Heat predicted to miss on LeBron James, sign $73M All-Star instead

Heat predicted to miss on LeBron James, sign $73M All-Star instead originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

There's been a lot of talk about what the Miami Heat are going to do over the next few weeks to months after adding Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

Trading for Antetokounmpo and moving all of the assets that they did was a smart decision, ultimately, as he's one of the three best players in the NBA. 

While the Heat gave up a whole lot to land a player of his caliber, we're talking about one of the greatest players of all time here. I'll never say a team made a bad decision by trading for a player of Antetokounmpo's caliber.

There's hope the Heat will add LeBron James, though it remains uncertain whether that will happen. James has a very tough decision to make, but he could end up in Miami. If that doesn't happen, however, one Sports Illustrated writer recently predicted that the Heat could go after DeMar DeRozan instead.

“If the Heat miss out on James, DeRozan will likely be brought in to be the No. 3 option behind Antetokounmpo and All-Star big man Bam Adebayo, moving recent free agent pickup Tim Hardaway Jr. to the bench. In a starting role alongside two All-NBA-caliber big men, DeRozan will likely carve out 18-point scoring averages and could add up to five rebounds and five assists to round out his projected stat line. He won’t have the same impact as James from a playmaking perspective, but his scoring consistency is undeniable,” Ethen Hutton wrote.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think DeRozan is a bad player by any means, but he's not the type of guy I'd go after if I were the Heat. 

Unfortunately, he just doesn't fit alongside Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo at this stage of his career, especially given his lack of a three-point shot. Perhaps he could fit in a different role, but for him to be a major piece to this puzzle would be a big question mark.

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