The Heat have just one unprotected first-round pick available for trade, which are owed from their moves to acquire Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. The only picks Miami can trade are their 2030 or 2031 picks, but not both, due to the Stepien Rule.
This complicates matters for the Heat as they approach a chatter-filled deadline, with Butler’s future with the team in question. The Heat don’t usually operate to trade stars for draft picks, but acquiring win-now players in a deal that sends Butler away might be more difficult without many tradable picks.
Draft picks matter in the trade landscape that saw the Knicks surrender five first-rounders for Mikal Bridges this year and the Timberwolves give up four in exchange for Rudy Gobert in 2022. The Heat could, of course, recoup picks in a potential Butler trade, but again, Miami hasn’t traded a player for a pick (without giving one up) since 2009.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Heat forward Nikola Jovic sprained his ankle after re-joining the rotation on Dec. 12, missing Monday’s game against Detroit. However, as Chiang writes in another story, it doesn’t appear Jovic will miss much time with the injury, as he’s listed as questionable for Friday’s game against the Thunder.
- Magic star Paolo Banchero has missed 23 games with a torn abdominal muscle and he’s continuing to progress, but hasn’t yet been able to participate in contact drills thus far, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel writes. “His spirits have been great,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “He understands that it is a process, and does he want to be on the court? Absolutely. … He’s done a great job of responding [to] that, to staying engaged, to communicating, being in and communicating in film sessions, all of those little things that he’s able to do, that he can control, he’s doing a great job of it.” According to Beede, he’s been able to do ballhandling and jogging at his own pace.
- After being upgraded to questionable for Thursday’s game against the Thunder earlier today, Magic guard Gary Harris ended up missing the matchup, Beede writes in the same story. However, his return to the floor is imminent. He hasn’t played the last nine games for Orlando and is averaging 4.1 points in 17 outings this season.
- The Wizards‘ front office continues to emphasize their primary goal of development for their young players this season. That includes playing rookies heavy minutes, while some of the veterans are coming off the bench. However, the Wizards were upfront with center Jonas Valanciunas this summer about their plans before he agreed to a three-year contract with the team, according to The Washington Post’s Varun Shankar. “I know what’s going on. I know we have a bright future in front of us, so we got to keep following the plan, keep working, keep grinding, keep getting better,” Valanciunas said. “I’m [an] older guy, but in this environment I got to be young.” According to Shankar, other veterans like Marvin Bagley II are on board with the plan.