Opening up the Miami Heat mailbag to answer this question about Kel’el Ware and Kevin Durant.
“Do you see the Heat trading away Ware for a KD type of player? Or should the Heat hold on to their young guys?”
Should the Heat trade Ware to get Durant?
After the season, Erik Spoelstra remarked how the Heat needed their youngest players to play beyond their years. How players like Kel’el Ware, Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who are all in their early 20s, needed to play like they were in their primes.
Obviously, that’s a tall ask. You can’t pop your young players in a time machine and zoom them onto the same timeline as your stars. But, to Spoelstra’s point, that’s seemingly what the Heat were asking them to do.
Spoelstra wasn’t implying that the Heat needed to trade the young players for more experienced players. (At least, I don’t think he was.) But the truth in his statement is something the front office must consider, especially if presented with an opportunity to acquire a superstar at the level of Kevin Durant.
Some fans might balk at the idea of trading 21-year-old Ware for 36-year-old Durant. Ware showed a ton of promise as a rookie and provided the Heat with the size and vertical spacing we haven’t seen in these parts since the good Hassan Whiteside years.
But Durant is still a top-10 scorer in the NBA and an elite no. 1 option for any offense. If he wants to come to Miami, the Suns would ask for players like Ware.
Of course, the Heat could try to keep Ware out of the deal. Maybe they offer Jovic and/or Jaquez and additional draft capital instead. But if Phoenix is adamant about getting Ware back, I don’t think the Heat can say no.
That said, the Heat also can’t give up all of their young players for veterans. In today’s financial landscape, teams need young talent on rookie contracts to fill out rosters.
The Heat are conceivably in a position where including one or two young players and some draft capital for a star player can reopen their championship window, but if they go too far, that window becomes mighty slim.