The Miami Heat have been one of the teams most bandied about in potential Kyrie Irving trade scenarios since the Cleveland Cavaliers guard’s trade request was made public last week.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported just recently that Miami would be willing to part with Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow as centerpieces in any trade involving Irving.
Being willing to part with someone and actually making a trade offer are two different things. It’s in this that Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald is reporting that the Heat have in fact not made an offer to the Cavaliers for their All-Star point guard.
Heat tells me on the record that it never made an offer to Cleveland for Kyrie Irving. ESPN had reported Heat made an offer.
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) July 28, 2017
Things can definitely change in a heartbeat. And other aspects of an offer need to be agreed to before it can officially be made. In this scenario, that actually wouldn’t include more contracts heading to Cleveland in a potential trade. The salaries match up perfectly fine here.
In any event, we’re not quite too sure if any offer has been made to the Cavaliers for Irving. We do know that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert hinted that his team offered up Irving to the Indiana Pacers for Paul George before the latter was moved to the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier in July.
Among the teams interested in adding Irving, the New York Knicks have clearly indicated they’re not willing to part with star young forward Kristaps Porzingis (more on that here).
Per the aforementioned report from Wojnarowski, the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns seem to be in the best position to potentially add Irving.
For Boston, that would include sending either Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum as well as future picks to Cleveland in order to land Irving. Then again, and this is a hypothetical, Isaiah Thomas might be involved in talks on that end.
Phoenix is said to be unwilling to part with rookie No. 4 overall pick Josh Jackson. Short of the team doing an about-face on Jackson, a trade seems highly unlikely there. Though, Jackson and veteran point guard Eric Bledsoe could very well end up enticing the Cavaliers.
As it is, we’re likely ways away from this situation coming to a culmination. What we do know is that Irving does not want to play for the Cavaliers next season. That makes a trade highly likely over the next several weeks.