New Heat forward Maurice Harkless was impressed by team president Pat Riley‘s recruitment process, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The Heat added Harkless on a one-year, $3.6MM deal last month.
Harkless and his fellow new addition, guard Avery Bradley, will be expected to make up for the perimeter defense and three-point shooting of Jae Crowder, who left for the Suns in the offseason. In 62 games played for the Clippers and Knicks last season, Harkless averaged 5.8 PPG and 3.9 RPG across 23.0 MPG. He shot 34.7% from long range last season, and 50.2% from the field.
There’s more out of South Beach:
- Heat reserve big man Chris Silva could be due to take a leap in his second season, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. Silva knows one area in which he can improve: fouling. “The less fouls I have, the more of an option I am for coaches to put me back in, to actually have a choice to use me in different moments,” Silva said. “Of course, the foul trouble thing has been a big emphasis, from learning and watching film on how to play defense the right way, how to make reads on defense so I don’t get in foul trouble.”
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel wonders if the Heat should wait out the trade market before making any moves, as the asking price for Rockets superstar guard James Harden is currently fairly steep. There may be mutual interest in a Harden deal.
- Fresh off a career-best postseason run that saw him lead Miami to its first Finals appearance since 2014, Heat All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler has remained vocal in team training camp, as Winderman details for the Sun Sentinel.
TD
Fans trade proposal
Herro
Iguodala
Leonard
Olynyk
For Harden
Herro won’t be better than Wiggins
Wiggins is top 20 scorer in the nba and Wiggins has better defensive potential
Rockets will be the worst team next 10 years
Heat can’t trade Leonard till like February due to resigning him this offseason
The asking price for Harden is fairly steep? So is Mount Everest.
The Heat would wreck their team if they trade for Harden
All I keep hearing is it’s gonna take Ben Simmons + 2-3 1st rd picks to get Harden, yet I keep seeing trade proposals involving Heat sending Herro + garbage for Harden. GTFOH. Headline a proposal with Bam or don’t even bother.
The Rockets aren’t getting Simmons and picks. The only people saying this are Rockets fans or those in the media who are trying to force it the way they tried to keep saying the Knicks were going to trade for CP3 before last year. Just because you say it 1000 times doesn’t make it more likely to happen.
Black ace Houston’s isn’t in a hurry to trade harden still under contract for 2/3 seasons. They looked pretty deep the other night and wall looked like old wall, as did cousins. Neither team has expressed desire to trade right now, sixers are giving simmons and embiid one more chance. I would suspect that they would consider all options to get better and trading for harden accomplishes that.
Totally ignorant. They not trading Bam. WTF would they? For 2 years if diminished returns from Harden?
Butler vocal in camp…think he is worried about losing his job to James Harden. Yikes trouble in south beach…
Nah. Butler is vocal everywhere he goes.
That doesn’t mean it’s not a defense mechanism. Brash attitude often hides a deep insecurity which could be trouble. How long has Jimmy lasted in adversity before?
Heat don’t need Harden. What they do need is a rim protector. I thought Howard would have been great. Harkless and Bradley will have to make up for Crowder. With Iggy here they are still solid playoff team. Heat will not sneak up this yr. I can see them doing something at TD. They will also have cap space for next yrs FA class. Considering their age I would not trade for Harden.
Adebeyo is one of the top defensive bigs in the league
Would have to include Butler on trade. Because no way Butler playing with Harden.
This will be big mistake for Heat. Would rather have Butler
They wouldn’t trade Butler…He’s basically become Riley’s new son..lol
Let Harden stay in Houston and continue being a malcontent. The more surprising aspect of all this is the fact people are surprised that Harden is unhappy. He’s always unhappy after they get bounced every year, yet he’s been the only main constant through it all..
The Knicks needed to try and keep Harkless but realistically he didn’t want to stay.
Bradley, Robinson, Butler, Harkless, Bam
Dragic, Iguodala, Olynyk, Herro, Achiuwa/Okpala, Nunn primary bench rotation
Okpala, Leonard/Silva depending on matchups
Achiuwa reminds me of a remedial James Johnson, so if they can help him develop some of his raw areas, that would help them in what has been an area of need, with size at the 4, for the last couple of years…if Okpala can show what he is theoretically capable of, that would also be a huge boost at that spot
Silva is actually really good. He can do a little bit of everything, not necessarily like Bam, but he has some similarities to UD as well…He just has to cut down on the bad fouls, as he mentioned, and make slightly better decisions a little more consistently. I think there should be minutes for him b/c he works hard
As for James Harden, I’ve pretty much said it a bunch of times, but if they do a deal, it would probably have to include like 6 guys from the Heat, and they would have to get back at least PJ Tucker+ in the salary matching situation…I obviously wanted to avoid the situation, but the noise is getting stronger, so what about the potential deal? I think teams like the Knicks, and maybe the Nets, and even OKC would arguably be able to offer them more
Iguodala, Leonard, Bradley, Olynyk, Herro/Nunn, maybe Okpala if necessary, the 2nd round pick in 2022, and the 2025 1st, and worst case, another pick in 2027, although they’re giving up significant pieces, and taking on all of Harden’s salary, so not sure thats necessary
for Harden, PJ Tucker, DeMarcus Cousins, and potentially Sterling Brown (if Okpala were included)
But even then I’d personally be salty, and I doubt it would go down like that. I just dont see any other way for it to work out…This would obviously have to also be after February 6, and at that point in the season, would the Heat really turn over their team, and would Houston do that during a playoff race?
why boogie? hes shooting 29% from da field. they already got bam whos worked out fine