Heat ready to move forward after quiet deadline: ‘We made all our moves in the offseason’
The Miami Heat has been active around the trade deadline in recent years.
The Heat acquired Nemanja Bjelica and Victor Oladipo on deadline day last year, added Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala and Solomon Hill just hours before the deadline in 2020, traded for Ryan Anderson on the eve of the deadline in 2019, and re-acquired Dwyane Wade on trade deadline day in 2018.
That trend of eventful trade deadlines ended this year for the Heat, and for good reason. Miami sits at the top of the Eastern Conference at 36-20, entering Friday 1.5 games ahead of the second-place Chicago Bulls, third-place Cleveland Cavaliers and fourth-place Milwaukee Bucks.
“I don’t think our team needed any kind of clarity,” coach Erik Spoelstra said dismissing the stress of the deadline prior to Thursday’s road win over the New Orleans Pelicans. “I think it was probably more just a passing interest of what’s going on with the rest of the league. We’re all fans, so we have the TVs on and I’m sure everybody was following it with the big moves that happened. But just in terms of in our house, I think everybody feels comfortable with where we are.”
The Heat’s opponent on Saturday, the Brooklyn Nets, was part of the biggest trade on deadline day. The Nets and Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a blockbuster deal on Thursday involving James Harden and Ben Simmons that shook up the Eastern Conference landscape, as Brooklyn moved Harden and Paul Millsap to the 76ers for Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first-round picks.
The Heat hosts the Nets on Saturday at FTX Arena (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) to open a two-game homestand. The new-look Nets won’t be at full strength, though, as star Kevin Durant (left knee MCL sprain) and Simmons (not with team) are among those who have been ruled out for Brooklyn’s game in Miami.
Curry and Drummond are listed as questionable for the Nets because the trade is still pending.
“I think both teams got better,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said of the Nets and 76ers in the wake of the trade. “I mean, that’s what you want as a competitor for the East to be loaded like it is. I would say there’s about five, six teams that legitimately have a chance now after that move. That’s what you want as a competitor.”
With the Heat in first place in the East, the top five teams in the conference entered Friday separated by just three games in the standings. The 76ers stand three games behind the Heat in fifth place, while the Nets have dropped 10 straight and are 6.5 games behind the Heat in eighth place.
“I thought everyone was pretty safe this year on our team,” Herro said. “In past years, we’ve made pretty significant moves and people didn’t really know what move we were going to make. But I felt like this trade deadline was a little bit more clear. We’re first in the East. We feel like we made all our moves in the offseason and I think this roster is good enough to compete with anybody. I think that’s why we didn’t make any moves.”
The Heat did make one move this week, though.
Miami opened another roster spot, added flexibility under the luxury tax and unlocked additional first-round picks to deal by sending seldom-used forward KZ Okpala to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick.
Okpala, who has been sidelined since late December because of a wrist injury, was never able to find a consistent role while spending the first two-plus seasons of his NBA career with the Heat.
“Injuries are a part of the game and sometimes at different points of your career, you have more of them than you do other times,” Spoelstra said when asked to reflect on Okpala’s time with the Heat. “I think once he gets past this, I think he’s going to have an opportunity to really display his versatility, particularly on the defensive end. He has a lot of potential on that end.”
But great days are already here for the Heat. Despite a long list of injury and COVID-19 issues and an NBA-high 32 road games under its belt, Miami owns the top record in the East and fourth-best record in the NBA.
The trio of Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry have only played together in 18 of the Heat’s first 56 games this season. Miami is 13-5 in those games and has outscored teams by an eye-opening 9.8 points per 100 possessions when Adebayo, Butler and Lowry are on the court together.
For perspective, the Phoenix Suns have outscored opponents by 7.9 points per 100 possessions for the league’s top overall net rating this season.
“Everybody knows what we’re playing for. Obviously, those guys are major players in what we’re trying to do,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo, Butler and Lowry. “We would like to get them together as much as possible, but we can’t control that. So we’ve gained confidence when we haven’t been able to do that and we’ve been able to gain confidence when those guys are all out there together. They’re competitors, so they’ll figure it out. It’s all about winning with those guys.”
The Heat’s situation looks favorable for the rest of the season, too, as it slowly returns to full health and plays just nine of its final 26 regular-season games on the road.
And for all the moves the Heat didn’t make at the deadline, it’s big midseason addition could come from within. Oladipo, a two-time All-Star who has yet to play this season as he continues to rehabilitate from May surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee, is expected to return in the coming weeks.
“We all know what we’re playing for and I think it’s very easy for you to start thinking about what’s ahead, the future and all of that,” Spoelstra said. “I think that has been one of the most commendable things about this group is we’ve been able to stay in the present moment and really take each competition separately and have a professional approach to it. If you do that day after day, week after week, month after month, you become a better team. Regardless of the circumstances, whether you’ve had injuries, whether you’ve had your full rotation or not, I think we’ve gotten better.
“We want to keep on getting better. Hopefully we get a couple more guys back into the mix and get ready for this final stretch run.”
▪ The Heat listed Herro (right knee soreness), Caleb Martin (left Achilles soreness) and P.J. Tucker (left knee contusion) as questionable for Saturday’s game against the Nets.
Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning) and Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) remain out.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 11:40 AM.
