The Miami Heat still have work to do around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo, and one phone call to Denver could help them check two boxes at once: ball-handling and shooting.
Julian Strawther fits that need. He’s a young wing with real value as a floor-spacer, and he could give Miami another useful piece while helping the Nuggets solve a financial problem of their own. It’s the kind of trade that makes sense for both sides for very different reasons.
Strawther is 24 and just finished his third season in Denver. His role shrank last season, but his shot from deep kept trending in the right direction.
He hit 38.7% of his threes on 2.6 attempts per game, and he’s shown flashes of self-creation as well. In Miami, next to Antetokounmpo and Adebayo, that skill set could be put to work right away, with the chance for even more if his minutes grow.
For the Heat, there’s another bonus: youth. After the Antetokounmpo trade, they need to rebuild some of the young talent they gave up, and Strawther would help with that.
Denver’s motivation is more urgent. The Nuggets are just over the second apron after matching the Spencer Jones offer sheet, and that creates real complications. Trading Strawther into Miami’s $5.6 million trade exception from the Haywood Highsmith deal - an exception that expires on August 15 - would drop them back below the second apron.
That matters because it would open the door for Denver to complete a Watson sign-and-trade. If they stay where they are, they can’t send out players in sign-and-trades, which leaves them stuck with the Watson situation.
Strawther could be the cleanest way out. Otherwise, Watson could accept the qualifying offer and reach unrestricted free agency next summer.
Miami would get a solid young rotation piece. Denver would get relief from a messy cap situation. The Heat could send a couple of second-round picks or whatever draft capital the Nuggets want, and the framework is there for a deal that helps both teams.
In Other News...
Giannis Just Forced Heat Fans To Reconsider Nikola Jovic
Nikola Jovics summer has already taken on a different feel, and not just because of what he has shown overseas with Team Serbia. After a frustrating stretch that included injuries and uneven production, the young forward is trying to reset his standing in Miami, where his path back into relevance has been anything but smooth. For a player who once looked like a long-term project, this is the kind of offseason where every encouraging sign matters.
Giannis Antetokounmpos arrival has only sharpened the spotlight on Jovic, because Miami suddenly has another high-level voice backing the idea that he can help this season. Jovic needs to turn the confidence he has built away from the Heat into something more concrete when he gets back into the fold, especially after slipping out of Erik Spoelstras rotation late last season. The opportunity is there, but so is the pressure to prove the summer version of Jovic travels well. [Read more 🡒]
Heat May Already Be Running Out Of Time With Pelle Larsson
Pelle Larssons rise has given Miami another young piece worth keeping an eye on, and the Heat have already shown they see him that way by picking up his $2.3 million player option for the 2026-27 season. The second-round pick from 2024 turned in a breakout sophomore year, setting career highs across the board and looking more and more like the kind of wing the Heat like to develop and keep in the fold.
The next step, though, is where things get interesting. Larsson is now eligible for a four-year extension that could put him on a much more expensive path, and Miami will have to decide how aggressively it wants to move before the 2027 deadline, when another team could potentially try to pry him loose with an offer sheet. For a franchise that always has one eye on the books, the timing may matter almost as much as the player himself. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Just Got Pulled Into A Wild LeBron And Giannis Twist
The 2026 NBA offseason took a strange turn for the Heat, with the leagues biggest names suddenly moving through a New York-sized bottleneck before landing elsewhere. LeBron James wound up with the Philadelphia 76ers, while Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded to Miami after both players were said to prefer the Knicks, a reminder of how much one contenders championship can shape the rest of the market.
New Yorks decision to stay put after winning the title left two superstars looking for another path, and the Heat ended up benefiting from that shuffle in a major way. Miami now has a roster centerpiece in Antetokounmpo, but the larger twist is how close this all came to looking very different, with the Knicks still confident enough in their group to pass on the kind of offseason swing most teams would chase without hesitation. [Read more 🡒]