Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
McDonough stepping down as director, COO
Technical director Schmid also leaving the team
Inter Miami CF’s offseason will include having to find a new person to lead the club’s soccer and business operations.
Paul McDonough is stepping down as Inter Miami’s sporting director and COO, leaving the club without a person at the forefront of the front office in the midst of a crucial offseason.
The Athletic, which first reported the news, reported that technical director Kurt Schmid is also leaving the team.
“Working alongside the Mas brothers to build upon the legacy of soccer in South Florida will be one of the highlights of my career,” McDonough said in a statement. “I am proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to the next chapter.”
McDonough’s departure comes after Inter Miami had a disappointing i naugural season despite becoming the seventh Major League Soccer expansion team to qualify for the MLS Cup playoffs — albeit in an expanded playoff format.
Inter Miami finished their inaugural season with a 7-13-3 record (10th place in the 14-team Eastern Conference) and were eliminated by fellow expansion team Nashville SC in the playoff’s play-in round on Nov. 20.
David Beckham, club owner and president of soccer operations, managing owner Jorge Mas and McDonough haven’t been made available for comment since the end of the season. The club said in a news release that McDonough will help the club with the front-office transition
still were intrigued about the Heat allure.
So now it’s Harden and a trade that NBA executive from an Eastern Conference team acknowledged Thursday as “it’s sort of inevitable.”
To somewhere. But to here?
Considering Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo assuredly would be off the table (with Adebayo also with a poison-pill element of his contract that practically makes him untradeable because of his extension), the best the Heat could offer would be some combination of Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Precious Achiuwa, Kendrick Nunn and draft picks creatively cultivated.
From there, cap filler of Kelly Olynyk and
Andre Iguodala would be required to approach Harden’s $41.3 million salary.
Or it could be as simple for Houston as the singular-star offer that the 76ers could make with Ben Simmons.
There then is the matter of Harden’s ability to get out of his contract after the 2021-22 season, assuredly with eyes on the type of two-year, $103 million extension he recently turned down from the Rockets.
Factoring in the dollars required to close a Harden deal, and it suddenly wouldn’t matter to the Heat what Giannis Antetokounmpo did with his potential extension from the Bucks.
Still, this is the arguably the NBA’s most elite scorer, a player, at 31, who is on the same career timetable as Butler, also 31.
To some, Harden’s isolation, pound-the-rock game is diametrical to the Heat’s move-the-ball, good-tobetter-to-best shot searching.
“But that’s because how they chose to play in Houston,” a scout offered Thursday. “He hasn’t always been that way.”
Fair. But he also is one of the game’s biggest personalities.
Sort of like Butler, in that regard.
“That,” the Eastern Conference executive said, “on the face of it is why it doesn’t seem to work. Butler needs to be the man.”
A year ago, even more lacking in cap space than when Durant and Aldridge were courted, the Heat moved heaven and earth to close their deal with Butler.
The prototypic Heat, two-way, culture player.
That’s not to say that a Harden buy-in isn’t possible. Even Shaquille O’Neal bought in (for a limited period).
Within days, the speculation, at least from a Heat perspective, likely will become moot. The 76ers, in particular, have far more to offer, with ample draft picks available, as well as sweeteners such as Matisse Thybulle and Tyrese Maxey.
“For Houston, the call would be Herro vs. Simmons, I think,” the NBA scout said, when asked to weight the Heat’s odds.
If the Heat even would go there.
Amid the speculation, a respected NBA agent was kind enough to chime via text with, “He’s not coming to Miami.”
Just as Durant didn’t, Aldridge didn’t, Hayward didn’t.
But that is not as much the point at the moment as that another NBA leading man reportedly has a decent amount of interest in the Heat.
Confirmation, yet again, that Micky Arison, Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg, Erik Spoelstra have created a shiny object in South Florida that endures with its appeal.