefully growing over the years and Bam's presence, I can't imagine a scenario where Miami has one of the worst defenses in the league. His greatness is too bright for that to occur. The Heat's offense, on the other hand, is in putrid territory.

Adding more offense at the cost of a good-but-not-elite defense makes sense for a team with the 20th, 21st, and 25th-ranked offense over the past three years. A more than suspect backcourt of Herro and Young will be tested repeatedly as individual defenders, but Bam would need to cover those massive holes. He'd expend less energy on offense with Young, so put that burden on his plate.

The Hawks' moves before the deadline suggest they're no longer swinging for the fences. They traded 6MOY candidate De'Andre Hunter to the Clevland Cavaliers. Atlanta took on Terrence Mann's hefty contract in exchange for Bogdan Bogdanovic. Bogi is having a down year but has more upside than Mann.

Jalen Johnson is a future All-Star, and rookie Zaccharie Risacher looks like a promising player with high-end impact role-player potential at the minimum. If the Hawks want to retool around those two, here is Miami's moment to strike on Young.

A Young, Herro, Bam, and Ware core would make up most of the cap for the foreseeable future. Taking a swing on Young is betting on Ware's potential. Ware has more pure talent than Clint Capella and Okongwu, and we've seen how Young spoon-feeds them.

This move doesn't automatically put Miami in championship contention, but it guarantees the offense won't be the dumpster fire it is today. With Spo at the helm and Bam on the roster, I'll take my chances that they can steer an average defense with any roster (the Heat have had a top-11 defense every year since 2016).