Why the Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors are perfect trade partners

With room for improvement and assets to deal, the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat have the potential to help each other with a trade.

It’s been an impressive start to the new season for the Miami Heat. After missing the team’s first three games due to the birth of his child, free-agent acquisition Jimmy Butler has returned with tremendous impact at both ends of the floor.

Bam Adebayo seems well on his way to contending for Most Improved Player honors and rookies Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn have vastly outplayed expectations.

Miami’s 4-1 record has it No. 2 in the Eastern Conference and yet something remains missing for the mass public to take it seriously as a legitimate contender.

Butler provides the Heat with the star power they’ve so desperately lacked over the years, but he alone is not enough. In the age of terrifying twosomes, Miami needs more than the scrappy overachievers the franchise has become synonymous with to compete at the highest level.

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From the moment he was sign-and-traded to the Golden State Warriors, D’Angelo Russell‘s name has been floated through several hypothetical trade packages.

His inclusion so early into a freshly signed five-year max contract had little to do with his talent. Heading into the 2019-20 season, Russell was coming off a career-best season that saw him sneak into the All-Star Game for the very first time.

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It was more about the perceived motives behind Golden State’s acquisition of one of the game’s bright young floor generals, where the fit mattered less than the overall talent it would receive in the wake of losing Kevin Durant.

The early stages of the pairing have not looked great. Russell is shooting just 39.0 percent from the field and averaging 16.3 points while the Dubs have amassed a 1-3 record with the third-worst plus/minus in the NBA.

The Warriors have remained firm in their desire to keep Russell for the long haul, but that stance might have changed when the already-grim outlook on their season did.

Stephen Curry suffered a broken left hand that will keep him out at least three months. Already with a slim margin for error out West, there’s no way for Golden State to remain competitive without its MVP.

The Warriors are set at both guards spots with the eventual return of the Splash Brothers yet have gaping holes almost everywhere else. With this season already down the drain, why shouldn’t they test the market on their most attractive asset to better set up the eventual return of Curry and Thompson alongside Draymond Green?

A two-way athletic forward with playmaking chops, it wouldn’t be crazy to see Justice Winslow fill the role left by Andre Iguodala to an extent. Kelly Olynyk could be the floor-spacing big the Dubs have rarely had during this era of excellence. Perhaps Goran Dragic could energize a second-unit that currently ranks 29th in scoring.

Bob Myers would essentially be trading a dollar for four quarters, but he’d also be shoring up a lot of the deficiencies that are plaguing the once invincible Warriors.

In pursuit of another star to shore up a shaky point guard position, the Heat were linked to Chris Paul before the season. Younger and cheaper, Russell would be a considerably better option to help push them farther up the standings.

The financials of a potential deal would have to be ironed out and Miami might be required to throw in a first-round pick. Ultimately, a trade with this framework is exactly what both sides need, the Heat to continue their pursuit of championship relevancy and the Dubs to properly reload amid this unfortunate gap year.