3) Trade partners with Chicago Bulls for Thad
Miami Heat
One of the teams that is really facing an uphill battle for the second half of the season’s schedule to get back on track is the Miami Heat. The reigning Eastern Conference champs are not having the season that Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra desired coming off a magical run last year in the bubble at Disney World in Florida.
The Heat are having a lot of injury problems, and an inconsistent rotation is starting to really impact their success in the win column.
And while the former Bulls star shooting guard/small forward Jimmy Butler is playing well for the Heat this season, he’s not playing at the borderline MVP contender level he was last year. The Heat are improving of late, but still hold a record of 16-17. That is around the same level as the Bulls at this point, and that is not where the Heat want to be.
Some of the forwards in the Heat rotation at this moment are not producing at any sort of consistent or efficient level. The likes of Kelly Olynyk, Andre Iguodala, rookie Precious Achiuwa definitely aren’t getting it done on both ends of the floor. And this is something that Young can help the Heat with.
It wouldn’t come cheap for the Heat to hit the trade block to land Young at the deadline. But the Heat front office have showed in the past that they aren’t shy to offer a lot of pieces up on the trade market to get what they need to make a deep playoff run at any point in time.