The Miami Heat are apparently one of two teams that finds itself on Kevin Durant’s list of preferred destinations should he get a trade from the Brooklyn Nets. The other team on said list, the Phoenix Suns, find themselves in a tricky spot after one of their presumed centerpieces in a Durant deal, Deandre Ayton, became ineligible to get traded for at least the next six months after signing an offer sheer with the Indiana Pacers that the Suns promptly matched.
As for the Heat, a new report by Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald indicates that they don’t seem like they’re going to be the ones to move for Durant. The pair bring word that Miami plans to move forward “with its current roster for next season,” as trade talks have not met Brooklyn’s high asking price.
Part of the issue, per Jackson and Chiang, is that the Heat have not been interested in parting ways with Bam Adebayo, to the point that they have kept him off the table altogether.
Though the Nets would have interest in Bam Adebayo in a Durant trade, the Heat has not included Adebayo in offers for Durant and appears disinclined to do so.
It has previously been reported that the Heat really want to figure out a deal for Durant, but keep running into the issue of needing help from other teams to facilitate a move.
There is a practical reason why Adebayo cannot go to Brooklyn — he’d be a second player, alongside Ben Simmons, acquired via trade on a Designated Rookie Extension, and teams can only have a maximum of one such player. But beyond that, Adebayo is the lynchpin of Miami’s defense and he’s been asked to do more and more on offense each year. Trading him would mean the team would trade its most important young player, and for how great Durant is, losing out on Adebayo (along with whatever other combination of players Brooklyn would want) appears to be too big of an ask.