Heat pursuing another veteran wing player. And with a starter injured, 3 players summoned
A six-pack of Heat notes on a Tuesday:
▪ One thing that has become clear as Miami approaches the trade deadline: The Heat believes it can use another defensively-skilled wing player.
After an initial pursuit of Trevor Ariza (before he was dealt from Sacramento to Portland), the Heat now has “emerged as a suitor” for Memphis swingman Andre Iguodola, according to The Athletic’s and The Stadium’s Shams Charania.
“[Though there have] been discussions, no deal has been consummated yet,” Charania said, adding there are three factors in play:
“Will the sides agree on the players and potential picks involved? Will another team also get engaged with Memphis between now and Thursday’s deadline? And will Andre Iguodola’s appetite be ready for a team like Miami or somewhere else? He has made clear to some people close to him that he could be prepared to sit out the season if he’s not traded to a destination potentially closer to home on the West Coast.”
The Lakers and Clippers reportedly would be his preference.
By league rule, the Heat cannot trade any future first-round pick because teams cannot trade first-round picks in consecutive drafts, and Miami’s 2021 and 2023 first-round picks are due OKC. Miami could deal its 2020 first-round pick no earlier than on draft night.
The Heat has only two second-round picks available to trade over the next five years: its own in 2024, or the pick it’s due in 2022 from either Philadelphia or Denver, with Miami scheduled to get the worse of those two picks from a complicated earlier series of transactions.
Because the Heat is just $12,000 below the $138.9 million hard cap that it must stay under this entire season, the Heat would need to send away salaries equal or more than the $17.2 million Iguodola is making this season.
That could be achieved with a package involving, hypothetically, impending free agent Meyers Leonard ($12.2 million) and Dion Waiters ($12.1 million), though it’s unclear if Memphis would make such a trade or whether the Grizzlies would insist on impending free agent Derrick Jones (making $1.6 million) or have interest in injured Justise Winslow ($13 million).
Iguodola, 36, and the Grizzlies mutually agreed that he would stay away from the team this season after the Warriors traded him to Memphis last summer in a move needed for Golden State to stay below its own hard cap.
Iguodola averaged 5.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists and 23.2 minutes per game in 68 games for the Warriors last season, including 13 starts, while shooting 50 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range.
He played very well for the Warriors each of the past six postseasons, including their three championship runs. Last season, he averaged 9.8 points in 21 playoff games, including 15 starts.
He’s still considered one of the league’s best perimeter defenders. Last season, players he guarded shot 43.4 percent against him in the regular season, 45 percent in the playoffs. He has averaged 1.5 steals per game in his career.
This season, per NBA.com, players are shooting 37.2 percent against Derrick Jones Jr. when he’s guarding them, 40.4 percent against Goran Dragic, 40.9 percent against Jimmy Butler, 45 percent against Duncan Robinson, 44.6 percent against Tyler Herro and 46.7 percent against Kendrick Nunn.
As The Athletic’s David Aldridge reported, Iguodala is prepared to sit out the rest of this season if Memphis isn’t able to orchestrate a trade with one of the agreed-upon teams he designated by Thursday’s trade deadline. The Grizzlies believe they will be able to trade him, according to multiple reports. If they don’t, he assuredly would seek a buyout, though Memphis has been unwilling to do that to this point.
▪ Meyers Leonard - who has started at center in every Heat game this season - will miss at least the start of the Heat’s five-game West Coast trip, and potentially all, with a sprained left ankle. He left AmericanAirlines on crutches and a walking boot on Monday night and did not travel with the team on its Tuesday flight to Los Angeles, where the Heat meets with the Clippers on Wednesday night.
Kelly Olynyk and potentially James Johnson or Chris Silva figure to get expanded roles in the power rotation. Derrick Jones Jr., already a rotation more, could see more time at power forward.
Tyler Herro, who did not play in the second half of Monday’s win against the 76ers with right foot soreness, accompanied the team to Los Angeles but was ruled out for Wednesday’s game. Erik Spoelstra described Herro’s issue as “a little bit of a sprain under his ankle which he has been managing 10 days or so.”
Justise Winslow, who has missed 27 of the Heat’s last 28 games (including 12 in a row) with a bone bruise in his lower back, did not accompany the team and remains out indefinitely.
With the Heat battling injuries, two-way contract players Kyle Alexander (a forward/center) and Gabe Vincent (a guard) were summoned from the Heat’s G-League team in South Dakota to join the Heat on its western swing, as was forward KZ Ozpala, who had been playing well in Sioux Falls.
“I know the way Meyers and Tyler are wired, they will get back in no time,” Bam Adebayo said. “They want to be out here and help this team win. First we need them to rehab and get better to 100 percent.”
▪ Tankathon.com had an interesting item on Butler’s effect on winning percentage of teams for which he has played.
In his final season with the Bulls, Chicago was .500. The Bulls have won 31.5 percent of their games since.
When he played for Minnesota, the Wolves won 53.7 percent of their games. They’ve won 39.8 percent since he left.
When he played for the 76ers last season, Philadelphia won 62.7 percent of its games. They’ve won 60.8 percent since.
And the Heat, of course, has gone from a 47.6 winning percentage last season to 69.4 percent with Butler.
▪ Butler’s 38 points on Monday were the most ever scored by a Heat player while not committing a turnover.
▪ The Heat tied a franchise record on Monday by making at least 80 percent of its free throws in an eighth consecutive game. The Heat achieved that feat in 1992.
The Heat’s overall 78.2 shooting percentage ranks 11th in the league. Last season, Miami shot a league-worst 69.5 percent from the line.
▪ Quick stuff: Adebayo’s durability is almost as impressive as the overall growth in his game. His 135 consecutive regular season games is the fourth-longest consecutive game streak in franchise history, behind Glen Rice (174), Grant Long (161) and Norris Cole (160).... The Heat’s 112.2 offensive rating (112.2 points per 100 possessions) is sixth best in the league…
ESPN assigned Dave Pasch, Doris Burke and Jorge Sedano to Wednesday’s Heat-Clippers game, which will also be on Sun Sports.... Monday’s Heat-76ers game was seen in 3.9 percent of Miami-Ft. Lauderdale homes with TV sets, making it Fox Sports Sun’s most-watched Heat game this season.... ESPN will air Dwyane Wade’s documentary on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 9 p.m.
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 5:20 PM.
