The Miami Heat, league sources say, continue to have bona fide interest in Donovan Mitchell despite….

January 13, 2024 Sports Gist Basketball 0

The Miami Heat, league sources say, continue to have bona fide interest in Donovan Mitchell despite

With due respect to the long Hall of Fame career of veteran NBA insider Marc Stein, we’re going with Miami Heat legend Udonis Haslem on this one. Stein reported this week on rumors connecting the Heat and Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell, calling the interest of Pat Riley and friends “bona fide.” Haslem, though, disagreed. Strongly.

In his Substack column, Stein wrote, “The Miami Heat, league sources say, continue to have bona fide interest in Donovan Mitchell despite Cleveland’s don’t-even-call-us approach and could well choose to test that resolve with Mitchell proposals after Miami’s trade pursuits of Bradley Beal and Damian Lillard over the summer ended with neither player landing on South Beach.”

When that quote made its way to a Twitter aggregator account, Haslem offered a firm response.

“Ain’t happenin. Pat likes his team. I can confirm. Still locked in so I kno what happens behind da scenes,” Haslem posted.

 

Udonis Haslem Is Plugged Into Miami Heat

Indeed, Haslem played 20 seasons for Riley and the Heat, the last eight pent mostly as a rarely used player/assistant coach. Haslem only retired after last year, at age 42. In November, after just months away from the organization, Haslem rejoined the team in a developmental role.

The Heat said in a statement at the time: “Your Miami HEAT announced today that three-time NBA Champion and 20-year veteran Udonis Haslem has joined the front office as Vice President, Basketball Development. Haslem’s responsibilities include being a resource to the coaching staff, mentoring both HEAT and Skyforce players as well as representing the organization in the community and in business endeavors.”

So, indeed, Haslem is still plugged in. And what he says about the Heat’s level of interest in Mitchell jibes with what other folks around the league have been saying. The Cavaliers do not have much to gain by trading Mitchell now, and have resisted calls to do so. Mitchell is averaging 27.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists this year.

While there is doubt that Mitchell wants to sign long-term with the Cavs, Cleveland knows that Mitchell will struggle to find a full max contract offer elsewhere in free agency, which will come after the 2024-25 season (Mitchell has a player option in 2025-26).

Rumors on Donovan Mitchell, Other Stars Ring Hollow

This week, an Eastern Conference executive told Heavy Sports that the predominance of rumors around the Heat as the trade deadline approaches are coming from the outside.

“They’re an intriguing team when it comes to the deadline,” the Eastern Conference executive said. “Because if you listen to everyone else, they want to make some big splash. But if you listen to them and look at what they’re actually doing … they don’t.”

The Miami Heat went to the NBA Finals last year, and while they had interest in landing Lillard and Beal, they never made a hard push to trade for either star. The team is getting healthy, and has been pleasantly surprised with the development of its last two draft picks, 2022 first-rounder Nikola Jovic and plug-and-play rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr.

“It’s like a deck of cards and they keep adding a new card to their deck,” the exec said. “Now they have Jovic going. They added Jaquez. They have Duncan Robinson playing again, and playing great. Haywood Highsmith does his thing for them. So you start the season and you say, ‘Sh**, they have no depth and they’re gonna struggle, they need a big trade.’ And you get to January and now they’re loaded. And they did not do anything.”

They did not add Lillard or Beal. They had no interest in a James Harden trade when he was on the market, or in Chicago’s Zach LaVine, who has also been prominent in trade rumors. It could be that Haslem is right—Pat Riley just likes this team.

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