Miami Heat: Miami Heat Trade Dexter Pittman to Memphis Grizzlies at Deadline

In the flurry of moves at the NBA trade deadline, the Miami Heat unexpectedly threw their hat in the ring. Much to the approval of many Heat fans, the front office as dealt Dexter Pittman to the Memphis Grizzlies.

The transaction was first reported by Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and later confirmed by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. 

In return, Miami received a trade exception worth $854k, as it did not receive any salary back. It did, however, receive the rights to Puerto Rican forward/center Ricky Sanchez. He currently plays in his native country.

While Pittman will assist the depleted frontline of the Grizzlies, the Heat are winners from their perspective. 

Ridding themselves of Pittman's seemingly redundant production is reward enough, yet the team now has a roster spot available. Whether or not Miami will use this remains to be seen, but it rekindles previous talks to add Greg Oden to the roster.

There was the potential interest in free agent forward Kenyon Martin, however, he has decidedly signed with the New York Knicks.

Miami's frontline is less than stellar and deserves upgrade wherever possible. Despite Oden's injury history, and a level of contribution that will almost certainly be rusty, adding him to the team could be an intriguing move for the Heat.

If you consider Oden's place on the roster over Pittman, even to play sparingly, it is an enormous upgrade even when considering the former's eroded knees. There isn't a plethora of front court talent available, however Hassan Whiteside and/or Sean Williams would both be good options as well.

While the Heat appear as having lucked out at the deadline, removing Pittman's name from the roster is incentive enough to be satisfied. Throw in the trade exception and an open roster spot, and Miami did well.

It would be folly to believe Pat Riley is done making a minor re-tool of this roster. Heading into the playoffs one man short wouldn't be wise, thus, stay tuned for another addition to the defending champions.