3 reasons why the Miami Heat should trade for Kevin Durant

2. There’s a gaping hole at power forward for the Miami Heat.

After losing Tucker to the 76ers (partially thanks to Philly’s alleged tampering), the Heat have a gaping hole at power forward. They re-signed Caleb Martin, who played plenty of four in the past but is undersized at just 6’5″ and doesn’t provide much offensive juice. They tried Max Strus there to moderate success for stretches last year, but there’s no doubt that power forward is Miami’s weakest spot right now. Neither of those players is truly a two-way option, and it’s unclear if either would even be on the team past the trade deadline.

For all of Miami’s player development success over the last several years, and it is significant, they have always needed outside power forwards. In 2020, with Jae Crowder bodying up the East’s best wings and bombing from deep, they made the Finals. The following year, they tried to Frankenstein together a power forward out of the corpses of Andre Iguodala and Trevor Ariza and promptly got swept in the first round. And last year, of course, Tucker had a superb season as Miami fell six inches short of a Finals berth.

Durant and Butler sharing the court would have two guys with both offensive and defensive versatility. Butler could guard quicker wings, while Durant could guard longer ones, and the positional designations wouldn’t matter. Bam is arguably the most flexible defender in the entire league. All three players could easily switch any frontcourt spot, and Butler and Bam are more than capable of slowing guards too.

The Miami defensive and offensive schemes rely upon strong, flexible defenders who are both willing and able to fire away from deep. Durant certainly fits the bill here while also taking some of the creative pressure off of Jimmy Butler and/or Kyle Lowry (if he remains on the team). He’s not the defender he once was, but he’s still a better option at PF than anyone else the Heat would have (besides Butler).