Heat Trade Rumors: Shooting Guard On Radar For Miami Heat As Trade Deadline Approaches

Heat trade rumors have the team ready to make a move for a shooting guard. The latest Miami Heat trade rumors follow a deal that the team made to add Brian Roberts. A report from CBS Sports states that the team is in need of offense after the bad news about Chris Bosh’s health was revealed. A number of names are on the list of players the Heat would like to acquire before the NBA trade deadline hits on February 18.

A prior report from the Miami Herald discussed what is going on with Chris Bosh. The All-Star power forward is taking blood thinners to treat clotting his in his calf. The blood thinners could keep him on the sidelines for a while longer, due to the risk of getting injured while taking them. This was explained by physician Brett Levine in the report.

“So it is definitely possible to play with. You just worry about the potential for bad luck. An elbow to the head, a fall on the floor, etc. It is less worrisome than clot elsewhere. It’s a deep vein thrombosis [DVT] so the worry is that the clot has the potential to travel to the lung. If it travels to the ‘right’ spot and occludes the right vessel, it can kill you. clots in the leg tend to travel to the lung. Clots in the heart like an atrial fibrillation tend to travel to the brain and cause strokes.”

This underscores the importance of Chris Bosh resting and only coming back after he has been off blood thinners for a few weeks. It puts his return for either the rest of the regular season or the 2016 NBA Playoffs in question. This shows why so many Miami Heat trade rumors now involve the team acquiring a shooter who can help with the offensive load that will fall on Dwyane Wade.

So, who are the players that the Miami Heat would like to acquire before the NBA trade deadline? They are Omri Casspi and Ben McLemore of the Sacramento Kings, Randy Foye of the Denver Nuggets, Mirza Teletovic of the Phoenix Suns, Jerryd Bayless of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Wayne Ellington of the Brooklyn Nets. It’s unclear what Miami would look to trade in any of these deals, as they just parted ways with Chris Anderson in the Brian Roberts trade. It’s also possible Miami waits until the Minnesota Timberwolves buy out Kevin Martin or the Nets buy out Joe Johnson to try to sign one of them.

The payroll for the Miami Heat is the sixth highest in the NBA and runs just north of $89 million this season. It dips to just $48 million in guaranteed contracts for the 2016-17 NBA season, but that is without Dwyane Wade and Hassan Whiteside counting against the team. Both star players are free agents in the offseason, which is a main reason why Whiteside has already appeared in a high number of Heat trade rumors. That won’t stop until the February 18 trade deadline comes along.

One thing that most NBA analysts aren’t talking about yet is that the front office in Miami (which is basically Pat Riley) may decide that the team isn’t good enough to make a deep run in the 2016 NBA Playoffs. At 29-24, Miami is the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, but the team is also only 2 and a half games ahead of the ninth place Detroit Pistons. If Riley doesn’t feel that Miami can overcome an extended loss of Chris Bosh, a Heat trade where the team deals Hassan Whiteside may come along very quickly. That might really become the case if they can’t find another scorer soon.

[Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images]