The Miami Heat are eyeing a trade to acquire Danilo Gallinari in addition to Andre Iguodala, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports. Per Woj, Pat Riley sees an opportunity to make a serious push with the team assembled this season.
The Heat have no shortage of contracts to make the lofty salary matching math work, the question is if they’d have enough assets to throw in as sweetener to appease both the Thunder and Grizzlies.
The Thunder have remained competitive in the Western Conference this season and Gallinari has played no small role in that. The 31-year-old averages 18.8 points per game.
This isn’t the first time that Oklahoma City and Miami have talked business. When speculation surfaced that the Heat could make a run for Chris Paul, a notable sticking point was the 2023 Heat first-rounder that the Thunder were currently in possession of.
Miami was unwilling to waive the top-14 protection on that draft pick then but perhaps their stance has changed now that Jimmy Butler has led the squad of prospects to a 34-15 record.
The Thunder are also in conditional possession of Miami’s 2021 first-round pick, which has similar protection but is involved in several additional layers of complexity.
Given Gallinari’s $22.1M pact (and Dragic’s $17.2M deal), the Heat would need to unload a substantial amount of money to make the math work while remaining under the hard cap.
More to come.
