Report: Heat interested in Steez
“Miami is looking to deal for a young wing player who can score and take some of the load off Dwyane Wade. A few GMs have identified Boston’s Jordan Crawford as a player the Heat will go after in the coming days/weeks.”
Mitch Lawrence, New York Daily News
Leave it to the Heat to try and steal what little thunder the Celtics have this season. Jordan Crawford aka Steez has arguably been the most important piece of the Celtics offense through the first 25 games of the year, averaging 13.7 points, 5.5 assists, and 3.2 rebounds per game. He was last week’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week after putting up 23.3 points per game on 61% shooting. Now it’s great that the Heat are interested in acquiring him because they want someone who can take some pressure off of poor D-Wade, but there’s a difference between wanting and needing, and the Celtics need Jordan Crawford right now.
He has consistently proven this year that he can run the point and he will be an extremely valuable asset off the bench when Rondo comes back. Without Crawford, we really wouldn’t have a solid backup point guard. Avery Bradley has proven time and time again that he’s built to be a shooting guard and nothing else. Rookie Phil Pressey has shown steady signs of improvement so far, but he’s nowhere near ready to be the first guy off the bench.
If the Heat had a decent guard to give us in return then this would be a different story, but the fact of the matter is that Crawford is making just over $2 million this year. So unless the Heat are looking to trade for more than one player on the Celtics or they’re trying to get another team involved in the deal, our options would most likely be limited to one of the following:
– Ray Allen: 3.2 Million
– James Jones: 1.5 Million
– Chris Anderson: 1.4 Million
– Rashard Lewis: 1.4
– Norris Cole: 1.1
– Michael Beasley, Greg Oden, Roger Mason Jr.: 880k each
No thanks, I’ll stick with Steez.