The Heat Have Full Faith in Their Young Core
The Kevin Durant to Miami saga has come to an end. The Miami Heat have added yet another missed superstar addition to their seemingly never-ending catalog. Heat fans have taken to social media to voice their disappointment, but this is something that Heat fans have gotten used to. The Heat are always in the mix for a huge superstar, and when it goes down to the wire, management gets too nervous to unload any young pieces. Pat Riley called for changes and teased a superstar acquisition happening this offseason, and Kevin Durant seemed to be the most likely trade scenario. Pat Riley made a new statement today, and that statement is his belief in this team's young core and the team's confidence in their draft ability.
The consensus around the league was that the Heat were listing Kel’el Ware as their untouchable piece, and a trade needed to be worked around him. This, by all means, seemed like a reasonable barrier and was one that I agreed with and wrote in support of. Disappointingly, it appears that it wasn’t just Kel’el Ware, and according to Shams, the Heat refused to give up a package that didn’t even include Ware. The Heat turned down the offer of Jaime Jacquez Jr, Nikola Jovic, Haywood Highsmith, the 20th pick, and other draft assets in a deal for Kevin Durant. It’s hard not to be a little bit outraged when Kevin Durant could’ve been on your roster in a depleted Eastern Conference, and you didn’t even have to give up a full-time starter off your roster. This isn’t a diss to any of those players included in the proposed deal, but there’s a very likely chance that none of them will become a full-time starter on any roster and, nevertheless, be as valuable as Kevin Durant is right now. The first-round pick this year is a late first, and has a statistically low hit rate in the grand scheme of things. I couldn’t tell you how Pat Riley or anyone in the front office can view this package as being too extreme of an ask from Phoenix, but it is a tremendous vote in support of these young players.
This all seems like overconfidence from the Heat in their ability to build from within and develop anybody they want. Overlooked prospects and undrafted guys have made lots of money by coming through the Miami Heat system, and the Heat is essentially saying that they have something here that outweighs the immediate help that Kevin Durant would bring. This is by all means an extremely risky and dangerous game that Pat Riley is playing, but at 80 years old, maybe he just doesn’t care about how people perceive him. This trend of refusing to trade any young players for an established, and elite star has been going on for years now, and Pat Riley has never seemed to be phased by fan outcry to change anything. I am all in support of having confidence in you guys, and I think fans in Miami wish they shared the same faith in these assets that Heat management seems to have. All you can ask of Pat Riley and the front office is if you’re going to make this bed, you better be prepared to sleep in it, and as of right now, it appears that they’re sleeping just fine.
