The Miami Heat are clearly at a crossroads, but it's entirely too early to start thinking about blowing up their roster. Nevertheless, one NBA analyst believes the Heat should explore the idea of trading Bam Adebayo in an attempt to jumpstart a rebuild.
David Thorpe said on the Kevin O'Connor Show that the Heat should think about trading Bam if the offer is right. In his words, trading Bam would give the Heat the easiest path out of a mediocre situation.
Theoretically speaking, Thorpe may be right. If the Heat were to trade Bam, they'd certainly get a boatload of assets and perhaps a blue-chip young player to rebuild around. However, there's probably no way the Heat considers that right now, much less pulls the trigger on such a move.
Bam is the Heat
Bam is too important a player for Miami for the Heat to just trade him. Even though such a move would easily replenish the Heat's asset chest, it's hard to envision them pulling the trigger on trading Bam because of what it would signal.
Even more so now that Jimmy Butler is no longer on the roster, Bam is considered to be the team's franchise player. He's the best player on the team and is often viewed as the leader of the franchise.
In addition to being the theoretical face of the franchise, with what Bam is able to do on both ends of the floor, he's emerged as an invaluable asset for the Heat. Without Bam, the Heat doesn't have much foundation to be built on. That's the biggest problem with such a move.
And even if the Heat were able to land a rising young player by trading Bam, there's no guarantee he'd have as much influence as the All-Star big man has had on the Heat - both on and off the floor.
Bam is the perfect complementary player for the next star
Bam is the type of complementary star that every team longs for, which would make him such an appealing player on the trade market. But, for the Heat, he's the type of supporting star that they'd want around for their next superstar as a complementary piece.
You don't trade Bam; you keep him on the roster as a strong supporting piece for the next championship build.
So while trading Bam would certainly help the Heat, I'm not sure this team wants to go down the road of a complete rebuild. And that's the only reason why you would trade Bam in the first place.
As the Heat begin a new season, it would be a very dark day in Miami before they even think about trading Bam. It's not a move that would make much sense for the Heat right now. Maybe this is something that is explored in the future, but it's simply not a realistic expectation for Miami at this point.