How decisions made by four other teams helped catapult the Miami Heat into second round
The Miami Heat has re-joined the NBA’s Elite Eight — making a second-round playoff appearance for the first time in four years — primarily because of shrewd, savvy personnel procurement and exceptional player development.
But there have also been serendipitous circumstances that have helped along the way — specifically, four NBA teams making choices that indirectly helped catapult Miami to these Eastern Conference semifinals.
With the benefit of hindsight, here’s how significant decisions by Philadelphia, Dallas, Portland and Memphis helped make the Heat nationally relevant again:
▪ Step 1: Jimmy Butler might not have even signed with Miami if the 76ers had dangled a five-year max extension, one year more than what the Heat or any other team could have offered.
But according to a source with direct knowledge, the 76ers never made a max offer to Butler — of any length — for two reasons:
1) General manager Elton Brand, executive vice president Alex Rucker and coach Brett Brown thought Butler wouldn’t be a good long term fit because he needed the ball in his hands and that wouldn’t work on a team with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
2) Brand, Rucker and Brown worried about Butler brooding over things — whether it was a teammate being tardy, another teammate’s reluctance to shoot, dysfunction between the front office and coach (which was prevalent, from what we’re told), and other things, including this example:
Last season, Brown summoned J.J. Redick, Butler, Embiid, and Simmons for a film session, as Butler explained to Redick on Redick’s podcast:
“We were sitting in there and nothing got accomplished at all. So I was like, and I told you this as we walked out: ‘JJ, why would I ever go back in there again? Nothing’s getting accomplished.’
“Nobody’s saying nothing to anybody and we’re just sitting in there watching film and you can literally hear the thing just clicking and we’re all just looking around.
“So, I sat back and I’m watching. I ain’t saying nothing … these [expletives] think I’m an [expletive] anyways, let me be quiet. So I sit back, I’m hearing the click, click, click. I’m looking around. ... All right guys, let’s go practice. Why did we just go through this?”
Per Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, Simmons once took issue with a text message that Butler sent in a team group chat that instructed Simmons what not to do in an upcoming game against Brooklyn.
So let’s be clear: Butler apparently wasn’t certain if he wanted to re-sign with the 76ers anyway, and according to Yahoo, the Sixers didn’t want to offer him a max deal unless he agreed not to take free agent visits.
But if Philadelphia had decided to offer a five-year max — instead of offering him nothing and instead foolishly giving big money to Tobias Harris and Al Horford — Butler might have taken it because it would have been an additional $40 million-plus guaranteed greater than what Miami could offer, and he does have a good relationship with Embiid and a decent one with Simmons, according to an associate of all three.
So even though the Heat had a lot of qualities that appealed to Butler and handled the pursuit adroitly, the 76ers made things easier for the Heat by never telling Butler they really wanted him or making an offer.
And Philadelphia should regret that decision, with the 76ers swept out of the playoffs by Boston, Brown dismissed this week and Miami now seemingly having the brighter future.
▪ Step 2: The Heat, as everyone knows, had every intent of trading Goran Dragic to Dallas to free up the cap space necessary to acquire Butler and thought the trade was done. Miami even told Dragic’s camp he likely would be dealt because it needed to create the cap space to add Butler.
But Dallas said no, preferring to sign free agent point guard Delon Wright than take on an older Dragic. And within a few days of that, Miami stopped trying to move Dragic, pivoting instead to Hassan Whiteside.
“I was sitting in the room full of people when the call was discussed and we put the trade we thought was happening on our board,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told me last year when asked how the Heat could have thought the teams had agreed to a deal that Dallas didn’t want. “We later discussed trade kickers and added a player to make it work. They [Miami] obviously thought they heard something else.”
Dallas then asked for Derrick Jones Jr. and Kelly Olynyk, but Miami was adamant against dealing Jones — telling his camp not to worry about that happening — and preferred not to trade Olynyk, and didn’t want to include a needed third piece to make that trade work from a salary cap standpoint.
Postscript: Dragic this season was instrumental in Miami’s success, averaging 16.2 points, 5.1 assists and 28.2 minutes and shooting 37 percent on three-pointers while playing for $19.2 million.
Wright, playing for $9.5 million in the first year of a three-year, $28 million deal, averaged 6.9 points, 3.3 assists and 21.5 minutes while also shooting 37 percent on threes.
Dallas would have been better with Dragic, and Miami likely wouldn’t have been a top five seed without him.
▪ Step 3: After the 2017-18 season, Erik Spoelstra conveyed to Pat Riley that he would prefer Whiteside be traded, according to a source with direct knowledge. Riley wasn’t keen on that idea because he was eager to see what Whiteside could do paired with Bam Adebayo — a lineup that Spoelstra disdained because the coach couldn’t spread the floor with those two playing together.
And even last June, Riley wasn’t completely convinced he wanted to move Whiteside, even with the coaching staff eager to dump him because of his inconsistent motor, the fact his presence limited Adebayo’s minutes and his laziness setting picks, among other things. There was also the issue of whether Miami could dump the final year and $27.1 million of his contract.
But with the Heat desperate to move money to complete the Butler trade, Portland came to the rescue. Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey always had been enamored with Whiteside, offering him a big deal in 2016 free agency. And Portland had a need, with center Jusuf Nurkic out until at least March with a broken leg.
When Miami agreed to take the final $11 million of Mo Harkless’s deal (re-routed to the Clippers, with Miami sacrificing a future first-rounder) and Meyers Leonard’s expiring deal ($11.3 million), the Heat and Blazers quickly came to terms.
Olshey called Whiteside an “All-Star-caliber center” and “Defensive Player of the Year candidate” — and believed he could again be one of the NBA’s best big men while playing with perhaps the NBA’s best backcourt.
“We can improve defensively in other areas by having a guy like Hassan back there,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said last summer. “We’ve had success when we’ve had that kind of player back there.”
Whiteside produced his usual numbers (15.5 points, 13.5 rebounds), but Portland’s defense was considerably worse with him. Without Whiteside in 2018-19, the Blazers’ defensive rating was 16th in the league and Portland allowed 109.5 points per 100 possessions.
With him this season, their rating was 27th and they allowed 114.3 points per 100 possessions.
Whiteside had a strong plus minus (plus 114) but it never translated to winning.
One Heat official said it’s not a coincidence that more Heat team success coincided with his departure.
▪ Step 4: The Heat badly wanted to move disruptive Dion Waiters and to a lesser extent, James Johnson, but never thought it would find a taker for either. Though the Heat wasn’t looking specifically to dump Justise Winslow, there was growing frustration inside the organization, because of his perceived unwillingness to play with physical discomfort.
The Heat did not believe playing with his back ailment would cause irreparable damage, but Winslow balked. And one Heat official said the organization was taken aback when Winslow expressed interest in being a face of the franchise after Butler’s acquisition.
And then everything came together, with Miami not only able to trade all three on Feb. 6, but add two players that Riley and Spoelstra always liked because of their mature, well-rounded games: Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder. The Heat also felt a need to add another veteran presence to a young team.
And while Danilo Gallinari was the Heat front office’s preference before he balked at signing a one-year extension (one high-level Heat official strongly considered taking on Gallinari from OKC even as an expiring contract), the Iguodala/Crowder scenario was embraced by the Heat coaching staff because of their defensive bent.
Why would Minnesota want Johnson, who’s owed $15.9 million next season?
And why would Memphis take on the last 1 1/2 years of Waiters’ guaranteed deal, plus overpaid center Gorgui Dieng (due $17.3 million next season), only to immediately release Waiters, who’s now a Laker?
From the Memphis perspective, they were enamored with Winslow and eager to move Iguodala — who never reported to the Grizzlies — instead of getting nothing for him.
“To have a chance to get a player as young as Justise, a wing that can defend multiple positions and be a playmaker offensively, to be a guy who can hit shots and just competes … to add that on the early end and have them develop with this group, I think that’s meaningful,” Grizzlies executive vice president Zach Kleinman said at the time of the trade.
“He’s a player that I think really embodies a lot of the things we’ve talked about from Day One in terms of having an incredible work ethic and basketball IQ, defensive tenacity and kind of a low ego.”
After not suiting up for Memphis before the NBA suspended play because of the back injury that ultimately sealed his fate with Miami, Winslow injured his hip during a practice at the Disney complex and never appeared in a game in the bubble.
As it turns out, because of COVID-19 likely resulting in a lower salary cap, Miami probably wouldn’t have been able to both keep Winslow in 2021-22 and have space to add a max free agent.
Why would Minnesota take Johnson? They believed his toughness, ability to hit threes and aggressive defense would fill their needs far more than Dieng, an overpaid backup center. And notably, Wolves coach Ryan Saunders was motivated by the fact that Johnson often appeared in his pre-game scouting reports.
“I loved the fact that we were able to acquire a guy like him,” Saunders said. “Usually guys that you’re writing keys about [in scouting reports], even if you haven’t thought much about them lately, probably are difference-makers.”
The Heat, meantime, snagged two key rotation pieces, with Crowder exceeding expectations and likely to be offered a one-year deal this offseason. And Miami didn’t hesitate to acquiesce to Iguodala’s request for a two-year, $30 million extension, provided 2021-22 was at Miami’s option (which it is).
So imagine if Philadelphia had offered Butler a five-year max, if Dallas had taken Dragic, if Portland hadn’t been the only team eager to trade for Whiteside or if Memphis wasn’t willing to take on Waiters’ considerable dead money for Winslow?
Under any of those circumstances, it’s not especially likely Miami would be advancing to the second round.
And, as a Heat official said, there’s another bonus, besides the on-court success:
For the first time since 2015, the Heat doesn’t have a single player who complains about his role or anything else - a welcomed change for a coaching staff that had tired of drama isolated to a few players on the roster who are no longer around.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:13 PM.
