The Heat are doing just fine at 17-6, sitting at second place in the East behind a Pacers team playing as if the playoffs were going on right now.
While Indiana is at full strength and crushing the competition to this point in the season — Heat included — Miami is resting Dwyane Wade occasionally to preserve his knees for the postseason, and is still bringing along Greg Oden slowly to the point where he isn’t expected to crack the rotation until after the All-Star break.
Still, it makes some sense that given the Pacers’ early dominance and the uncertainty surrounding Oden (and to some extent, Wade) for the regular season, Miami may look around for some available talent to bolster the roster. And Boston might not be a bad place to start.
From Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News:
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.
That would be reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week Jordan Crawford, who helped lead Boston to the only 3-0 record in the East last week while turning in averages of 23.3 points (fourth in the conference) on 61 percent shooting, to go along with 3.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists per contest.
If the Heat did trade for Crawford, it would likely be no more than a rental for this season. Crawford will be a restricted free agent next year if a qualifying offer of $3.2 million is made, but a strong season in Miami would drive up his value beyond what the Heat would commit in long-term salary.
The Celtics, meanwhile, are in an interesting spot. Much like the Suns, they were believed to be setting up for a complete rebuild that would involve finishing the season with a record poor enough to end up as a lottery team vying for one of the top picks in a very deep 2014 draft. Instead, Boston finds itself atop the dreadful Atlantic division which means the four seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, despite the sub-.500 record.
Boston isn’t exactly planning on trying to win now like the Suns, because they don’t have players like Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic on the roster, along with more first round draft picks than they know what to do with in the coming seasons. So Crawford may indeed be in play, despite the Celtics’ playoff chances and their better-than-expected start.