The Heat have been looking into inexpensive 3-and-D wing options, including Nuggets shooting guard Randy Foye, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. Foye was said to be available as of mid-December, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders reported then, and that’s no surprise, given his shrinking role in Denver. He’s averaging career lows in points and minutes per game while shooting a career worst 29.6% from 3-point range, well beneath his career mark of 37.0%.
Foye is making $3.135MM on an expiring contract, so Miami would have to match for that salary, and given the Heat’s position as a tax team and the repeat-offender tax penalties they face if they don’t ditch roughly $5.5MM from their payroll by season’s end, they have incentive to send salary Denver’s way. The Heat have been aggressive in trying to trade a player on the end of their bench, especially Chris Andersen and Jarnell Stokes, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported around the same time that fellow Herald scribe Ethan Skolnick heard Miami had explored trading for Omri Casspi. It’s unclear if the Nuggets would want either Andersen, whom they amnestied in 2012, or Stokes, who’s spent enough time in the D-League this season to be named one of its All-Stars. Neither of them have a salary that would work in a one-for-one swap involving Foye, with Anderson’s $5MM pay too large and Stokes’ minimum salary too small.
Concern over the health of Chris Bosh clouds Miami’s trade deadline plans. The Heat have reportedly spoken with the Rockets about a swap involving Hassan Whiteside and Dwight Howard, but Miami isn’t sold on Howard’s character and the way he’d fit with the Heat, Lowe adds.