Heat's Haywood Highsmith trade may finally signal what fans have been calling for

Are the Heat in a rebuild?
Miami Heat v Atlanta Hawks - Play-In Tournament
Miami Heat v Atlanta Hawks - Play-In Tournament | Kevin C. Cox/GettyImages

Now that the dust has begun to settle, you can't help but wonder if the odd move to salary dump Haywood Highsmith was the first sign of a Miami Heat rebuild. If the Heat were willing to go down some sort of rebuilding of the roster, one of the first steps would look something like what the Heat did in the Highsmith trade.

Admittedly, we may not know the entire scope of what's going on behind the scenes in the Heat's front office. However, if this move was motivated on its own, the Heat could finally be willing to go down a path that the fan base has been clamoring for.

The Heat will never do a prototypical rebuild

To be fair, a Heat rebuild is never going to look like a traditional one. If the Heat were to "rebuild" their roster, it'd look a lot like what they've quietly done so far this summer. They let Duncan Robinson walk in free agency, added an expiring contract (Norman Powell) to help open up the books in the future, and traded away a player who is on an expiring contract.

Again, this would be the first of many steps that the Heat would need to pursue for this to be considered a true rebuild for the franchise, but there are some signs that Miami may be inching closer and closer to that possibility.

Another big indication of what direction the Heat might be heading next could revolve around what they end up doing with Tyler Herro. Eligible for a contract extension on October 1, there's still no telling how the Heat plans on approaching that.

If the Heat were in a rebuild, what would happen next?

But even beyond that humongous decision, there are clear other signs that would take place next if the Heat were finally pivoting toward a rebuild. One of the natural next moves would revolve around trading Andrew Wiggins.

Even if the Heat were in a rebuild, I can't imagine they would trade Bam Adebayo or even Herro. Not yet. They also aren't going to trade any of their young, promising talent. That leaves Wiggins as kind of the odd man out.

And this is not necessarily a move that needs to be done before the start of the season. Theoretically, the Heat would probably be better off if they allowed Wiggins to rebuild his trade value with a strong start to the year, and then pivoted away to trading him closer to the deadline.

If the Heat were in a rebuild, that's probably a move that would take place next.

It's tough to say what the Heat may be thinking behind closed doors. However, the opportunity is there for a rebuild if Miami wants. The question is, do they want to go down that path? In many ways, the trade of Highsmith may have already answered that question for the fan base.