Offer each NBA team a mulligan for one offseason move, and it's not yet clear how most would utilize it. The Miami Heat, unfortunately, are an exception to that rule.
Give them a do-over, and they'd surely take back the subtraction of Haywood Highsmighth to clear a roster spot for Dru Smith. Maybe Miami felt like it just had to have Smith (and couldn't keep him on another two-way pact), but that was a clear miscalculation, particularly with Pelle Larsson being at the point where he'll need minutes even when this perimeter group is full-strength.
Smith, on the other hand, might be up against the clock in terms of playing time. Because once Tyler Herro returns, there almost surely won't be a way to squeeze both Larsson and Smith into the backcourt equation.
Pelle Larsson needs to play, so Dru Smith probably won't.
The Smith signing, coupled with the Haysmith salary-dump, was always a head-scratcher. Smith, who turns 28 in December, had done very little to prove to the Heat that he definitely belonged in an NBA rotation. Haysmith, meanwhile, had solidified himself as a viable three-and-D wing, an archetype almost always coveted by contenders around the trade deadline.
Had the Heat just kept Haysmith around, they could've fetched an actual asset for him later in the season. Instead, they rushed him out to clear a spot for Smith, who's at real risk of getting dumped from the rotation entirely whenever Tyler Herro returns from September surgery.
Because Larsson looks, frankly, too important to sit. His scoring punch is hugely helpful to a team that's run short on perimeter offense at times, and his development is even more critical to this franchise's future.
Miami might not be in a full-on youth movement, but if it's not quite good enough to contend right now, eventually getting over that hump will require progression from its young players. If up-and-comers like Larsson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic and Kel'el Ware can take sizable steps forward, the next step for the organization becomes infinitely easier to achieve—either because a player from this core or two fills the star void, or they at least look intriguing enough to help Miami broker a blockbuster trade.
Larsson should play a prominent part in this plan. Smith doesn't have the age or upside to do the same.
That's why the Heat should (and probably will) keep Larsson as part of the backcourt rotation even when it's whole. And when it inevitably leaves Smith out in the cold, that will be yet another reason to look back at the baffling decision to bring him back in the first place.