Where did Heat’s tradeable first-round picks go? Why it matters, as Butler trade noise continues
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s lone visit to Miami won’t just provide a glimpse at one of the NBA’s best teams. The Thunder’s visit also provides a sobering reminder of how few first-round picks the Miami Heat currently has available to trade.
The Thunder arrives in Miami for Friday’s matchup against the Heat at Kaseya Center (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) with the top record in the Western Conference and 10 available first-round picks to trade. Meanwhile, the Heat currently has just one unprotected first-round pick that it can deal away.
Why is the Heat’s cupboard of tradeable first-round selections so bare? The Heat still owes first-round picks stemming from its moves to land Jimmy Butler during the 2019 offseason and Terry Rozier midway through last season.
With NBA teams only allowed to trade picks up to seven drafts into the future, the only unprotected first-round selection that the Heat has available to deal away is its 2030 or 2031 pick — not both because of league rules prohibiting teams from being without future first-round picks in back-to-back years.
Where did they go?
The Heat owes a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick to the Thunder that would turn into an unprotected 2026 first-round selection if it’s not conveyed in 2025.
The Heat initially owed a 2023 first-round pick to the Thunder with draft protections that ran until 2026, with Oklahoma City acquiring this Miami selection from the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2019 offseason as part of the trade that sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder and Paul George to the Clippers.
The Clippers received this protected 2023 first-round selection from the Heat as part of the four-team trade that brought Butler to Miami during the 2019 offseason. Los Angeles sent that pick to Oklahoma City days later.
Then in February 2022, the Heat and Thunder agreed to amend the protections of that 2023 first-round pick to a protected 2025 first-round selection that would turn into a 2026 unprotected pick if it’s not conveyed in 2025.
By amending the protections to push back the pick owed to the Thunder from 2023 to 2025, the Heat was then able to include an unprotected 2022, 2023 and/or 2028 first-round selection in trades. The trade-off, though, is that pick owed to the Thunder is still limiting the amount of unprotected first-round selections that the Heat can include in a trade more than five years after acquiring Butler.
The Heat’s other picks it would otherwise be able to trade are unavailable because of the deal it made to acquire Rozier from the Charlotte Hornets in late January last season. To add Rozier, the Heat traded Kyle Lowry and a lottery-protected 2027 first-round pick to the Hornets that would turn into an unprotected 2028 first-round selection if it’s not conveyed in 2027.
Another way that this Heat pick would turn into an unprotected 2028 first-round selection for the Hornets would be in this scenario: If the Heat misses the playoffs this season, the Thunder would then get the Heat’s 2026 unprotected first-round pick instead of Miami’s 2025 pick, and the Hornets would then get Heat’s unprotected first-round pick in 2028 instead of Miami’s protected first-round pick in 2027.
That adjustment would be required in order for the Heat to comply with the NBA rule preventing teams from trading future first-round picks in consecutive years.
With the Heat owing a first-round selection to the Thunder as early as in 2025 and to the Hornets as late as in 2028, that prohibits Miami from trading an unprotected pick from 2025 through 2029. That’s why only one of the Heat’s 2030 or 2031 first-round picks is currently available to be dealt without protections.
Of course, the Heat can get creative and acquire more picks in a separate deal to add to its draft capital. The Heat can also lift the protections on the first-round picks it owes the Thunder and Hornets to open up additional first-round selections it can deal away. Or the Heat can try to include more teams in any potential trade as a way of including more picks in a deal.
It’s worth noting that after the 2025 NBA Draft, more Heat first-round picks will become available to trade. If Miami doesn’t deal away any picks between now and then, it will have two unprotected first-round selections to trade in 2030 and 2032 following the 2025 draft.
“I think you always value the picks,” Heat general manager Andy Elisburg said during a sit-down interview with a few reporters during Las Vegas Summer League. “I think it depends on what you’re able to do with the picks, of the transactions you’re able to make. So the opportunities we had with the Big 3 that we sent out some draft picks. We moved a couple of picks for Goran [Dragic]. So some of that came later. The one for Jimmy hasn’t been conveyed yet.”
Why it matters
With fewer stars hitting free agency because of the financial incentive for them to sign extensions or re-sign with their current teams, the most common way to acquire All-Star-caliber talent in the NBA these days is through a trade.
To make such a deal happen, draft capital is important.
To land Mikal Bridges this past offseason, the New York Knicks sent the Brooklyn Nets four unprotected first-round picks and one protected first-round selection.
To acquire Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz during the 2022 offseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves included unprotected first-round picks in 2023, 2025 and 2027 and a protected pick in 2029.
The Thunder has many first-round selections it can include in a deal, but the Nets have more. Brooklyn currently has an NBA-high 12 tradeable first-round picks at its disposal.
The teams in the league with only one tradeable first-round pick are the Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, Clippers, Timberwolves, Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. The only team in the NBA with no first-round selections currently available to trade is the Denver Nuggets.
With the outside trade speculation surrounding Butler growing louder, the Heat could be in a position to add more tradeable first-round picks through such a potential deal. Whether that happens or not prior to the Feb. 6 trade deadline, remains to be seen.
“Control what we can control,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said following Thursday’s practice when asked about the trade noise surrounding Butler. “We can’t control that. Our job is to go out there and win games. For us, it’s just about keeping the main thing the main thing and keep it as simple as going out there and trying to collect wins.”
