- Miami Heat missed out on Damian Lillard trade, leaving them in need of guard depth after some notable free agency departures.
- NBA writer Mark Medina believes James Harden doesn’t fit into Heat culture and doubts Miami will have any interest in pursuing him.
- The Heat must find a way to replace the lost production of Gabe Vincent and Max Strus to remain competitive in the Eastern Conference.Miami Heat players and fans alike were left distraught when the news broke that their main summer off-season target, Damian Lillard, had been traded to their Eastern Conference rivals, the Milwaukee Bucks. With little free-agency pick-ups, but some notable departures, could they explore the idea of pursuing James Harden as a consolation? NBA writer Mark Medina doesn’t think so.
However, in a rapid turn of events, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne broke the news which shocked the entire NBA community. Damian Lillard had finally been traded… but not to the Miami Heat.
Instead, Portland engaged in a three-team trade that sent the seven-time NBA All-Star to the Milwaukee Bucks to pair up with two-time MVP award winner, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and all of a sudden the Heat were left in limbo. After losing both Gabe Vincent and Max Strus in free-agency, the Floridian team now lack the guard depth that they possessed last season.
With James Harden the only other superstar left available on the market after requesting a trade away from the Philadelphia 76ers, could the Heat be interested in pursuing the 33-year-old in an attempt to claw back something from this summer? It looks unlikely.
Mark Medina – ‘Harden doesn’t fit into Heat Culture’
Medina doesn’t believe that the Miami Heat would consider exploring any options to acquire disgruntled Sixers star, James Harden, as he doesn’t appear to align with their philosophy and ethos. Nevertheless, he hasn’t ruled out Miami somehow getting involved in order to help facilitate a trade for him, but only if such deal would bring them in the necessary depth pieces they need to fulfill their positional needs.
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How can the Heat replace what they lost in Vincent and Strus?
Arguably, one of the key fundamentals to why Miami made it all the way to the 2023 NBA Finals was because of the depth they possessed on their roster.
NBA statistics – Miami Heat record (2022-23 season) Win% Offensive Rating Defensive Rating Net Rating .537 113.0 113.3 -0.3 League Ranking 11th 25th 9th 21st All statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference. Last season, Vincent only started 34 of his 68 games as the primary point-guard, earning the starting role over Kyle Lowry toward the back end of the season and throughout the entirety of the Heat’s deep post-season run. As per Statmuse, during the regular season the 27-year-old averaged 9.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists, on a true shooting percentage of 53.3%. However, when it came to the playoffs, he recorded an improved 12.7 points and 3.5 assists, shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from deep.
