3. Wayne Ellington, Miami Heat
Wayne Ellington is the least likely player to be available among this group, since the Miami Heat are currently occupying a playoff spot. However, if things continue to go south for a team that’s lost four of its last five contests and only sits 1.5 games ahead of the Detroit Pistons for the 8-seed, it’d make sense to extract some value from an expiring contract.
The Heat love sharpshooter Wayne Ellington, but it’s unrealistic to expect them to re-sign him to another one-year deal this offseason like they did last summer. His $6.3 million salary would be easy for another team to trade for, and there’s no question about his spot-up abilities.
Though he’s only averaging 7.9 points per game this year, they’ve come in just 21.1 minutes a night. He’s canning 37.1 percent of his six 3-point attempts per game, and is a career 38 percent marksman.
Again, it remains to be seen if Miami would actually consider trading a piece of its bench rotation as the playoff race heats up, but he hasn’t played much over the past month, so if a team is desperate enough for 3-point help to make a compelling offer, Pat Riley should at least entertain the idea.