Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Why not be all-in for Kawhi?
Disgruntled player worth the risk with Heat lacking a star on roster
If I’m Pat Riley, I push my roster across the table to San Antonio and tell them to take whoever they want for Kawhi Leonard.
Young hopes like Justise Winslow, Bam Adebayo and Josh Richardson? Done deal. A veteran like Goran Dragic? Throw him in. And if San Antonio still says it needs a lottery-protected top draft pick just to close the deal, I send that over to them, too.
The Heat right now are 10 Robins with no Batman. Leonard is Batman. He’s the piece few teams have. He makes the Heat a dark-horse contender next season in the depleted Eastern Conference just by walking through the door.
Leonard is one of the top five players in the league, assuming he’s healthy and actually would play for the Heat, which are the natural guarantees you’d need before making any deal.
Even then, it’s hard to see how this happens for the Heat. It’s hard to see the Los Angeles Lakers or Philadelphia not throwing a better package with their better chips at San Antonio than the Heat can muster.
Oh, Heat fans will say the aforementioned offer is too much considering Leonard might be in town for only the remaining year on his contract. That’s the obvious risk in the deal. Leonard might have it in his head this year is a weigh station on his way to his preferred Los Angeles.
Just as Paul George did before signing with Oklahoma City.
Just as Russell Westbrook did before signing with the Thunder, too.
A lot can happen in a year in the right situation. Maybe Leonard would like it here. Maybe he decides to stay where he is next year just as Westbrook and then George surprisingly did in Oklahoma City.
Or maybe Leonard really is here for just a year. That’s not the worst scenario for the Heat. Their contract situation is set to clear up two years. Leonard’s coming would give a year of more interesting basketball and cut the waiting to one year.
Who knows? Maybe with some acrobatics the Heat can get out from under some of those other contracts next year, too. Maybe then they could make a play for Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving, who reportedly are looking for a destination together. Who knows?
All you know right now is Leonard wants out of San Antonio. It’s a long shot he lands here, but Riley has made long shots before. He traded the supposed future of Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant for an unhappy Shaquille O’Neal. He got a cornerstone in Alonzo Mourning when he wanted out of Charlotte.
If Leonard comes, it also would make sense for the Heat to chase Carmelo Anthony. There would be a place for him on the thinned-out roster, and a need for a 34-year-old with a win-now idea.
As things stand, Anthony doesn’t fit. His hold-theball style is opposite the Heat’s quick-passing motif. His field-goal percentage decreased each of the past five years, suggesting he has trouble creating his shot. He’s never been a spot-up 3-point shooter, though that can change with age.
The real problem is the Heat has enough average players like Anthony has become. Who do you take minutes from? Winslow? Kelly Olynyk? James Johnson? Where, in short, is the need for Anthony at 34?
Unless you shake up the roster for Leonard, that is.
Unless you surprise the basketball world with that deal.
A week ago, Leonard reportedly wanted to be a Los Angeles Laker. Then LeBron James signed there. Now Leonard reportedly wants to be a Los Angeles Clipper. Will that change next week? Next year?
Again, other teams have a better shot at closing on Leonard. But, again, if I’m Riley I slide a sheet of paper with the roster on it and tell San Antonio to take their pick of players.
The Heat are a secondtier of playoff team in the East again as presently built. Leonard changes all that. Sure, there’s risk involved. But the Heat have never been afraid of risk when the reward can change the landscape.