To woo or to boo? The Heat’s Antetokounmpo moment arrives

MIAMI — The dots are just about impossible not to connect: •The Miami Heat are prioritizing cap space for 2021 free agency. •Giannis Antetokounmpo stands as the NBA’s ultimate prize that summer. •The agent for the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player last month told a Milwaukee television station, “everything is open.”

And did we mention that Antetokounmpo and Heat center Bam Adebayo share that same agent?

While July 2021 is 16 months away, the NBA’s gestation period for free-agent speculation falls well within that time frame.

Monday night, Antetokounmpo makes his lone visit of the season to AmericanAirlines Arena, when the Milwaukee Bucks arrive.

With the Heat’s focus therefore on … winning.

Unlike the unrequited embrace New York fans have given LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and other impending free agents at Madison Square Garden in recent seasons, that has not been the case in South Florida with James, Durant and Gordon Hayward when they were weeks or months away from being courted by the Heat.

That likely will be the case with Antetokounmpo both Monday and going

forward, until his future is decided. Heat fans don’t beg.

And yet, it does not take much parsing of Pat Riley’s words after the NBA trading deadline to appreciate a degree of a Heated Greek Freak fetish.

“Somewhere,” Riley said, “you have to sort of draw a line in the sand for your team.”

That line was drawn at the deadline when it came to offering guaranteed money that bleeds into the 2021 offseason. So Andre Iguodala accepted a team option for 2021-22 on his extension and was acquired, while Danilo Gallinari balked at the lack of a 2021-22 guarantee and therefore was not further pursued.

“A two-year plan,” Riley said, “that’s

what we’re looking at. It would be this year and then it would be next year.”

And then enough cap cash in 2021 to at least chase what some would consider fantasy and others merely redux with LeBron in 2010, when the odds stood seemingly as stacked against the Heat.

Which brings it back to Alex Saratsis and his comments to Milwaukee’s WTMJ-TV.

“I think he’s someone who could easily say, ‘I’d like to be in Milwaukee my entire career,’ ” Giannis’ agent said prior to AllStar Weekend, a weekend that included Adebayo and Jimmy Butler being drafted to Team Giannis. “I think he’s also someone who, depending on how the team does, could say, ‘I need a change.’ “

The math at the moment is a $25.8 million salary this season for Antetokounmpo, a $27.5 million salary in 2020-21, with the Bucks to offer a supermax extension in the neighborhood of $250 million, in a preemptive

move, this summer.

The Heat already have seen one potential 2021 free-agent target removed from that market, when Bradley Beal opted for the security of an extension from the Washington Wizards, a move that essentially has left him long on cash and short on championship hope.

With Antetokounmpo, the reality is something quite different, with the Bucks not only in possession of the league’s best record, but also a collection of supporting talent already locked up through that 2021 offseason, including fellow All-Star Khris Middleton, as well as Eric Bledsoe and Brook Lopez.

And yet James in 2010 left his hometown Cavaliers and in 2014 left the Heat after four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals. Chris Bosh left the Toronto Raptors when similarly the face of the franchise. And Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard left

the Orlando Magic when the Magic Kingdom was theirs to own.

Of course, as was the case with the other elite free agents pursued by the Heat in recent years, it hardly would be an either/ or decision for Giannis. The Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors and, of course, the Knicks are among other teams linked to an eventual aggressive Antetokounmpo pursuit.

Even if the Heat were to display indirect affection, Monday likely would not be the time or place, not with at least first getting a read on whether Anthony Davis will be out of play this summer in free agency.

For now, Monday will be about Milwaukee attempting to avenge their homeopening loss to the Heat in October, in the team’s previous meeting in the three-game season series … even as both teams have eyes on Antetokounmpo as the future of their franchises.

Ira Winderman