Per Miami Heat president Pat Riley, the team’s top priority this offseason will be re-signing center Hassan Whiteside. ESPN’s Dan Le Batard says this isn’t true; meeting with Kevin Durant is of paramount importance to Miami. Transcribed by Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk:
“The plan is and always has been: Go after Durant and free everything up – so much so that you insulted your superstar this offseason by telling Dwyane Wade no on multiple years, even though that’s what he wanted. Dwyane, who deserves more of your allegiances as business and a company and management than Chris Bosh does. Because the whole thing is get in a room with Durant after this season.”
“What I’m telling you, no matter how much you laugh at it, is that the Heat is getting in the room with Durant. Now, what happens from there, who knows? But you can sit here and laugh at it all you want, but the plan, the construct is – the priority, the No. 1 thing this offseason – is get in the room with Durant.”
“You do what you want with the information. All I’m telling you is priority No. 1 is not get Dwyane locked up, Whiteside locked up. No. 1 on the list is can you get the superstar that is the big get in free agency while also taking care of your people around that?”
This makes sense to some degree; signing Durant should be the goal for Miami… And every other NBA team. However, Durant will be the league’s hottest commodity. Miami may want to prioritize re-signing guys like Whiteside and Wade, since they have a better chance of retaining those players than they do signing Durant.
