Miami Heat point guard Davion Mitchell has just one year and $12.4 million left on his contract. According to Miami Herald reporter Barry Jackson, question marks remain about whether Miami wants to commit to the Baylor product long term.
He's been more impactful than his 9.3 points per game suggest, but the Heat must now be very financially selective after winning the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes this summer.
Mitchell has been underrated in Miami, but this team has title aspirations with Giannis and must explore ways to upgrade the roster after gutting it to land him in the first place.
Even with Antetokounmpo, it's fair to wonder whether the Heat will have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. No one ever viewed the Giannis trade as the Final Infinity Stone for the Heat to get their dynasty back after LeBron James left. Rather, it was understood that the Heat would pair Giannis with Bam Adebayo and Erik Spoelstra and figure the rest out later.
That all makes sense. The Portland Trail Blazers had a similar thought process in their attempt to land Giannis, though ultimately weren't willing to go all-in on a superstar that wasn't willing to commit long-term to them.
So now, the Heat find themselves in a similar position as the Milwaukee Bucks were with Giannis. Sure, their future is more promising for a number of reasons, but this still isn't a roster that's built to contend.
According to Jackson, one solution the Heat are considering is, get this, Damian Lillard.
Heat can keep dreaming about Damian Lillard
They see how the all-in move for Lillard and the decision to pair him with Giannis backfired in Milwaukee, right?
Besides Lillard, Jackson also named Zach LaVine, De'Andre Hunter, Donte DiVincenzo, and Lu Dort. The Heat should probably be looking into those other options already because Lillard isn't going anywhere.
Even if Miami is reportedly willing to overlook the failed two seasons the Lillard-Giannis connection had in Milwaukee, they still can't get Lillard to go there. He has a $14.1 million player option for the 2027-28 season, which he very well could decline if this comeback from a torn Achilles goes according to plan.
That gets teams like the Heat excited about the possibility of landing an NBA 75 player, especially since Miami was Lillard's preferred landing spot when he first requested a trade from the Blazers. But those teams, specifically Heat fans on Twitter, can keep dreaming.
Lillard has a rare no-clause, and it's hard to see a scenario where he wants out after finally putting in all this work to return to the court. Both on and off the court, Lillard has every reason to want to stay in Portland. That's why he picked the Blazers after he was stupidly waived and stretched by the Bucks after his injury.
Heat fans already went through the pain of not landing Lillard in 2023; do they really want to go through it all again?
