The Houston Rockets used their gavel Sunday, acquiring Phoenix Suns 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 overall pick and five second-round picks.
The Miami Heat were consistently a team rumored to be in the mix, but came up short of Phoenix’s asking price for Durant, who was expected to be traded ahead of this week’s NBA Draft. As the dust settled Sunday evening, the Heat’s final offer was revealed, according to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson.
Two important details were revealed, one including the Heat’s unwillingness to include more than one first-round pick and Kel’el Ware. However, the other was that the Heat did not include fourth-year forward Nikola Jovic in their final offer.
“According to a source with direct knowledge, the Heat not only declined to offer center Kel’el Ware, but also did not offer forward Nikola Jovic to Phoenix in final discussions between the team before Suns shipped Durant to Houston on Sunday,” the report from Jackson and Chiang read. “The source said that Miami was never willing to offer more than one first-round pick.
“The Heat’s final offer included Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier, two bench players and the 20th pick in Wednesday’s NBA Draft. Haywood Highsmith and Jaime Jaquez Jr. were discussed as those two additional pieces in Miami’s offer, the source said.”
Assuming Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier, Haywood Highsmith and Jaime Jaquez were all included in the trade, the deal would not have been cap compliant if Durant was the only one heading back. That quartet makes approximately $64.4 million, nearly $10 million more than Kevin Durant’s $54.7 million, which the Heat couldn’t exceed because the Suns were a second-apron team post-trade.
According to the Herald’s report, “Miami was willing to take on the salary of an unnamed Suns player,” to make the trade work. The Heat also made “other permutations,” but did not want to offer Ware and were “reluctant” to include Jovic, who has played just 107 games in three years.
You could argue that both Ware and Jovic were two of the Heat’s top three assets not named Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. Jovic is extension eligible this offseason, averaging 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists on 45.6 percent shooting and 37.1 percent from beyond the arc.
Obviously, the Heat’s aforementioned offer wasn’t enough, though I wasn’t a proponent of trading future first-round picks nor Ware to begin with. That part, I remain firm that they were right on–
We’re living in the thrill of the unknown–we’ll never know what would’ve ensued–but is Jovic’s omission because he would’ve possibly been the next shoe to drop? More work would’ve been needed to salvage this mess, albeit likely for a worse player than Kevin Durant.
I’m hypothesizing. We will never know why, but alas.
What do you think about the Heat’s final offer? Let us know in the comments!
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Niko needs to stay healthy and he can become a very solid player. Health and consistency. I would love to see both this season.
hmmm…so its not just Ware that Riles has confidence. but unless it comes from the horse’s mouth what was really offered we can only guess.
Yes, I thought I heard the initial reports did mention Jovic. At least Riley drove a hard bargain. But, then again, why was he even in the bidding?