Getty Carmelo Anthony #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts to a play with referee Brian Forte #45 during the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers
Earlier this summer, the Miami Heat were linked with Carmelo Anthony as a free agent they could target. Now, we are nearly two weeks into the 2022-23 NBA season, and the Heat have a current record of 2-4. One NBA executive recently told Heavy Sports that the Heat will be looking to add depth before the season is over. Could that depth come from adding a player like Anthony? Miami was called a darkhorse to add Anthony in an April report from Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney.
“Two other East teams were mentioned as darkhorses: The Celtics and Heat.
Anthony certainly would be amenable to a season in Miami, playing with veterans like Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, as well as Bam Adebayo. “That is one place I could see both sides saying it makes sense,” a Western Conference executive said. “But only if Miami makes a trade. They have a lot of young guys who need minutes and they have to figure out how that will be sorted. If it is Melo or, say, Caleb Martin, they’re going to keep building up Martin,” Deveney wrote.
Carmelo Anthony Again Linked to the Miami Heat
April isn’t the last time that Anthony has been named as a potential Heat target. Most recently, the Heat were called a ‘best landing spot‘ for Anthony in an October 28 column by Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.
Anthony could answer a couple of needs for the Heat. One, he’s a scorer. Miami has one player that they can almost guarantee a solid performance offensively night in and night out, and that is Jimmy Butler. However, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro who are meant to take some of the offensive pressure off of Butler, have games where they are phenomenal and games where they struggle. Anthony gives the Heat another scoring weapon. He averaged 13.3 points per game with the Los Angeles Lakers last year and proved he can still contribute when given meaningful minutes. Two, Anthony can be given minutes at power forward, where it’s hard to not see him as an upgrade over Haywood Highsmith.
A concern for Anthony is always going to be his defense. However, that isn’t as much of an issue when he plays bulk minutes at power forward. He also has solid help with Adebayo playing closely by him. Anthony would only be asked to give 15-20 minutes per game, and in that role for the Heat, he could thrive.
Heat Need Depth per NBA Executive
While Carmelo Anthony would fill a need with his ability to play power forward, that’s not the only reason the Heat would seek the addition of the 10-time NBA All-Star. They also need depth. One NBA Executive told Heavy Sports that the Heat have been looking more to add depth than the power forward only.
“They have other needs, too. Everybody assumes they’re worried about the power forward spot, but they’re worried about the depth overall, too. It is something that they can address later in the year if they decide they don’t like what they have.”
In that vein, they were also linked to Josh Richardson or even Terry Rozier as potential trade targets by an executive.
“The problem is they do not want to just dump him for not much in return. They could get a rebuilding team to take him on, like an Oklahoma City or San Antonio, and they’d hold onto him for a year, then trade him again over the summer like we’ve seen the Thunder do so many times. But the Heat would have to send Robinson and a pick out to do that, and they are not interested in that. Not yet, at least. If they can get back a player who can help them, like Josh Richardson in San Antonio or Terry Rozier from the Hornets, they would have to be willing to put up that draft capital. They can make both of those deals pretty much straight up or include (Omer) Yurtseven if they need to,” the Eastern Conference Executive told Heavy.