New Orleans Pelicans say they don’t want to trade Jrue Holiday, but have options if they do
By Phil Watson
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are back in the mix at the top of the Eastern Conference, improving to 20-8 with Wednesday night’s win at Philadelphia, but they have been riding the contributions of a pair of rookie guards in Tyler Herro, a lottery pick, and Kendrick Nunn, an undrafted free agent who spent last season in the G League.
The pair is combining for 30.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Herro is at 29.1 minutes a night and shooting 41.7 percent overall and 37.5 percent on 5.3 3-pointers per game. Nunn is at 45.3 percent overall and 36.1 percent on 6.0 deep tries nightly, playing 31.2 minutes per game.
By acquiring Jimmy Butler via a sign-and-trade from the 76ers over the summer, Miami is hard-capped this season and are just $2.59 million below the luxury tax apron, according to Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights.
The Heat do have contracts they could move, but doing so would either cost them draft assets or some of the young talent Pat Riley has assembled.
It’s possible Miami could excise James Johnson ($15.35 million with a player option for next season) and Dion Waiters ($12.1 million with another season guaranteed). But doing so could cost the Heat, one of the group of Nunn, Herro and Duncan Robinson and first-round picks (plural).
The Heat control their first-rounders in 2020 and 2022. Their 2021 pick has traveled to Oklahoma City, where the Thunder have a swap option with the Rockets’ top-four protected pick.
Miami’s 2023 first-round pick is lottery protected through 2025 and owed to the Thunder as part of the Butler deal. If the pick doesn’t convey by 2025, it becomes an unprotected first-round pick in 2026. So the Heat’s only options for a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans would be to protect their 2023, 2024 and/or 2025 pick from 15-30.
Another potential piece of a deal could be Justise Winslow‘s $13 million deal, which has two years to run at the same price each season and includes a team option for 2021-22. A deal built around Johnson and Winslow would work and potentially add one win for Miami, according to TradeNBA.
It also works with Johnson and Waiters, with no change in potential wins noted for either side, per TradeNBA. But in order to drop two bad contracts on the Pelicans would require most of Miami’s draft capital for the next several years, either outright and/or in the form of pick swaps.