Report: Suns wanted Heat’s ‘whole team’ for Kevin Durant

The Miami Heat were one team linked to scoring machine Kevin Durant in the days leading up to the Feb. 6 trade deadline. According to a report from Five Reasons Sports on Feb. 5, Miami inquired about Durant’s availability and was direct about its interest in the forward “on multiple levels.”

But the trade deadline came and went with Durant remaining a member of the Phoenix Suns. Dan Le Batard recently provided a report that seemingly gives some clarification as to why the Heat didn’t end up acquiring the four-time scoring champion via trade.

“So, I wanted to explore though the parts of this that happened with the Miami Heat as it relates to Kevin Durant,” Le Batard said. “First of all, you should know that was not close. It was never close. There was nothing close there. A conversation — it was not a whiff, it wasn’t close. Well, it’s a whiff if you think — this is where it is a whiff, okay? The reason it wasn’t close is because of the Heat, not because of the Suns. And because the ask was — according to the people I’ve talked to — our entire team. It wasn’t one of these young players. It wasn’t [Jaime] Jaquez and [Kel’el] Ware. It was they wanted our whole team.”

The results of Miami’s two games played since the trade deadline passed suggest that a scorer of Durant’s caliber would have been exactly what the doctor ordered for this team. The Heat are averaging just 85.5 points per contest in that stretch, as they mustered 86 points in a loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 7 and just 85 in an ugly loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday night.

Granted, guard Tyler Herro has done a solid job carrying the scoring load for the Heat this season for the most part, but he didn’t suit up against Boston and scored just 15 points on 22 shots from the floor versus Brooklyn.

Additionally, forward Andrew Wiggins was maybe the crown jewel of the trade package that sent forward Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors, but his performance in his Heat debut didn’t exactly imply that he’s going to be majorly impactful from a scoring standpoint. He scored only 11 points against the Celtics while shooting 3-of-12 from the floor and 2-of-8 from 3-point range.

The acquisition of Durant seemingly could have put the kibosh on question marks surrounding this team and any supposed lack of offensive firepower, but when factoring in Phoenix’s alleged high asking price, the rationale for why the Heat didn’t pull the trigger is there.

Hopefully, Miami can pick up its first victory since the trade deadline came and went when it takes on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. The Heat will likely need to play at the top of their game in order to come out with a win, however, as the Thunder hold the NBA’s best record at 43-9 and have lost only three home contests all season.