Heat could benefit by being a bank

MIAMI — Well, this is a tad terrifying.

The Brooklyn Nets with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant?

The New York Knicks with Kawhi Leonard and a plus-one?

The Boston Celtics with Anthony Davis?

The Atlanta Hawks with enough selections to essentially determine the course of the NBA Draft?

And, all the while, the Miami Heat insisting something along the lines of, “We’re not dead yet” in the Eastern Conference.

Perhaps, in retrospect, we glossed over Pat Riley noting a couple of months back, “Who knows? We could be a bank.”

As in having to wait their turn. As in no longer considering themselves a team of the moment.

As in becoming — and this seemingly would be difficult for even the most ardent Heat supporter to stomach — Hawks 2.0.

What the Hawks did in their impending trade with the Nets for Allen Crabbe was move off current cap space in order to boost their long-term outlook by acquiring a pair of first-round picks in return.

For the Nets, Crabbe’s $18.5 million 2019-20 salary, the lone season remaining on his contract, was an impediment to the possibility of adding a pair of A-list free agents this offseason. So Brooklyn instead sent out those two picks and took back the $3.5 million left on the final year of Taurean Prince’s contract.

In essence, the Hawks set the market for the cost of the disposal of $15 million in cap space.

That is where the Heat could be a year from now with the 2020-21 final seasons on the contracts of James Johnson ($15.3 million) and Dion Waiters ($12.1 million).

The problem is the Heat will be limited with draft assets. With their 2021 unprotected first-round pick dealt in the 2015 Goran Dragic trade, the Heat, by rule, cannot trade their 2020 or 2022 first-round picks, with the NBA barring teams from being without consecutive future first-round picks.

The other option would be the Heat biting the bullet next summer, holding off on any free-agency makeovers of their own for one year, and becoming a bank like the Hawks, taking on the bad money for another team at the benefit of replenishing draft picks.

Again, recall that it was Riley who said at season’s end, “Having room doesn’t mean you have to sign anybody. You can take players in. Room is valuable but you don’t have to just save it for an unrestricted free agent. Who knows? We could be a bank. We could use it as a bank. Maybe we’re at that state we just want to bank it.”

Being a bank has the Hawks at an intriguing crossroads, able to further bolster the youth of John Collins, Trae Young and Kevin Huerter with three more first-round picks later this month, including two in the lottery. With that much draft currency, the occasional swing and miss comes at far less risk.

There have been teams that have taken draft swings for years and still end up following the bouncing pingpong balls annually in May, with the Phoenix Suns a current example.

But with Brooklyn seemingly circling in on Irving and with enough space to also add Durant, with New York linked to eventual face time with Leonard, with no indication that Boston is backing down from its assault on Davis, being a bank just might be the most prudent investment for the Heat over the short term — even if it means interest not rating as high.