
The Miami Heat tie the Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets as the teams favored to acquire Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant.
Unsurprisingly, Miami is reportedly emerging as the least likely option of the three. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said Phoenix reportedly “didn’t like” the offer that the Heat made.
“I want you to think about the three sides of this,” Windhorst said on Get Up! Monday morning. “In a Durant trade, you need the Suns to be happy with the offer, you need KD – in theory at least – to be somewhat comfortable with where he’s going, and the team he’s going to has to be comfortable with the contract.”
The Heat have a very narrow path to land the 15-time All-Star without sacrificing Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. Unfortunately, they have very little outside of their franchise pieces to trade, with Andrew Wiggins, Duncan Robinson, and Nikola Jovic as the primary names circulating these rumors. New center Kel’El Ware has been thrown into the mix as well to give Phoenix a big man, but fans likely don’t want to see a developmental player dished out. Sadly, they don’t really have many avenues elsewhere.
The Heat are competing with the conference-contending Timberwolves and an up-and-coming Houston team, both of which boast impact players and Draft capital to work with. If they genuinely want to grab Durant in hopes of reviving their championship hopes, the Heat need to explore all possible options.