Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway believes the Miami Heat can end up with the NBA’s biggest problem because the Boston Celtics landed Jrue Holiday Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Heat could end up stuck with one of the NBA’s biggest locker room problems, James Harden, after the Boston Celtics landed Jrue Holiday from the Portland Trail Blazers in a follow-up deal to Damian Lillard’s departure from the Rose City/arrival with the Milwaukee Bucks. Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway proposed Harden as a fall-back option in the Heat backcourt after Miami’s front office couldn’t land Lillard or Holiday.
“Adding Harden to the mix would eliminate some of the same issues a Lillard trade would have,” Conway prefaced before saying, “Harden has averaged at least 35 minutes per game in each of the last 11 seasons and has not had many major injury issues.
“Miami would likely have to part with Kyle Lowry, Nikola Jovic and a future first-round pick in any Harden deal, which is less than the price it would have paid for Lillard.”
Harden and Heat culture sounds like oil and water. In what universe does a one-way star who relies on volume fit into a team predicated on defensive tenacity and maximum effort?
That Miami is approaching the point where landing Harden would at least make the fanbase feel something after being led on for Lillard and outbid for Holiday by Boston — who perhaps landed Holiday in part due to how good a fit the All-Defensive First Teamer would’ve been in South Beach — shows how behind the eight-ball the Heat are.
Jimmy Butler, affectionately known as “Ball Out Boy” after his shocking Miami Heat Media Day hairdo, seems to have gone emo in the wake of the franchise’s offseason shortcomings. Landing Harden, while flashy on paper, should be seen by Heat fans as an even bigger reason for Butler to do his best Pete Wentz cosplaying and embrace the darkness in him.