Several factors hurting Heat’s search for a star

There’s still a decent chance the Heat acquires a rotation player before the March 25 trade deadline, perhaps a power forward on an expiring contract such as San Antonio’s Rudy Gay or Sacramento’s Nemanja Bjelica. Or perhaps a buyout candidate such as DeMarcus Cousins (available) or Blake Griffin (likely soon to be). The Heat has discussed all four of those players internally, according to a source.

But another All-Star? Heat president Pat Riley would deserve a gift from the Arisons (and what do you get the man who has everything?) if he can find one of those before 2021 ends.

Point guard Kyle Lowry (a 2020 All-Star) would be one possibility — the Heat has interest — but the Raptors haven’t indicated whether they’re willing to trade him, and The Philadelphia Inquirer said Lowry wants to play for Philadelphia, which his agent then denied.

Another possibility would be Dallas’ Kristaps Porzingis, who is being shopped by the Mavericks, according to ESPN. But there are major durability concerns with him.

Three factors are hindering the Heat in their attempts to acquire another All-Star:

1) With the NBA moving to play-in games to determine the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference, fewer teams are sellers. Twenty teams will now play beyond the end of the regular season, up from 16. And the teams out of contention aren’t shopping any of their best players, beyond Cleveland’s Andre Drummond, who’s on an expiring contract and likely wouldn’t be a good match with Bam Adebayo, with neither having a three-point game.

There’s no unhappy All-Star on a clear-cut lottery team who’s trying to force his way out.

2) With Houston guard and impending unrestricted free agent Victor Oladipo experiencing more injury issues (this time, a foot problem) and shooting 38.6 percent from the field, it’s possible that Kawhi Leonard might be the only max player in this summer’s free agent class, and the Heat would be a long shot to get him. Atlanta restricted free agent power forward John Collins would come closest, but the Heat lacks the draft inventory that the Hawks reportedly seek in any trade.

The Heat should be hoping that Brooklyn fails to win a championship the next two seasons and James Harden and/or Kevin Durant look to leave in free agency in 2022.

3) Miami’s lack of first-round draft inventory has been a big handicap in general, one that prevented the Heat from having any chance to land Harden before Houston dealt him to Brooklyn.

The precedent set by the

NBA’s two most recent megatrades aren’t a good sign for the Heat.

For Harden, Brooklyn traded three future first-round picks, and agreed to four pick swaps, in addition to yielding two skilled veteran players (emerging but now ailing standout Caris LaVert and Jarrett Allen) and two other contributors ( Taurean Prince and Rodions Kurucs).

For Jrue Holiday (an unrestricted free agent this summer), Milwaukee traded three firstround picks (one to Denver, two to the Pelicans), two skilled rotation players (starter Eric Bledsoe, former starter George Hill) and agreed to two pick swaps with New Orleans.

So if Washington makes guard Bradley Beal — the NBA’s 27year-old leading scorer — available at some point (and that’s unlikely to happen before the trade deadline), the Heat faces the prospect of being outbid by others because Miami cannot trade any first-round picks in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, because teams cannot trade picks in consecutive years.

And the Heat could trade firstrounders in 2025 and 2027 — or in 2026 — only if Oklahoma City agrees to allow Miami to unlock protections on the 2023 firstrounder due OKC, which would want compensation in exchange.

The Heat isn’t alone in this area. Per ESPN, the Lakers, Clippers, Brooklyn, Portland, Detroit and Milwaukee don’t have any first-rounders available to trade. Utah cannot trade one of their first-round picks until 2026. Dallas and Phoenix not until 2027.

So if Beal or another star becomes available, the teams that should most concern the Heat should be Boston (could offer three first-round picks in the next six years and looking to make a move), Golden State (has Minnesota’s first-round pick in 2021), Philadelphia (first-round picks available to trade in 2021 and 2023), Denver (first-rounders available to trade in 2021 and 2027, and Michael Porter Jr.), New Orleans (four first-rounders in the next six years) and possibly Atlanta (three picks in the next six years). Those teams have the draft currency that Miami lacks.

The Heat could offer — at best — Tyler Herro, Precious Achiuwa, Duncan Robinson or Kendrick Nunn, cap fillers and perhaps 2025 and 2027 firstrounders for the next All-NBAtype player to become available but would still be at risk of being trumped by teams with far greater draft assets.

CHATTER

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa remained self-critical during his offseason national media tour last week. “I just feel like I could have done things a lot different when the season happened as far as preparation for teams that we were playing,” he told The Sporting News. “I can say a lot of the things I want to work on — how to do certain things with coming to the line pre-snap, post-snap, identification right off the bat.”

Tagovailoa said his major November 2019 hip injury at Alabama did not hamper him at all during his rookie season with the Dolphins. “There is no excuse for me,” he said. “I didn’t play the way I wanted to play.”

A We hear there has been discussion inside the Dolphins about whether to clear out a lot of cap space and be very aggressive again in free agency. At least

Aone person in the Dolphins upper brass supports that, but a decision must still be made. Miami can go from $26 million to more than $60 million in space by restructuring some players and cutting others.

Marlins owner Bruce Sherman — asked if ever asks himself why he needs the aggravation of losing money as an owner of a low-revenue team during a pandemic and if he ever thinks about whether he should sell the team — said: “Not for a moment. The industry lost $3 billion last year. We shared in those losses like everybody else. This year is going to be challenging through the pandemic.

“I love baseball. I love the organization we’re trying to build. I love winning, and I think we’re on the right path. The economics, especially with the pandemic, I’ve been disappointed. But we’re very excited about the future.”

One under-the-radar factor that has contributed to moreHurricanes players bypassing the NFL and returning to UM than what we had seen in previous years: The players, for the most part, really like this coaching staff.

We hear the defensive linemen were thrilled when Jess Simpson was rehired; two said he’s the best defensive line coach, that he genuinely makes players better. Players had issues with the previous offensive line coaches and coordinator Dan Enos, but like playing for Rhett Lashlee (whose offense they love) and offensive line coach Garin Justice.

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