There are two areas that the Miami Heat are searching for a boost with their roster: shooting and playmaking.
With the departures of all three of Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Jaime Jaquez Jr.— they leave behind some of those holes to supplement Miami’s new Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo duo. The Heat remain with three open roster spots and are expected to address both of those issues, along with keeping tabs on a potential backup big man addition down the line as well.
Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan and Bradley Beal are the three most frequently linked targets for the remainder of this offseason, although Miami may have assuredly hoped one more shook free in Sacramento Kings’ guard Zach LaVine. The former All-Star opted into his near-$49 million player option earlier this summer and rumors had him as a potential buyout candidate.
Unfortunately, that reportedly will not be the case, according to ESPN reporter Anthony Slater:
“The Kings have no interest in buying out [Zach LaVine’s] contract, and he’s expected to be a major part of the rotation entering the season… LaVine has expressed excitement about sharing the court with rookie [Darius Acuff] as he aims for a bounce-back season.”
– Anthony Slater via ESPN
Zach LaVine is still worth monitoring moving forward
LaVine would have been a beautiful addition to the Heat after trading for Antetokounmpo.
He is a true three-level scoring threat and former two-time All-Star at the heart of his prime at 31 years old. LaVine is coming off 2025-26 averages of 19.2 points on 48% shooting and 39% from deep. He’s dealt with injury concerns over the last few years, but could possibly benefit from a change of scenery. The skill set he brings to the table is essentially a more veteran version of Herro.
He is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and could be someone that the Heat can get their hands on to start year-two of their new Giannis build.
Even if LaVine wasn’t able to shake free now, another losing season from the Kings could change that notion midseason— where buyout rumors may eventually emerge once again. With Miami looking for shooting and playmaking, LaVine is someone that provides a combination of both those qualities.
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Sacramento is where individual defensive ratings go to die!
How can anyone play their best defense when they play for a dysfunctional organization that obviously does not stress defense. The Kings were ranked 28th in the league for defensive rating, ahead of only Utah and Washington.
In 2025-2026, Sacramento recorded a defensive efficiency of 121.5 points allowed per 100 possessions. Generally, in the modern high-scoring NBA, team defensive ratings are grouped as follows:
LaVine and DeRozan both had much better defensive ratings when they played with better defensive teams.
DeRozan, La Vine and Westbrook should not be judged based solely on their Sacramento years. Each is capable of playing much better defense with the right team.
Good points. When a team has no chance they stop caring. Often, the players will still get their points but the defense falls off first.
Sacramento last year was 3.1 points worse on defense in LaVine’s minutes, 4.2 worse with Westbrook, 7.7 worse with DeRozan https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAC/2026/on-off/
None are good defenders, DeRozan has been bad on defense throughout his career, Westbrook might be the worst of the three because he simply doesn’t play in a team concept, doesn’t help or rotate and only exerts energy for stocks and rebounds. LaVine of the three offers the best defense and is one of the more efficient shooters in the NBA, so like Herro, Powell his contributions on offense can offset his defense.
Thanks for the positive feedback.
Your posts are talking about individual defensive rating in a misleading way, the same way people used it to try to show that Harden despite all the tape of him not moving on defense was actually a good defender. It’s a team stat and someone can be bad on defense like Westbrook or Harden and have a good rating. Sacramento’s defensive rating last year 121.5 vs Sacramento’s defensive rating in DeRozan’s minutes 125.1 shows DeRozan was a main contributor to their #28 defense.
Again, the emphasis was obviously on offense in Sacto. Even Westbrook’s defense dropped considerably. What player is going to bust his ass when the team’s culture does not emphasize defense nor do the coaches hold players accountable for lack of defense.When in Rome…
DeRozan’s teams are better on defense with him off the court all but two years, 2012-13 and 2014-15, which were Lowry’s 1st and 3rd years in Toronto.
In the playoffs from 2014-2018, Toronto’s defense/the opponent’s offense in DeRozan’s minutes was +16.2, +20.3, +7.9, +3.6, +5.4.
With Lowry in the same span Toronto’s defense was -8.1, -14.7, -6.1, -1.0, +3.6.
Only one year where they were worse on defense with Lowry in 2018 playoffs, before that they were often drastically better in his minutes. Then in the 2019 playoffs they were -0.7 better in his minutes on defense, going up against the #8, #4, #1 offenses that year in Philly, Milwaukee, GSW to win the title.
Appreciate DeRozan’s game as a scorer but you’re trying to portray his game as including good defense when it never has, and when players like DeRozan, Westbrook, Harden are one-way. Their career individual defensive ratings in the case of Westbrook, Harden being better than players that get DPOY votes like Bam, Scottie Barnes does not say anything other than that they played part of their careers when league average offense/defense was lower, and that they played on good defensive teams.
Who do you suggest Miami bring who has a great 3 point shot and plays great defense willing to accept a poor man’s salary?
Klay is the obvious buyout target, one of the great two way guards of his generation and probably one of the best movement shooters in NBA history.
Everyone’s having “a bounce back season.” We should take some solace in knowing at least we aren’t Sacramento. Now that most of the other bottom feeders are getting their acts together, the Kings might be rock bottom.
I think he is one of the worst team players in NBA. His teams never achieve anything.
Some of them were one of the worst in the league.
Teammates with DeRozan twice, so there might be some blame to go around 😉
Blame is on Chicago, which pair them together, and Sacramento, which repeat the experiment. What those people are thinking?
LaVine on a max contract is different than LaVine at $7-8m where he would be a complementary starter and floor spacer. He’s a better shooter than Simons for example, who was a sought after FA this summer. He’s only 31, probably does not want to accept a big paycut on paper midway through his career, vs Klay who is 36 and has a contract for only just above MLE money. Not sure what the Kings are doing, they were last in the league in 3PT shooting last year, maybe they actually do want to keep LaVine to try to avoid the relegation zone.
True
Last season, I think against Heat, LaVine had a great game. After the game, he claimed, thats the way Kings should play with him as a main scorer, in other worlds, give me the ball and hope for the best.
A watched him also in Chicago playing with Goran. No matter if he was good or bad, he required the ball.
Of course he had a good game, one of 5, one of 10, but thats not enough.
I dont see him changing his attitude and sitting in the corner waiting for balls from others. Its just not him. But thats exactly Heat needs.
LaVine is a flawed player no doubt but that description of needing the ball applies to DeRozan and Westbrook also. Westbrook signed with the Kings in Oct. just before the season started and tied for the second most shots on the team along with DeRozan after LaVine, who took 14 FGA, the lowest since his third year in the league. Speculating but maybe his comments were referring to that.
What LaVine has that teams need is 3PT shooting ability and that theoretically would allow him to play off the ball compared to DeRozan and Westbrook. He averaged 19 ppg on 56.9% eFG last year, basically the same as Herro, DeRozan averaged 18 on 52% eFG (a good shooter but doesn’t shoot threes/space the floor), Westbrook 15 on 50%. LaVine has the best offense and defense of the three but is grouped in the same category as DeRozan and Westbrook for some reason.
Thats the reason I dont want none of them in the team. Giannis and Bam needs the ball in their hands to get 30 and 20 points, Wiggins too, to get his 15-20 points. There is no place for another ball hog.
I would go for Klay before LaVine, Klay may be a more realistic buyout candidate and he fits with 30 teams in the league, no questions about his game other than age. But LaVine has similar recent 3PT shooting to Klay and the Heat could really use that on offense around Giannis.
Its all about the Benjamins. “Pie in the sky” wishful thinking is a waste of time. The question is which players can Miami afford?
LaVine isn’t coming here. Even if he has a bounce back 22 ppg type season, the Kings are going nowhere this year. They will use him as trade bait at the deadline and a team with more assets than the Heat will get him.
Hard for a contending team to trade for a contract of that size, if LaVine is traded it would be a swap of contracts with little to no assets back IMO like the Trae Young trade, McCollum and Kispert for Trae, no draft picks
Sign two guys and keep that 15th open, which they were going to do anyways, and save it for a lotto ticket like Lavine.