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UPDATED: Survey results are in and added below!
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Each week we ask questions of the most plugged-in Miami Heat fans and fans across the country.
With the NBA Finals wrapping up two weeks ago, the NBA Draft concluding days ago, and the Miami Heat getting set to make a big splash in free agency and Summer League just around the corner, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year for basketball fans.
Miami was just a shot away from reaching the NBA Finals, and Pat Riley is clearly seeking to upgrade the roster in a meaningful way in order to repeat as the top-seeded team in the East entering the NBA Playoffs. But now that the start of the free agency is here, can they afford to allow solid players to sign elsewhere while they try to pry one of the top players in the NBA away?
Riley and the front office will of course have no choice but to move on should the best available players choose another team or re-sign with their current team (and indeed Bradley Beal has since signed an extension with the Washington Wizards), but in the meantime let’s have some fun with the latest SB Nation Reacts!
Update: And the results are in…
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In what turned out to be a bigger winning margin than perhaps what was anticipated, readers chose Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, who handily beat out Brooklyn Nets stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as the one player that the Miami Heat should target during the offseason. One wonders how many voters made their selection before the blockbuster Rudy Gobert trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves for four first-round picks and Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, and No. 22 pick Walker Kessler.
Does that mean Mitchell is (eventually) next to be traded, even if the Jazz reportedly plan on building around him?
Okay *now* we're talking https://t.co/LGSYwJ6Eao
— Hot Hot Hoops (@hothothoops) July 1, 2022
Or the plan is to make teams believe that they’re retooling around Mitchell, at least until the next trade deadline. Let’s see how much patience Donovan really has for this. https://t.co/FxVtShpPfp
— Surya Fernandez (@SuryaHeatNBA) July 1, 2022
Meanwhile, Durant may have the Heat on his preferred list of teams to be traded to, but let’s hope this report isn’t true or he’ll be an even less realistic trade target.
There’s a ‘significant obstacle’ on the Kevin Durant to Miami trade front, per @sam_amick
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) July 1, 2022
“Durant, it seems, would only want to play on a Heat team that includes Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry.”
(Via https://t.co/E4DUkVEPMZ) pic.twitter.com/c1kbRjtF3F
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