Getty Duncan Robinson #55 of the Miami Heat.
It feels like the Miami Heat have been looking to get off of Duncan Robinson’s contract the moment the ink dried on the five-year, $90 million deal two summers ago. Despite the team’s best efforts at moving him, Robinson still remains a member of the Heat, with no real clear end in sight. But that doesn’t mean the Heat are destined to keep Robinson for the next three years.
As Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey rightly noted, Robinson doesn’t have a ton of trade value at the moment. That said, sweetening his awful salary is something Miami can absolutely make happen.
“Still, if he was attached to the right assets (like a draft pick and/or Nikola Jović), his $16.9 million salary could go a long way toward salary-matching in a deal for a real difference-maker,” Bailey wrote.
Shipping Robinson is one thing. Attaching promising rookie Nikola Jovic to the deal is another entirely. The Serbian international has already earned the praise of head coach Erik Spoelstra:
“But he’s very coachable, he takes responsibility and he really works at trying to correct things that didn’t go well. And I think that also is a skill, when you can see something and not make the same mistake over and over and over.”
But that’s how desperate the situation is in Miami, a team trying to get off a historically ugly eyesore in Robinson’s deal.
Robinson’s Contract Named ‘Worst’ in NBA
According to Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney, Duncan Robinson’s contract is viewed as one of the league’s ugliest.
“You can argue that, for its length, he has the worst contract in the league,” an Eastern Conference executive told Deveney.
“With Robinson . . . he has a big deal, a long deal, and a bad deal—he has all three there. The Heat have him signed through 2026, and you just do not know what level he is going to be able to help you at from here on. He has been really bad as a shooter, and we know he can’t defend, so what is he bringing to the table?”
AND THERE IT IS
Duncan is now our all-time leader in 3s made 👏
Robinson might be fools gold, but the early returns on Jovic suggest the team struck oil.
While the Heat was dealing with myriad injury woes in November, the team turned to Jovic for help. After seeing limited time to start the season, Jovic exploded in mid-November, averaging 9.3 points and four rebounds for a Heat team starved of production on the defensive glass. Against the Washington Wizards on November 18, Jovic recorded a 15-point first half, joining just three other rookies to accomplish that feat this season.
But this is what Miami does best: developing role players out of whole cloth. Jovic, Caleb Martin, Josh Richardson, and even Robinson have all punched above their weight in a Heat uniform in recent memory.
In fact, Jovic might be the team’s best trade asset, along with its first-round pick this season.
Heat Could Swap Jovic For Win-Now Players
With the Heat flailing offensively, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the team could dangle Jovic as trade fodder to find the right upgrade.
Recently, NBA insider Bill Simmons suggested that the Heat move Jovic to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Fred VanVleet and Gary Trent, Jr., a guard and wing who more fit Miami’s win-now window.
“It’s hard not to like this trade from a Heat perspective. Miami, with the league’s 24th overall offense (wedged between the Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder), could stand to add the firepower VanVleet hypothetically brings. Traditionally a reliable shooter, VanVleet would add some oomph to a team that ranks 23rd in three-point rate this season,” I wrote after the trade was proposed.