Getty Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics and Jimmy Butler #22 of the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat spent the summer wrapped in trade rumors that they weren’t even all that active in. According to reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Heat, while they were interested in trading for Kevin Durant, they were never pursuing the forward too extensively.
“The last time, Stugotz, the Heat called the Nets was right around Summer League or even maybe even before that,” Charania said on an appearance on the STUpodity podcast. “… They never really aggressively pursued a deal because I think at the end of the day, they knew they would have had to gut multiple players.”
The Heat are always looking for another star it seems, and Pat Riley has proven to be great at finding them whether they are proven talents or diamonds in the rough. This season it looks like the team is going to do as Tyler Herro suggested they should do and run it back. Caleb Martin will likely slide into the power forward slot and the team will look to challenge the Eastern Conference again in the 2022-23 season. While they weren’t able to add a star this offseason, one NBA executive believes they are primed to make a run at another big star next season.
Executive Links Jaylen Brown to Miami Next Season
Jaylen Brown has something in common with the Heat, he was also linked to the Kevin Durant trade rumors this offseason. In fact, Brown has been linked in trade discussions multiple times by the Boston Celtics, and some believe that may hurt his willingness to re-sign there long-term. One team that could be a threat to land him has been the Heat.
In a conversation with Heavy’s NBA Insider, Sean Deveney, an Eastern Conference Executive, named the Heat a fit for the Celtics All-Star if he chose to leave Boston.
“He’d fit right in there, wouldn’t he? He has that same worker mentality as a guy like Udonis (Haslem), a guy like Jimmy (Butler), a guy like (Bam) Adebayo and Spo (coach Erik Spoelstra) loves that kind of player. They have shown their creativity in the past in getting the cap space they need but this would be a different situation. They would not have the wink-wink deals they had with LeBron (James) and Chris Bosh (in 2010) so there would be some danger in dumping guys to go after free agents. But they have Pat Riley, and as long as he is not retired, he makes you worry because he is a really, really good recruiter,” the executive told Deveney.
The Reality of Adding Jaylen Brown
The salary cap would likely be a concern in order for the Heat to add Brown in a free agent scenario, so it would likely have to get done via a sign-and-trade. Judging by recent patterns, it feels safe to assume, Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson would headline any of those negotiations with the Celtics. How interested are the Celtics in a trade for Robinson? Herro may be the piece needed for discussions, but if Brown is already on his way out, they may not have leverage to ask for much more.