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Heat Notes: Carmelo, Waiters, Richardson

November 16th, 2018 at 2:03pm CST by Luke Adams

While there has been some speculation that the Heat could be a landing spot for Carmelo Anthony once the Rockets officially waive or trade him, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald notes that the Heat’s offseason meeting with Anthony’s reps was initiated by Carmelo’s camp rather than Miami’s.

According to Jackson, there are some Heat basketball people who don’t think Anthony would be a particularly good fit, particularly with the club’s rotation already pretty crowded. Miami has also been trying to get its defense on track, and adding Carmelo to the mix likely wouldn’t help on that front.

The Rockets announced on Thursday that they’ve parted ways with Anthony, but have yet to make an official roster move with him. As I detailed this morning, there are plenty of reasons for Houston to wait to finalize anything, so the Heat should have some time to decide if they want to get involved.

Here’s more out of Miami:

  • Dion Waiters‘ return to the court for the Heat still isn’t considered imminent, according to Jackson, who hears that conditioning remains an issue for the veteran guard even once he’s fully recovered from ankle surgery.
  • Jackson also circles back to the Heat’s involvement in the Jimmy Butler talks, confirming that the best offer the team made last month was Josh Richardson, Kelly Olynyk, and a protected first-round pick. According to Jackson, after the Timberwolves passed on that offer, the Heat didn’t exactly pull Richardson off the table — they simply never returned to the table.
  • In case you missed it, we relayed a few more Heat-related notes on Wednesday.
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Tyler Johnson's Labels Importance Of Team Staying Hungry

November 15th, 2018 at 5:49pm CST by JD Shaw
  • Heat guard Tyler Johnson labeled the importance of the team staying hungry for success, despite several players cashing in on new contracts in recent seasons. “I think what’s crazy is before any of us got any money, we were just some dogs,” Johnson said, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. “I think that’s what the beautiful thing is. We had to just come together.”
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Heat Notes: Wade, Waiters, Carmelo

November 14th, 2018 at 3:56pm CST by Luke Adams

Monday’s loss to Philadelphia was the Heat‘s third straight defeat on their home court, dropping the team’s overall record to 5-8. In the wake of that game, Ethan J. Skolnick of HeatBeatMiami.com spoke to one Heat official who admitted, “We need a trade. Badly.”

However, as Skolnick points out, there’s not really a great trade out there for Miami, especially that Jimmy Butler is now a member of the Sixers. And without a deal that shake things up, it looks like the Heat may be stuck in Eastern Conference purgatory, likely to finish between sixth and ninth in the standings.

As the Heat weigh how to turn things around after a slow start and how to add a difference-making player, let’s round up a few more notes out of Miami…

  • Dwyane Wade remains away from the team as he spends time with his wife and their newborn daughter, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The veteran guard will miss the team’s upcoming games vs. Brooklyn, Indiana, and the Lakers and then will make a decision from there, says Reynolds. “We’re totally fine with it,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said.
  • Now that Dion Waiters has missed Miami’s first 13 games, he has officially lost out on the $1.2MM bonus he would’ve earned if he had played in 70 contests this season, tweets cap expert Albert Nahmad. That bonus was considered an unlikely incentive since Waiters didn’t play 70 games last year either, so his cap hit will remain unchanged.
  • With Carmelo Anthony‘s future in Houston up in the air, rumors have been swirling about the possibility of Carmelo landing in South Beach. Anthony’s reps discussed a possible deal with the Heat in the summer, and league executives who spoke to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News believes there could still be a fit there. ESPN’s Marc J. Spears also cited the Heat as a potential suitor for Anthony during an appearance on The Jump (hat tip to Anthony Irwin of Silver Screen & Roll). Dave Hyde of The Sun Sentinel isn’t on board with the idea.
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Woo: Heat Would Make Sense As John Wall Suitor

November 13th, 2018 at 8:45am CST by Luke Adams
  • Jeremy Woo of SI.com lays out the case for why trading John Wall might be in the Wizards’ best long-term interests, pointing to teams like the Heat and Suns as potential trade partners. Woo is the second national reporter to make this argument this month, and his points are similar to ones ESPN’s Zach Lowe made last week — Bradley Beal is too valuable to move him, and Otto Porter wouldn’t bring back much in return.
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Details On Rockets’, Pelicans’ Trade Offers For Butler

November 12th, 2018 at 12:29pm CST by Luke Adams

A report over the weekend indicated that the Timberwolves had three trade offers on the table for Jimmy Butler before ultimately deciding to pull the trigger on a Sixers package headlined by Robert Covington and Dario Saric. In their latest report for The Athletic, Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic provide some details on the other two offers Minnesota was considering, which came from the Rockets and Pelicans.

According to Charania and Krawczynski, the Rockets – who had previously offered four first-round picks attached to Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss – adjusted their proposal to make it more appealing to Tom Thibodeau, who remains in win-now mode. Houston’s offer featured Eric Gordon, Nene, and two first-round picks, sources told The Athletic. It’s not clear what sort of protections would have been on those first-rounders, or whether any other pieces were involved.

As for the Pelicans, they weren’t mentioned often over the last couple months as a serious suitor for Butler, but they were engaged in talks with Minnesota at the end of the process. Charania and Krawczynski report that New Orleans’ package was headlined by Nikola Mirotic and an unprotected first-round pick. Again, it’s unclear what other pieces would have been included in such a deal — Mirotic’s salary wouldn’t have been enough to match Butler’s on its own.

The full report from Charania and Krawczynski is excellent, providing a timeline of the Butler saga from mid-September right up until today. It’s worth checking out in full if you have a subscription to The Athletic.

Here are a few more highlights from the piece:

  • Friday’s game was viewed as a fork in the road for both the Timberwolves and Butler. We previously heard that Thibodeau and GM Scott Layden decided after that game that Butler had played his last game for the team — it sounds like Butler had made up his mind too. According to Charania and Krawczynski, the 29-year-old had decided to begin sitting out indefinitely after that game if Minnesota didn’t trade him.
  • Thibodeau subsequently told his staff after Friday’s game that they had to move Butler, sources tell The Athletic. In fact, the Timberwolves nearly held the All-NBA swingman out of Friday’s game because they already had traction on a potential deal.
  • The Heat‘s original offer for Butler included Goran Dragic, Justise Winslow, and a draft pick, per Charania and Krawczynski. Miami later extended Winslow and put Josh Richardson into an offer. However, when a deal involving Richardson fell apart, the Heat pulled him off the table and never included him in another offer.
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Heat Never Returned Josh Richardson To Butler Trade Talks

November 11th, 2018 at 5:20pm CST by Eric Spyropoulos
  • Tom Thibodeau sold Timberwolves‘ owner Glen Taylor on passing on the initial offer from the Heat centered around Josh Richardson because he believed that Pat Riley would come back with a better offer down the road (the Heat never returned with Richardson on the table in subsequent trade talks).

    [SOURCE LINK]
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Heat Notes: Whiteside, Ellington, Butler, Maten

November 11th, 2018 at 2:18pm CST by JD Shaw

Heat center Hassan Whiteside had a good stretch of games this past week, recording double-doubles in each of his three contests and nearly recording a triple-double in Wednesday’s win over the Spurs.

The Heat benefit most when Whiteside is fully engaged, and after last season’s back-and-forth debacle with coach Erik Spoelstra, many were quick to write the 29-year-old off before the 2018/19 season even began.

“I’m very confident, man,” Whiteside said after Wednesday’s win, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “My body feels great. I think a lot of people had written me off. That’s fine. I don’t need anybody’s justification. But I feel like if I do those things for myself, it’ll put me in the conversation of being an All-Star, being defensive player of the year.”

Whiteside worked tirelessly to improve his body and conditioning last summer, and it’s paid off through 12 games. Entering Monday’s contest against Joel Embiid and the 76ers, he’s holding per-game averages of 14 points, 15.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks.

“It’s kind of like he’s changing his mindset to be great,” teammate Bam Adebayo said.

Should Whiteside continue to play solid basketball on both ends, he could be in consideration for his first ever All-Star appearance with the Heat.

There’s more out of Miami today:

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Behind The Scenes Of The Jimmy Butler Trade

November 11th, 2018 at 9:08am CST by Arthur Hill

After two months of trying to make a dysfunctional situation work with Jimmy Butler, the Timberwolves finally reached their breaking point after an 0-5 road trip, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

A combination of losing, economic concerns and the stress of not knowing from game to game if Butler was going to be available became too much for team officials. The Wolves, who left home with a .500 record but returned at 4-9, were worn down by the pressure that Butler has been applying since making his trade request two months ago.

Sources tell Krawczynski that coach/executive Tom Thibodeau, who had been resisting a trade while trying to convince Butler to stay, informed his coaching staff after the latest loss that a deal had to be made. Owner Glen Taylor stepped in Saturday and finalized the trade with the Sixers.

Minnesota had three offers to consider before pulling the trigger on the package that brought Dario Saric, Robert Covington, Jerryd Bayless and a 2022 second-round pick from Philadelphia in exchange for Butler and injured center Justin Patton. Philadelphia made its latest offer on Wednesday, resuming discussions after a disappointing start to the season. The Rockets, who offered four first-round picks, never stopped pursuing Butler, while the Heat remained steadfast in their refusal to include Josh Richardson in any deal.

The schedule also factored into the timing of the Butler deal, Krawczynski adds. Attendance has plummeted as Wolves fans have grown tired of watching their team feud with its star player. The organization has been offering discounted ticket packages, but with 10 of its next 12 games at home, management wanted to resolve the situation to get paying customers back on their side.

There was also concern about the effect that the precedent that was being set for Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and any other young players who will eventually be free agents. Butler has been allowed to set the terms of the dispute without consequence, whether through provocative public statements about teammates and the front office, well-publicized confrontations at his first practice and day-to-day decisions on whether “general soreness” would keep him out of the lineup.

Players had grown tired of answering questions about Butler after every game, Krawczynski reports, and the situation had become too much of a distraction to continue. The Wolves finally decided the cumulative effect of dealing with Butler was too much and sent him away less than 18 months after he arrived.

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Southeast Notes: Riley, Whiteside, M. Williams, Carter

November 10th, 2018 at 5:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Heat president Pat Riley told his players just before the season started that he was pulling out of trade talks with the Timberwolves involving Jimmy Butler, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Riley held a team meeting October 14 in which he acknowledged that negotiations had been going on and apologized to players whose names became public in trade rumors. That was just days after the teams nearly completed a deal that would have sent a package that included Josh Richardson and a protected first-round pick to Minnesota. However, Riley didn’t guarantee that negotiations with the Wolves wouldn’t resume.

Today’s trade that sent Butler to the Sixers eliminates that as a possibility. With about $130MM in salary, Miami is hovering above the $123.7MM luxury tax threshold and would face a $9.7MM tax payment if the team can’t trim $6.3MM by the end of the season. Riley said Thursday that the team isn’t currently active on the trade market, but tax concerns may change that before the February deadline.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • Heat center Hassan Whiteside, who has reportedly been on the trade block for several months, is “changing his mindset to be great,” teammate Bam Adebayo tells Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Whiteside posted his best game in a long time Wednesday with 29 points, 20 rebounds and nine blocked shots. “I think a lot of people had written me off,” Whiteside said. “That’s fine. I don’t need anybody’s justification. But I feel like if I do those things for myself, it’ll put me in the conversation of being an All-Star, being defensive player of the year.”
  • Marvin Williams says the players were thrilled this summer when they learned that Tony Parker was leaving the Spurs to join the Hornets as a free agent, writes Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. Parker brought championship experience to Charlotte, having won four titles in San Antonio. “He’s so willing to teach everyone and he’s very patient with all of us,” Williams said. “He’s obviously been in certain situations that a lot of us haven’t been able to experience yet, so that knowledge and that wisdom really helps us.”
  • Williams believes the way the game has changed in recent years has helped the Hawks‘ Vince Carter stay productive at age 41, relays Brendan Marks of The Charlotte Observer. Carter still displays his vertical leap on occasion, but he has prolonged his career with a deadly jump shot. “As the league has evolved, he’s almost benefited from it because he still can guard multiple positions, and he can still really shoot the lights out,” Williams said.
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Latest On Jimmy Butler Trade To Philadelphia

November 10th, 2018 at 2:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Timberwolves and Sixers agreed on Saturday to one of the biggest trades in recent years. Jimmy Butler is headed to Philadelphia, while Dario Saric and Robert Covington headline the package that Minnesota is receiving.

We have more news to pass along on this blockbuster:

  • Butler had shown an interest in Philadelphia long before Saturday. Butler scheduled a free agent meeting with the Sixers  in 2015, when they were still in the early stages of building a contender, before he re-signed with the Bulls, Jake Fischer of Sports Illustrated tweets.
  • If Butler agrees to a max contract with Philadelphia, Markelle Fultz‘s long-term prospects with the organization would be in serious doubt, Zach Lowe of ESPN tweets. There are plenty of other questions regarding how Fultz fits with core group that Philadelphia has assembled and the team’s brass will closely monitor how all the personalities mesh, Lowe adds. The top 2017 pick is averaging just 8.9 PPG and 3.6 APG  in 24.3 MPG and will now have to compete with another All-Star for touches.
  • Minnesota avoided sending Butler to a Western Conference contender, one of the goals it set in trade talks involving the disgruntled swingman, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN notes (Twitter link). The Rockets had been mentioned prominently as a possible destination but even a package of four future first-round picks couldn’t entice the Timberwolves to send him to a conference rival. The Sixers became the most viable trade partner once the Heat pulled Josh Richardson out of trade discussions, Wojnarowski adds.
  • The Sixers were prepared to offer a similar package to the Spurs to acquire Kawhi Leonard this summer, Fischer reports in another tweet. Philadelphia was willing to give up Saric, Covington and a first-rounder to San Antonio before the Spurs opted to deal Leonard to the Raptors. The Spurs’ decision to decline the Sixers’ offer thus far seems like a wise move, considering Saric’s early shooting slump (30% from long range), Jabari Young of The Athletic tweets. Toronto’s package, with DeMar DeRozan as the centerpiece, has helped San Antonio get off to a 6-4 start despite a rash of injuries.
  • Buyout candidates will be even more intrigued to join the Sixers for the stretch run, Alex Kennedy of Hoops Hype tweets. Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli joined Philadelphia in that fashion last season, Kennedy adds, and the incentive for players seeking a ring to hop on Philadelphia’s bandwagon has dramatically increased.
  • The Timberwolves considered three offers from different teams before picking the Sixers’ package, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic tweets.
  • Philadelphia will likely move J.J. Redick back into the starting lineup because his 3-point shooting will be needed on the first unit, Keith Smith of RealGM tweets.
  • The earliest that Butler could make his Sixers debut, once the trade is finalized, is Wednesday against the Magic, Wojnarowski adds in another tweet.
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