According to Kevin O’Connor, the Heat wants to retain cap space in 2021 and offered Gallinari a two-year deal with a team option.
The trade deadline has come and gone and Danilo Gallinari is still a part of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It certainly didn’t look like that would be the case when the day started.
Late Wednesday night, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Thunder was working on “an elaborate three-team deal” with the Memphis Grizzlies and the Miami Heat that would send Gallinari to South Beach along with Andre Iguodala.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Iguodala was dealt to Miami on Wednesday, with the Grizzlies adding Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder as part of the package deal on Thursday.
Per Woj, in return, the Heat sent Justise Winslow to Memphis, along with Dion Waiters and James Johnson.
Miami has agreed to trade Justise Winslow, Dion Waiters and James Johnson to Memphis for Andre Iguodala, Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder, league sources tell ESPN. No picks in the deal.
However, the trade talks between Oklahoma City and the Heat broke down over Gallinari’s contract extension, according to The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor.
The Heat and Thunder discussed deals for Danilo Gallinari but Miami and Gallinari couldn’t agree on an extension, per sources. Miami wants to retain 2021 space and offered a two-year deal with a team option. Gallinari should earn more money by waiting until summer to sign a deal.
The Heat and Thunder discussed deals for Danilo Gallinari but Miami and Gallinari couldn't agree on an extension, per sources. Miami wants to retain 2021 space and offered a two-year deal with a team option. Gallinari should earn more money by waiting until summer to sign a deal.
According to The Oklahoman, even if there had been an agreement between Gallinari and the Heat, Miami’s “draft capital could’ve complicated negotiations” because of the protections surrounding the 2023 first-round pick Miami owes OKC.
This summer, the Thunder acquired Miami’s 2021 and to-14 protected 2023 first-round draft picks from the Clippers, as part of the trade package for Paul George. Per NBA rules, teams can only trade picks that fall in the next seven years. They also cannot trade future draft picks that land in consecutive years.
That limits the picks that Miami could offer in a trade. Per NBA rules, teams can only trade picks that fall in the next seven years. They also cannot trade future draft picks that land in consecutive years.
Though at the beginning of the season, Oklahoma City was thought to be big sellers prior to the trade deadline, at the end of the day, the only deal Sam Presti made was sending Justin Patton and cash to the Dallas Mavericks in return for Isaiah Roby.
HoopsHype ranks the five players who have popped up the most in trade rumors over the past week, including Marcus Morris and Andre Iguodala.
After a painfully long 160 days between trades, the NBA finally saw a bit of movement on that front this past week when the Cleveland Cavaliers agreed to send Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Dante Exum and a couple of second-round draft picks.
Various big-name players have been bandied about over recent days, and though a huge deal may not seem imminent, one could spring up on us at any time, just like how the Clarkson-for-Exum swap occurred almost out of nowhere.
Below, HoopsHype ranks the five players who have popped up the most in rumors on the site’s Trade page over the past week.
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
5. KEVIN LOVE
Following the Clarkson trade, the expectation is for Cleveland to continue unloading veterans for premium assets, according to reports from Adrian Wojnarowski and the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Chris Fedor. The latter reported the following on Tuesday:
“The [Clarkson] move puts Cleveland about $5.1 million below the luxury tax threshold, which gives the team more financial flexibility when it comes to other deals. Make no mistake, more are coming between now and the trade deadline on Feb. 6. Players are already bracing for those shakeups.”
Love is averaging 16.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game this season while shooting 44.2 percent from the floor and 37.3 percent from beyond the arc. The floor-spacing big man also ranks in the “excellent” range, according to Synergy Sports, in scoring out of the pick-and-roll (as the roller) and coming off screens, so teams know the value Love still possesses as a scorer.
Of course, the main issues when it comes to trading Love are his age (31) and contract (he’s the 22nd-highest paid player this year and signed through 2022-23), but if Clarkson was able to net two second-rounders and a decent prospect like Exum, there’s a good chance Cleveland will be able to get a first-rounder, even a protected one, for their star power forward, especially if they’re willing to take back bad salary in return.
Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
4. MARCUS MORRIS
Despite the New York Knicks’ struggles this season, Marcus Morris has been a revelation, averaging a career-high 18.4 points per game to go along with 5.6 rebounds and 2.7 triples (on 46.6 percent shooting from the outside) nightly.
“‘Teams love his leadership and he’s been shooting incredibly well,’ a representative for one Eastern Conference team said. ‘You can easily see them getting a late first-round pick for him if that team feels Marcus pushes them over the top.'”
It might not be for another few weeks, but expect to see Morris traded by early February; one of the two L.A. teams, for example, would make a whole lot of sense for him.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
3. DION WAITERS
Everyone is pretty well-versed in Dion Waiters’ impossibly bad season so far, but for those who aren’t, the gist of it is: He’s been suspended three separate times and has yet to play a minute for the Miami Heat.
As such, logically, Miami would prefer to move on from their troublesome 2-guard, but there aren’t many ways they could do so. On its own, Waiters’ contract lends itself nicely to be used as a trade chip, since it only has a year-and-a-half left on it and merely pays him $12.3 million annually in that span, but why would any team want to add Waiters to their locker room, especially with the way he’s behaved this season?
Now that Elfrid Payton is healthy for the Knicks, third-year guard Frank Ntilikina’s playing time has gone way down, from over 26 minutes nightly over a 23-game stretch to under 14 minutes nightly over his last four. With that dip in playing time, the French ball-handler’s averages have gone way down (and they were never that impressive to begin with), as Ntilikina is scoring 3.8 points and securing 2.0 rebounds in that stretch.
There have been trade rumors surrounding Ntilikina for a long time now, and that hasn’t changed recently, not with how poorly he’s played in New York and the upside other teams still think he might have. If nothing else, Ntilikina is still just 21 and has proven to have huge promise on the defensive end of the floor, where he routinely makes special plays while covering opponents one-on-one.
According to SportsNet New York, teams around the Association still value Ntilikina for the aforementioned reasons, with one exec speculating that this might be a Markelle Fultz situation, where both sides might benefit from a clean break.
The question is whether Ntilikina still has enough value to net a first-rounder in return, or if he’s fallen so far that other teams only see him worthy of a second-round pick instead.
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
1. ANDRE IGUODALA
Memphis Grizzlies swingman Andre Iguodala, who has yet to play a minute for his new team, has long been at the center of trade rumors, pretty much since the time the Golden State Warriors decided to trade him to a rebuilding team.
Contenders around the league are watching this situation closely, as some believe the 2015 Finals MVP could be bought out by Memphis, which would lead to an intense recruitment for his services. However, according to The Athletic, Grizzlier higher-ups are still confident they’ll be able to find a trade for Iguodala, one that will net them either a first-rounder or a promising young player.
That seems reasonable, as Iguodala has proven time and time again that he can contribute at a high level once the playoffs roll around, particularly on the defensive end, where he would wreak havoc for Golden State over the last few years.
As far as the teams rumored to be interested in Iguodala, reports state that the two L.A. teams are at the forefront of this chase, while the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets have also looked into the possibility of adding the 35-year-old.
You can follow Frank Urbina on Twitter: @FrankUrbina_.
Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world.
The Miami Heat recently suspended guard Dion Waiters 10 games for what was called “conduct detrimental to the team” after reports of an incident involving a marijuana edible on the team plane.
It ended days of reporting and speculation about just what happened with the NBA veteran on that plane as everyone is piecing together reports about the incident that was considering detrimental conduct.
Here are some questions you might have and as many answers as we’ve gotten in the last few days about what exactly happened:
Who is Dion Waiters?
He’s a 27-year-old shooting guard for the Miami Heat who has averaged 13.2 points per game in a seven-year career after he was drafted out of Syracuse by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the fourth overall pick in 2012.
And what’s this now about marijuana edibles?
Well, marijuana is a substance that —
No no, what does that have to do with Waiters?
Oh, okay! There was a report on Friday from a Fox Sports radio host Andy Slater that a Heat player had a “medical emergency” on their flight out of Phoenix:
SLATER SCOOP: A Miami Heat player had a medical emergency on their flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles on Thursday night, according to sources.
A Heat spokesman told me the team cannot comment due to medical confidentially laws.
According to another report from ESPN, Waiters had a “panic attack” after consuming the edible.
Did the Heat confirm that was the case?
Not fully. In a statement that came with the 10-game suspension, the Heat said “Dion’s actions this season (included) the very scary situation on Thursday night,” and that the team was “grateful that the outcome wasn’t worse.”
They also mentioned there were other actions that were detrimental to the team this year.
Like what?
That might have been a reference to him being suspended for the home opener because of — per a Pat Riley statement via the Sun-Sentinel — “unprofessional conduct on the bench” during a preseason game.
Where did he get an edible from?
It’s unclear, but per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Heat believe it came from a teammate, although he won’t say:
The Heat believe Waiters was given the “gummy” by a teammate, but Waiters has been reluctant and has decided not to say who provided it, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA@Stadium. Waiters has had a tumultuous series of events with Miami this season.
The suspension means Waiters will miss out on his $1.2 million bonus for appearing in at least 70 games, missing out for the third time in as many seasons since signing his four-year, $52 million Heat free-agent contract during the 2017 offseason. https://t.co/XBwXSxRBLN
