Recent rumors have emerged that the Miami Heat could trade Goran Dragic before this season's trade deadline as team president Pat Riley reportedly wants to acquire a pick in next year's draft.
The Heat presently holds their own 2017 first-round draft selection and with the way things are going in Miami right now, it could end up as a lottery pick. The team is currently second from the last place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 2-8 record.
ESPN reported that Riley wants to have another first-round pick in 2017 and preferably a lottery pick as well. However, to achieve this, the Heat may have to trade Dragic to one of the struggling teams before the February trade deadline.
"We have a pick this year. I have intentions, if it's possible, to try and get another pick," said Riley, as per the league's official website.
Miami has never depended on draft picks to rebuild or retool their team until now. The club is known to acquire players that are already proven superstars who are ready to contend for a championship, much like what they did in the summer of 2010 when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade via free-agency to form their latest Big Three.
The Big Three won two championships together before James decided to go home to Cleveland. This summer, Wade also joined his hometown club, the Chicago Bulls, in free-agency while Bosh was given a final thumbs down with regards to his ongoing blood-clotting condition.
Now, all three Heat superstars are gone and the team has become one of the worst teams in the league so far.
Riley is hopeful, though, that Hassan Whiteside and his cast of young players, namely Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Rodney McGruder, and Tyler Johnson could form a future "nucleus" for the squad.
"We feel that with Hassan, and with Justise and Tyler and Josh and some of the new guys who we got this summer, four or five of those young guys can create a nucleus," the team president said.
Curiously, the apparent omission of Dragic's name in Riley's statement should be noted and could indicate that the team is indeed ready to trade their starting point guard in midseason.
Last month, trade rumors went out that Dragic could be traded to the Sacramento Kings for Rudy Gay and Darren Collison, something which made Heat coach Erik Spoelstra reach out to the Slovenian playmaker to deny the rumors.
