NBA rumors: Heat turn attention from Damian Lillard to James Harden

The Miami Heat are another team reportedly interested in trading for James Harden with the 76ers star seeking a sign-and-trade out of Philadelphia.

According to Shams Charania, the Miami Heat are looking to trade for James Harden along with other suitors.

The Heat were heavily linked to a trade for Damian Lillard as well if Lillard ends up requesting a trade from the Trail Blazers. Lillard trade talks are currently on the backburner with the league waiting on him to make that request.

Now Harden is in play.

Charania mentions that Harden will get to choose what destination he will go to. This is simply a situation where the teams are looking to trade for Harden rather than sign him due to the fact that all of the teams looking to trade for him are over the cap.

James Harden trade: What does an offer from the Heat look like?

The Heat could offer a deal centered around Kyle Lowry’s expiring contract, Nikola Jovic or Hayword Highsmith, and first-round picks to make a deal work. They would not have to offer Tyler Herro due to the fact that the Sixers do not have a lot of leverage in any deal.

Still, they will most likely get first-round picks from any team that ends up trading for Harden due to the fact that all of these teams are over the cap.

They would have to find a way to uplift those protections with the Thunder to access their next three first-round picks. After that, they would be able to access all of their first-round picks to include in a trade.

The other factor that could be included in whether the Heat get a deal done is if they are willing to go further into the luxury tax. They were unable to fully go into the Bradley Beal discussions due to the fact Micky Arison did not want to deal with the tax consequences of that trade.

Even though the Heat might have hard tax penalties this offseason, they may be able to take the small-term consequences of the tax. In the case of Bradley Beal, he was on a long-term max deal. Eventually, they would have to pay Harden but they could just view him as a rental to compete for a title now.