The Miami Heat are increasingly open to doing something they once might have considered unthinkable: trading Hassan Whiteside.
The idea of trading the Heat center has “strong support” among team decision makers, The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson reported Friday, citing a source close to the situation. Whiteside fell from grace this season and clashed with head coach Erik Spoelstra. Miami now appears keen on trading him, perhaps in order to clear salary cap space for a potential max-contract free agent acquisition after the 2018-19 season.
Whiteside’s contract reflects the high esteem in which the Heat once held him and also represents a sticking point in potential trade negotiations. He’ll earn $25.4 million next season and has a player option for $27.1 million in 2019-20.
Those numbers and his apparent inability to adjust to the open-court style of today’s NBA are expected to make trading for an impact player difficult. Jackson claims the previous interest the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and Milwaukee Bucks showed in Whiteside doesn’t make them favorites to pursue a trade for him. Jackson also suggests the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Clippers might be interested in Whiteside if DeMarcus Cousins or DeAndre Jordan leave their respective teams.
Heat president Pat Riley describes 2017-18 as a “bad” year for Whiteside, but that just might have been the prelude to a 2018-19 campaign that will be more awkward and explosive than the previous one.
