Getty Kyle Lowry #7 of the Miami Heat.
Perhaps more than a trade, the Miami Heat need a hospital. Or personal training facility. Or maybe just some good old-fashioned Shaquille-O’Neal-endorsed Icy Hot. That to say, the Heat more than anything else needs to get healthy.
Slowly but surely, the Heat are playing their way back into the Eastern Conversation discussion. Winners in seven of its last ten, Miami’s frontline starters boast a plus-11.5 point differential over 100 possessions, a good-not-great figure. The culprit is obvious: offensive inefficiency.
Exploring options for trade might be the best way for Miami to ratchet up the offense as the season heads toward the February deadline. And one three-team mega-deal suggested by insider Bill Simmons would flip a “declining” Kyle Lowry for some much-needed offensive upgrades.
Here’s what Simmons suggested on his podcast:
Raptors Receive: D’Angelo Russell, Nikola Jovic, 2023 first-round pick (Miami)
Timberwolves Receive: Kyle Lowry
Heat Receive: Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent, Jr.
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.
But that “hypothetical” is a real snag. Despite making the All-Star game last season on 37.7% shooting from three and 40% from the field, his numbers are down this year. It’s part of a larger trend the Toronto Raptors are facing: many different pieces that somehow aren’t meshing together properly.
And Trent also provides a nice mix of shooting and defense on the wing, giving Miami another proven playoff guy down the line.
Miami Looking for Lowry Upgrades
It’s no secret Miami is looking for ways to improve the point guard position. To his credit, Lowry has played the most minutes of any Heat player so far this season.
But that high minutes rate comes with a catch: at 36, Lowry’s best days are clearly behind him. And the more mileage put on him now, the more likely it is that he breaks down during the postseason.
And the Heat also aren’t using Lowry that much on offense, anyway. Case in point: he leads the team in minutes, but has the lowest usage rate (8.0%) and assist rate (8.7%) of his career. With that being the case, it’s no surprise that Miami is looking into upgrades at Lowry’s position.
And according to Darren Wolfson of SKOR North, the Heat have been sniffing around a trade for another option at point guard this season.
“I’m told that the Miami Heat are showing some trade interest, just a little bit, in D’Angelo Russell of the Wolves,” Wolfson said on KSTP, a Minnesota television station.
“I’m told that the Miami Heat are showing some trade interest, just a little bit, in D’Angelo Russell of the Wolves”
Via: @DWolfsonKSTP on KSTP
Could Trent Fill Miami’s PJ Tucker Void?
With the Heat still reeling from a lack of wing defenders after PJ Tucker departed in free agency to the Philadelphia 76ers, Trent could make sense as a real void-filler.
According to Dan Favale of Bleacher Report, Miami’s failure to replace Tucker was the team’s biggest miscue of 2022.
“The Miami Heat cannot be vilified for losing Tucker. Even if they were willing to match the money, his reunion with James Harden, Daryl Morey, and Danuel House on the Philadelphia 76ers appeared fait accompli,” Favale said. “Sort of moseying along from there, without an actual replacement for Tucker, is a different story.”
In trading for Trent, the Heat could ostensibly undo the worst mistake of 2022 at the very start of 2023. Not a bad way to ring in the new year.