After months (and perhaps years) of haggling with the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Miami Heat finally scored their superstar earlier this week.
In a six-player, five-pick blockbuster, Miami sent out four players — headlined by Kel’el Ware and Tyler Herro — in addition to three first-round picks, one future swap and its 2033 second-round pick.
As part of the two-team blockbuster, Miami consolidated young guard Kasparas Jakucionis, which was an important factor in sealing the deal. However, they almost dealt veteran guard Davion Mitchell instead of the young guard, according to The Athletic‘s Sam Amick.
“Per league sources, the Heat attempted to include point guard Davion Mitchell in the deal instead of Jakučionis,” Amick reported. “However, because Mitchell is entering the final year of his deal, as are Herro and Jaquez Jr., the Bucks made it clear that they had no interest in three of the four players in the deal having one season remaining. So the Bucks pushed for, and landed, Jakučionis.
“The 20-year-old, 6-foot-5 guard has three guaranteed seasons left on his rookie deal, including two team options.”
With Miami now being hard-capped below the first apron, Mitchell’s $12 million salary would have allowed the Heat to create more flexibility to potentially bring back both Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell while still having access to the mid-level exception.
Right now, they don’t quite have that luxury. There’s the possibility that the full MLE opens up, barring another cost-cutting move is made or Wiggins plus Powell taking reasonable pay cuts, should both return.
It makes sense as to why the Heat didn’t consolidate Mitchell.
Mitchell is the stronger defender, but Jakucionis is also the better shooter with more playmaking upside. That said, Mitchell is the more ready-made contributor on a win-now team. With Antetokounmpo, the Heat are.
Mitchell averaged 9.3 points and 6.5 assists last season. He shot 49.0 percent from the floor and 39.5 percent from 3-point range. His growth as a 3-point shooter has been quite encouraging, as has his growth as a playmaker. But Miami must continue to improve both areas over the next several weeks, which is easier said than done.
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i dont see jaco being nothing but a backup.dav is a better pg his defense might be the best of any pg in nba.he just needs to TRY to score a little more like he did our last game