Getty Victor Oladipo #4 and Dewayne Dedmon #21 of the Miami Heat.
NBA trade season is in full swing with the February 9 deadline quickly approaching. Over the last week, things have started to come together a bit for the Miami Heat. Now winners of their last three games, the Heat are looking like a team that may be worth investing in this season. Miami sits at seventh in the Eastern Conference with a record of 24-20 and are just one game behind the sixth place New York Knicks.
If the Heat are in the market for a trade (which all of the rumors and reports would tell you that they are) then January 15 is a big day for the front office. It’s a day where 21 players across the association officially became eligible to be traded. That group is made up of players who signed a deal to stay with the same team and either got a 20% raise, signed for more than the minimum, or were resigned using bird-rights or early-bird-rights.
Both Victor Oladipo and Dewayne Dedmon are a part of that class, meaning that the Heat can officially include them in a deal. Just to clarify, this doesn’t mean that there are any impeding trades, just that it’s possible.
December 15 was another notable day for the trade market. The majority of players who had signed a contract over the summer became eligible to be dealt.
Dewayne Dedmon Is a ‘Trade Candidate’ for Miami
Dedmon has been a player heavily rumored to be on the trade block. The Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang wrote that he was a trade candidate in a January 14 article.
“Dedmon, who served a team-issued one-game suspension for ‘conduct detrimental to the team’ in Thursday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks, is a trade candidate because of the structure of his contract,” Chiang wrote.
There’s more legs to a potential Dedmon deal than just the financial aspect. Back in the January 10 matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder, he and head coach Erik Spoelstra got into a spat on the sidelines. The exchange ended when Dedmon slapped a massage therapy gun onto the court and was ejected from the game.
On the season, Dedmon is a team-low -93 over the course of 29 games for the Heat. His 5.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game aren’t exactly translating to wins. He hasn’t made an appearance since the argument with Spoelstra and the team hasn’t lost.
Oladipo Considered ‘Logical Trade Candidate’ for Heat
Oladipo is a player that has been labeled a logical trade candidate for Miami. During the January 5 episode of “The HoopsHype Podcast,” Michael Scotto and Yossi Gozlan discussed the possibilities for trades over the next month.
“Oladipo is a logical trade candidate,” Gozlan said. “He’s still working towards getting back to form, so any trade would have to put him in a good situation.”
“If there’s a team that I feel pretty good about doing something at the trade deadline, I think it’s the Heat, especially because a lot of things open up for them starting Jan. 15,” Gozlan explained, referring to Oladipo’s two-year deal, which stipulated that he couldn’t be traded until the 15th.
The two-time All-Star does have a no-trade-clause in his contract, meaning he’d have to sign off on any deal he’s included in.