6 Potential Trade Targets for Miami Heat to Bolster Backcourt Depth
The Feb. 19 NBA trade deadline is fast approaching, and that means it's about time for the Miami Heat to get down to business. Because they desperately need some backcourt help.
Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers are both having terrible seasons, and rookie Shabazz Napier has been predictably up and down. The Heat have actually gotten decent contributions from Tyler Johnson, an undrafted rookie, in recent games. But overall, they have very little in the backcourt outside of Dwyane Wade. It's time to make a move.
The odds of the Heat pulling off a blockbuster are unlikely. Miami isn't exactly flush with cap room, and it doesn't have any juicy expiring contracts to give to rebuilding teams looking to dump salary. That means it's going to have to go bargain shopping and seek out players with a chance to rebound from disappointing years.
Let's take a look at some potential trade targets and how they might fit in with the Heat.
PG: Pablo Prigioni
1 of 6
This is easily the most minor deal included here, but it could still give Miami a boost.
Pablo Prigioni doesn't provide much outside of three-point shooting, but he shoots the ball so well that it's hard to complain. He's a career 41.5 percent shooter from deep (37.5 percent this season), and the vast majority of his shots come from beyond the arc.
That would fill a real hole for the Heat, who desperately need a guard who can knock down shots from long range.
Miami's guards are currently shooting a combined 30 percent from deep. That's bad. And it's made worse by the team's plodding brand of basketball. Miami plays at easily the slowest pace in the league, grinding out most of its possessions in the half court.
Such poor backcourt shooting would be survivable if Miami got out and ran more, but in the half court, it's too often squeezed for space.
That lack of spacing is especially frustrating given the emergence of Hassan Whiteside as a terrifying pick-and-roll finisher. The Heat need to give Whiteside as much room as possible when he rolls to the basket. Prigioni would be hugely helpful in that sense.
And it's not as though he can't create any offense for himself. It's not what he's best at, but he's had past success firing threes out of the pick-and-roll. He also has some drive-and-kick ability, though he's not the best at taking care of the ball when he's attacking defenses off the dribble.
Prigioni wouldn't be a game-changer for the Heat. However, he'd be simple to acquire and very helpful when it came to Whiteside's development. It's not easy for young bigs to navigate the nuances of pick-and-roll play, especially when they don't have a lot of space to work with.
With help from Prigioni, Whiteside could grow much more quickly.
PG: Reggie Jackson
2 of 6
Reggie Jackson doesn't fit the Heat as well as Prigioni, but going after him might be the best chance for Miami to snag a really good point guard for the future.
Jackson's numbers this season don't look altogether star-worthy. He's averaging 12.8 points, 4.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game on 51 percent true shooting. But if you look back to the beginning of the season, when the Oklahoma City Thunder were without Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Jackson's numbers are much more flattering.
Over the span of a month, Jackson averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game with solid efficiency. And he did so on a team with few offensive weapons. That's awesome production.
Jackson's inability to shoot (career 29 percent from three) is an issue, but he makes up for it with his sheer ability to create offense. Just 14.4 percent of Jackson's two-point baskets have been assisted this season, a staggeringly low number. To put that into perspective, Wade—who creates a ton of shots in his own right—has been assisted on 38 percent of his two-point baskets.
For that reason alone, Jackson is worth gambling on. He hasn't had much to work with playing off the bench in OKC, and it's not hard to imagine his efficiency skyrocketing with a little more structure. He's fantastic at getting into the paint and has a deadly floater—he's shooting 51 percent from three to 10 feet this season.
Even if Jackson isn't an ideal partner for Wade, he's such a talent upgrade that Miami would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to go after him.
There's also reason to believe that the two could work reasonably well together. Jackson's a savvy player, and the Thunder terrorized the league when he and Russell Westbrook shared the court last season. The Wade-Jackson pairing could be equally effective.
SG: Gary Neal
3 of 6
Gary Neal was just recently traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. But according to RealGM's Shams Charania, they're looking to flip him. He wouldn't be a bad pickup so long as Miami could get him for cheap.
Neal is in the middle of a horrific year (which could be enough to scare Miami off). However, he's a 38 percent career three-point shooter and has never hit lower than 35.5 percent from deep over the course of a season. Shooting like that doesn't often come cheap.
Neal is a natural 2, but he's spent time at the point in the past, per 82games.com. That gives him a little added flexibility and bodes well for his ability to play next to Wade for long stretches.
The Heat would have to be careful with how they construct lineups around him, as he's a poor defender. But so long as Miami surrounds him with at least one solid perimeter defender, it should avoid major issues.
The problem with Neal is that he's a tad overconfident at times. He's an unrepentant gunner, willing to launch pull-up jumpers from anywhere on the court. That's not a problem when he's shooting well, but he brings very little to the table if he's cold from the field. He rarely gets to the rim or line and isn't great at creating for others.
This doesn't exactly read as a glowing endorsement for Neal, and dealing for him holds some real risk. But if the primary cost is something like a second-round pick, he's worth rolling the dice on.
SG: Gerald Green
4 of 6
The Phoenix Suns have more guards than they know what to do with, and Gerald Green could end up being the odd man out at the trade deadline.
Green is similar to Neal in the sense that he's completely unafraid to pull up for a shot at any time. However, unlike Neal, he does almost all of his damage from behind the three-point line.
Nearly 51 percent of his shots over the past two seasons have been three-point attempts, and he's hit 38 percent from deep over that same span (though he's down to 36 percent this year). He's also launching those shots at a prodigious pace.
Green is averaging 9.7 three-point attempts per 36 minutes, the third-highest rate in NBA history. Having a guy who's willing to shoot from outside that much is guaranteed to spread defenses thin.
As is the case with Neal, there are some drawbacks to employing a chucker like Green. He doesn't always make the best decisions with the ball, something that would be especially damaging to a half-court team like the Heat.
He's also a very poor defender. That could make lineup decisions tricky, even when factoring in his ability to play the 2 or 3.
Still, Green would be a big upgrade, especially if the Heat are willing to play more small ball when Whiteside rides the bench. Something like Chalmers-Wade-Green-Luol Deng-Chris Bosh would be a lot of fun on both ends and could potentially give Miami a much-needed offensive spark.
SG: Lance Stephenson
5 of 6
There are a lot of reasons to believe that Lance Stephenson won't end up with the Heat.
He's having a disastrous year, and Miami would have to do some salary-cap gymnastics to fit his $9 million salary (per ShamSports) onto the roster. Plus, he's had a few run-ins with the Heat in the past. So it's possible that the team's players want nothing to do with him.
Still, according to ESPN's Chris Broussard, Miami was interested in acquiring him (at least, it was in mid-December). And there's no guard on the market with quite his talent or resume. It would be a huge risk, but that might be where Miami's at right now.
Last season, Stephenson was a phenomenal secondary ball-handler for the Indiana Pacers. He got to the rim at will, finished better than almost any guard in the league and racked up a ton of assists for his teammates. And that's despite playing in hulking lineups that didn't often provide much shooting or floor spacing to work with.
Stephenson's shooting has been shaky this year, and he has a bad habit of turning down open looks from three for step-in jumpers.
He hit 35 percent from downtown last year, however, enough to at least make him playable in most lineups. He also has historically been a great shooter from the corners, so there's reason to believe that he could be fairly effective playing off the ball if need be.
Perhaps even more importantly, he might be the only buy-low candidate on the market who doubles as a good defender.
Stephenson is strong and athletic, and he's more than capable of switching onto a number of positions—including some bigs. Teaming him up with bigger guards like Wade or Chalmers would give the Heat a lot of freedom to switch on tricky screens and bolster a defense that's performing well below expectations.
SG: Randy Foye
6 of 6
Randy Foye has been banged up for a good chunk of the season, and as such, he's having arguably the worst year of his career (have you noticed a pattern yet?). He's looked a bit more spry over the Denver Nuggets' last few games though, and he'd be worth snatching up if the Heat think he can stay healthy for the rest of the season.
To be honest, there's not a ton to say about Foye. He basically fits the same archetype as Prigioni does—he's a spot-up shooter who will occasionally handle the ball and create some offense.
He's shooting only 31 percent from deep this year, but he's a career 37.5 percent three-point shooter. So it's hard to imagine that number doesn't jump at some point in the season.
Foye doesn't often turn the ball over, which is nice. He also provides a fair amount of utility, as he's spent time at the point and the 2 over the past few years, per 82games.com.
The one issue with trading for him is that it could end up being a waste of assets.
According to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck, Foye has emerged as a legitimate buyout candidate should the Nuggets not manage to secure a deal by the deadline. He's signed to a relatively cheap contract (two years, $6.1 million, per ShamSports), so it wouldn't be surprising to see someone snatch him up in a trade.
But Miami might be better served to try to deal for someone else and see if it can pick up Foye later on.
All statistics accurate as of 2/13/2015 and courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com or NBA.com/Stats unless stated otherwise.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
