Lowry would make sense in a possible trade
The Heat has been linked to players such as Kyle Lowry and LaMarcus Aldridge, but will Pat Riley make a deal before Thursday’s 3 p.m. NBA trade deadline?
The noise surrounding the Miami Heat entering this season’s NBA trade deadline is louder than usual.
The list of players linked to the Heat entering the deadline is long, with Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, San Antonio Spurs power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge, Houston Rockets guard Victor Oladipo and Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie among those recently rumored to be Heat targets.
Then there’s the fact that the Heat (22-22) dropped its fourth consecutive game in a 110-100 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena to fall back to .500 through 44 games.
The combination of endless rumors and a losing skid has many wondering what the Heat’s roster will look like when it takes the court against the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (Fox Sports Sun, TNT) — just a few hours after Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline. Also, just a handful of months after the Heat represented the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals and finished two wins short of a championship last season.
“It’s one of those things where business is business,” said Heat cornerstone Bam Adebayo, who is one of the team’s only players who has not been included in recent trade
speculation. “But at the end of the day, a lot of guys got families and they want to be here. They want to win.
“Everybody knows it’s business at the end of the day. But I feel like, yeah, there are a lot of dudes that probably are scrolling on social media and people are probably saying: ‘You should be traded,’ or, ‘You gotta be outta here.’ It’s probably a lot of extra weight on their shoulders than there should be.”
Lowry, a six-time AllStar who turns 35 on Thursday, is the one who will likely define how this year’s trade deadline is remembered for the Heat.
Miami’s interest in trading for Lowry has been confirmed by multiple league sources, and Lowry has interest in joining the Heat in part because of his close friendship with Jimmy Butler. The Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Clippers are among the other teams who have shown interest in Lowry.
The challenge in trading for Lowry is tied to his $30.5 million salary for this season as part of an expiring contract. The Heat would need to send out at least about $24 million in salary to trade for Lowry in accordance with NBA rules.
That would necessitate the Heat parting ways with multiple rotation players and significantly altering the look of its roster.
Not counting Adebayo and Butler, because the Heat will not include those two in a trade, the three highest salaries on the roster are Goran Dragic ($18 million salary for this season), Andre Iguodala ($15 million) and Kelly Olynyk ($12.6 million). One of those three players would very likely need to be included as part of the Heat’s package to get up to the $24 million threshold needed to acquire Lowry.
But the Raptors are expected to want a young asset from the Heat, too. Tyler Herro ($3.8 million), Precious Achiuwa ($2.6 million) or Duncan Robinson ($1.7 million) could be attached to those bigger Heat contracts to facilitate a trade for Lowry.
The question is: Which young assets, if any, is the Heat willing to deal for a soon-to-be 35-year-old Lowry?
Other salaries belonging to Avery Bradley ($5.6 million), Moe Harkless ($3.6 million), Kendrick Nunn ($1.7 million) and KZ Okpala ($1.5 million) are among the other options to include in a deal to make the trade math work.
With Lowry becoming an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason, a trade would likely be contingent on the Heat expecting a long-term commitment from him this summer. Miami would be acquiring his Bird Rights in a trade, allowing the Heat to surpass the salary cap to sign him this offseason.
Lowry is still playing at a high level and can help Miami’s struggling offense with his playmaking and outside shooting, while strengthening a defense that can use another reliable perimeter defender. Miami entered Wednesday with the NBA’s sixthworst offensive rating and third-worst team threepoint percentage this season.
The Heat has shot just 27.7 percent on threes during its current fourgame losing skid.
“We’re certainly better than what we’ve shown the last four games on the offensive end,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Before that for the previous weeks, we all really liked the direction of where our offense was going. We’re just going through a tough stretch offensively and we’ll work together to find some solutions.”
A trade could end up being part of the solution. The Heat already made one trade last week, acquiring veteran forward Trevor Ariza from the Thunder.
Or the Heat could allow the deadline to pass and simply stick with its current roster.
“Guys have to go through this every single year, and it just gets noisier and noisier,” Spoelstra said of the looming trade deadline. “It is much different than it was 20 years ago, just the amount of rumors, but that’s part of being a professional in this business is learning to compartmentalize.”
INJURY REPORT
The Heat will remain without forwards Udonis Haslem and Okpala on Thursday against the Trail Blazers because both are in the NBA’s health and safety protocols. Guards Bradley (right calf strain) and Dragic (lower back spasms) are listed as questionable for the contest.