The Heat‘s desire to add a high-volume shooter to replace the recently departed Tyler Herro and Norman Powell and bolster the offense around the talented duo of Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo is no secret, nor is their scant means of acquiring said player.
There was hope that the matter could be neatly resolved if the Kings decided to waive and stretch Zach LaVine, a high-level floor-spacing guard who has one year and $49MM remaining on his deal. However, reports are that Sacramento is uninterested in going down that route at the moment.
With Miami only having around $7MM remaining from the mid-level exception, it’s unlikely that having LaVine offer to pay that amount back to the Kings would move the needle for Sacramento, as opposed to a player on a smaller deal like Klay Thompson, where such an arrangement could reduce the remaining cost to a palatable buyout amount for the Mavericks, Ira Winderman writes for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The Kings are also not facing any kind of financial hardship that would make them desperate to get off LaVine’s deal before it expires next season, Anthony Chiang notes for the Miami Herald.
Ultimately, any possibility of LaVine joining the Heat would come down to how much the 31-year-old would be willing to sacrifice to facilitate the move.
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While the odds are against LaVine heading to South Beach, the Heat still need to fill at least two roster spots with their $7MM in remaining cap space. Three players worth kicking the tires on, according to Chiang, are Bradley Beal, DeMar DeRozan, and Thompson. Beal’s health remains a question mark, as he hasn’t played 60 games since the 2020/21 season, but he can function in either guard spot and reliably knock down outside shots. DeRozan remains productive despite being on the threshold of turning 37, but he would not bring the three-point shooting the team so badly needs. Thompson is still a high-level shooter, but he struggles with contributing in other areas at this point and would require a buyout to become available.
The Heat’s moves this summer have generated both intense excitement and some skepticism, depending on who you talk to. The defensive lineup the front office has put together has the potential to be the fiercest in the league, while there are real questions about how the offense will function with limited ball-handlers and shooters. But one key reason for optimism has been largely overlooked, Winderman writes: head coach Erik Spoelstra‘s elite coaching ability. Spoelstra has accomplished great things with far less impressive rosters in the past, and has proven himself more than capable of adjusting the team’s approach to fit the personnel. He’s also been one of the better coaches in the league at empowering unheralded players and turning them into contributors on winning teams, which will be a crucial aspect of this team’s ability to regain its foothold as a true title contender.
Third-year wing and Slam Dunk Champion Keshad Johnson has spent a lot of time around Heat players this summer, but it appears that the team’s preference is to use their remaining roster spots to sign more established veterans, Winderman writes in a mailbag column. There’s still a chance Johnson could return on a two-way deal, but that would require him to accept such a deal after playing on a standard contract over the last two seasons.