Opening up the Miami Heat mailbag with these questions about restructuring the roster, Chris Paul and Tyler Herro.
I’ll have to go with the second option, only because Bam Adebayo is a part of it. Heat fans can gripe about Adebayo’s offensive output and his contract, but the Heat are committed to Adebayo as a building block of the franchise. He’s the defensive anchor and a liaison between the coaching staff and the locker room. There’s a reason he was named the team captain over Jimmy Butler. Ideally, the Heat would be able to add a true no. 1 option to Adebayo and build around those two players.
There’s already some scuttle that Chris Paul’s time in San Antonio could be coming to an end. The Spurs have De’Aaron Fox and reigning rookie of the year Stephon Castle, and could add another ball-dominate guard to the mix with Dylan Harper with the no. 2 pick. There might simply not be minutes for Paul next season.
If that’s the case, Paul could look for playing time elsewhere. The Miami fit is a good one. He’d walk into the Heat locker room as the team’s best passer and could help feed Adebayo and Kel’el Ware in pick-and-rolls. If the Heat also have Kevin Durant, even better. That’s another win-now veteran who can help maximize Miami’s roster, on a presumably low-cost contract. Paul is well past his prime, but nobody doubts that he still impacts winning.
Only if they are getting a clear, no-brainer upgrade in return. Again, I think the preference is to add a star player to Adebayo and Herro. But they won’t simply “let go” of Herro in a lateral move or to avoid paying his contract extension two years from now.