Russell Westbrook Trade Rumors: Heat 'Absolutely Like' Thunder PG Amid Buzz
The Miami Heat "absolutely like" Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook as his future in Oklahoma City looks uncertain, according to the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Saturday that Westbrook and Thunder officials had opened a dialogue, with his potential departure among the subjects discussed: "The two sides have 11 years of history together, and both understand that the time has likely come to explore trade possibilities for Westbrook, league sources said."
The Heat are an obvious suitor in that they need another star to partner with Jimmy Butler, whom Miami officially acquired Saturday.
Free agency will be a tough avenue by which the Heat land that second star. For one, they've struggled since the end of the Big Three era to land the biggest names on the market. They're also on pace to have the NBA's fifth-biggest payroll in 2020-21 and 12th-biggest in 2021-22, per Spotrac.
The issues with going after Westbrook are threefold.
Miami already gave up one of its best young assets (Josh Richardson) in order to get Butler. A Westbrook trade would mean doubling down on the present at the expense of the future.
Then there's the concern about whether Westbrook is the right player to pair with Butler. Both Westbrook and Butler like having the ball in their hands, especially late in games, and neither is a great long-range shooter.
Even taking Butler out of the equation, mortgaging the long term in order to get Westbrook would be extremely risky. He missed nine games this past season—his most since 2014-15—and seemed to lose a little of his usual explosion. He had minor surgery on his right knee in May.
Westbrook is owed a little more than $171 million over the next four years. Based on how his shooting fell off in the playoffs—36.0 percent from the field and 32.4 percent on three-pointers—when his physical issues were most noticeable, his contract has the potential to be bad in a few seasons.
At 74, Heat team president Pat Riley clearly wants to make at least one more run at a title. Adding Butler and Westbrook in the same offseason probably isn't the way to make that happen.
