Getty Tim Hardaway Jr., Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are among the worst three-point shooting teams in the NBA this season and currently don’t possess the player personnel for that to change heading into the playoffs.
However, according to a four-team trade proposal outlined by Sam Quinn of CBS Sports, which includes the Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, and Heat, Pat Riley and the front office could solve their perimeter scoring issues this summer.
Trying some “let’s fix the Mavs this offseason” trades. How does this look?
Went with the “Bulls want two firsts for Caruso” story from February. Heat give up a late first to get off Duncan. Mavs get their wing.
Luka/Kyrie/Caruso/Royce/Maxi/Green/Bullock/Hardy/Powell?/Wood?
The trade looks like this:
Miami Heat Get: Tim Hardaway Jr., Bulls 2026 second-round pick, Bulls 2027 second-round pick
Dallas Mavericks Get: Royce O’Neale, Alex Caruso, Duncan Robinson
Chicago Bulls Get: Patty Mills, Heat 2023 first-round pick, Mavericks 2025 first-round pick
Brooklyn Nets Get: Davis Bertans, Mavericks 2025 second-round pick, Mavericks 2027 first-round pick top-5 protected.
Hardaway Jr. has been having an impressive season for Dallas, averaging 14 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game while shooting 39.1% from the field and 37.6% from the perimeter, along with operating alongside two ball-dominant stars in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Furthermore, Hardaway’s current $18.75 million contract could be seen as a better return on investment than the performances Miami is currently getting from Robinson.
Erik Spoelstra Urges Team to Show Togetherness
The 2022-23 season has been one the Heat will want to forget as quickly as possible, as injuries and an imbalanced roster have led to some stretches of poor performances and tough losses.
When speaking to the media following Miami’s 129-100 loss to the Nets, head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke of his team’s need to remain together and embrace the current struggles they’re working through.
“I’m not surprised about anything that’s happened at all this season,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve said this a few times — and it remains true — there has been nothing easy about this season. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be a negative thing. You have to embrace the struggle…Our group has great collective competitive character. There’s so many teams that are going through similar things. You’re dealing with a lot of competitive emotions and then you have to perform and compete at a high level. We just got categorically outplayed.”
Miami is currently seventh in the Eastern Conference and lost ground on the sixth seed with their loss to Brooklyn. However, the coaching staff is likely still optimistic about their team’s chances of making the postseason.
Heat Slammed For Quiet Trade Deadline
Another reason why Miami could potentially get in on a large-scale trade is due to their reluctance to make a splash at the trade deadline – something which Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale believes was a mistake.
“Sitting out the trade deadline was certainly a choice — the wrong choice,” Favale wrote on March 22. “Miami shipped Dewayne Dedmon to San Antonio, and that was it, for some reason. This is not a team built for doing nothing, and it shows. Kevin Love was picked off the buyout market and is now starting games. The frontcourt rotation was and is so barren that Cody Zeller became a rotation regular before suffering a broken nose after spending most of the season on the outskirts of the NBA.”
The heat have been struggling , but come playoff time they will be a problem as always. @MiamiHEAT #NBA
Regardless of how the rest of Miami’s season unfolds, it’s clear that the upcoming off-season is an important one, as the front office will need to walk the tightrope of upgrading the roster with fresh young talent while dealing with limited wiggle room on the cap sheet.