USA Basketball News & Rumors

The Heat are often linked to star-level players and this season has been no exception, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant are among the noteworthy players who have been connected to the Heat over the past several weeks.

Still, unlike last year when a Jimmy Butler trade was an inevitability, there aren’t any Heat players looking to be sent out of Miami over the next 10 days. The Heat have good locker room chemistry, Winderman writes, but they’ve also had middling results again, currently just 25-22 and on pace to be in the play-in tournament for the fourth straight season.

Winderman takes stock of the Heat’s assets and potential trade candidates, noting that staying under the luxury tax line — they’re currently $1.6MM below that threshold — will be a priority this season.

One path the Heat could take prior to the February 5 deadline would be to consider dealing Norman Powell or Andrew Wiggins to potentially land another first-round pick, Winderman notes. Miami can currently only trade away two first-rounders (in 2030 and ’32) due to the Stepien rule, but adding another first would unlock additional picks to improve the roster.

Here’s more on the Heat:

• Powell’s recent shooting slump have coincided with lower back tightness, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. The veteran wing finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds in Sunday’s win at Phoenix, but shot just 5-of-21 from the field. “There’s more to basketball than just putting the ball in the basket,” Powell said. “There’s leading, there’s giving yourself up. I’ve done that this whole week with playing hurt with my back spasm and everything like that. But tonight I wanted to make an emphasis on getting rebounds and securing the ball so we can get out in transition, and I was able to do that and get my double-double.”
• Starting point guard Davion Mitchell, who aggravated a left shoulder injury last Tuesday in Sacramento, missed his third straight game on Sunday, Chiang adds. “He’s definitely making progress, but we need to go through some kind of workout where he takes contact and then see how he responds to that,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked for an update on Mitchell’s status ahead of Sunday’s game. “But everything else is trending in a really good way.”
• Spoelstra praised backup guard Dru Smith for his play in the weekend victories in Utah and Phoenix, according to Winderman. “Dru was great both games,” Spoelstra said. “It was almost like a misprint. I think he had five steals (Saturday) night, but I think it was like 13 or 14 deflections. It was crazy.” As Winderman notes, Smith’s role may be tenuous when Mitchell and Tyler Herro (rib injury) are healthy again, but he says he’s focused on making the most of his minutes rather than how much he’s playing.
• Spoelstra, the new head coach of Team USA, is more focused on the Heat at the moment than his summer job, but he said he met with USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill and team director Sean Ford in November. “Right now, there’s not a whole lot of action going on,” Spoelstra said, per Winderman. “I’ve kept in touch with both Grant Hill and Sean Ford, and we met up probably two months ago. But it was more general talks of two summers from now and scheduling, and what that’ll look like. We’ll probably get together in some fashion this summer for a little bit more extended time. I don’t know if we’ll do anything with players, but certainly we’ll meet. I love the whole process, so of course when we play and compete against teams, there’s players that will come to mind. But I’m not sweating that right now. That’s really for Grant. It’ll be a collaborative effort. But there’s plenty of time for that.”