Donovan Mitchell Before Kevin Durant decided to stay with the Nets, and the Heat was convinced that the most sensible thing was to stay with the same team they had last season to face the 2022-2023 season, which will start in less than 50 days.
Not even Pat Riley bothered to pursue him after hearing the Brooklyn team's pretensions, and after all, it wasn't Miami that had asked to be traded.
He also did nothing after the Jazz deemed an offer from the Heat for Donovan Mitchell insufficient, despite his expressed desire to leave Utah and come to the Sunshine Capital.
Finally, on Thursday, Sept. 1, the Jazz sent Mitchell to the Cavaliers for three unprotected first-round picks and two pick trades, reported.
Mitchell had already eliminated Utah from his social networks, which intensified his commercial rumors. Still, his preferred destinations: Knicks and Heat, were not about to give in to the pretensions of the Jazz managers.
The Knicks were unwilling to give all the rounds of the draft that Utah asked for, and to top it off; they gave a four-year, $120 million contract extension to forward RJ Barrett, who was on the ballot for a possible trade for Mitchell.
The Heat will do the same for Tyler Herro and offer him a similar extension for the same length of time, which also closed the door on the Jazz's star shooting guard.
That Mitchell didn't come to Miami in a way is a shame, given his good relationships with Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, and Dwyane Wade's expressed desire to see him in a Heat jersey.
By the way, the quintet from the Capital del Sol will wear their number 35 for 20 games this season, with the jersey with which they debuted in the NBA in 1988 and which they wore for the last time in the 2015-2016 campaign.
The arrival of rookie Nikola Jovic or the promotion of Caleb Martin is not exactly a guarantee for such an important position.
But beyond all this, the Heat needed a man to help Jimmy Butler, who could not ask more of him to lead the team to the next level.
It's time for Adebayo to raise his game and become an established NBA star, for Kyle Lowry to work out his problems and play at the highest level again.
That man could be called the underdog of the Heat and should come from their ranks, where there are several candidates right now, within what could be called a Trojan Horse.
The first is Victor Oladipo, who is fully recovered and hopes to return to the top after playing only eight games last season, where he averaged 12.4 points per game and 10.6 in the 15 playoff games.
Oladipo is expected to average close to 20 units this season, and if he reaches the postseason, he will exceed that figure.
The other is Herro, who averaged 20.7 points in the season last year, but only 12.6 cartons in the playoffs due to injuries.
Duncan Robinson won't be an underdog, but rather an underdog, after a poor end to the season in which he was relegated to the bench and barely made the playoffs because of poor performance. He averaged just 10.9 points per game (5.6 in the playoffs).
He also dropped his 3-point ERA (37.2%) after posting great 3-point shooting percentages the past two seasons (44.6% and 40.8%).
It's not known if his confidence failed him, he was guarded better, or he was more tired, but he's still expected to have a better year after being on all the ballots for a trade.
Similarly, growth is expected from Max Strus, Gabe Vicent, Martin, and Jovic, but one of the three mentioned above, or all three will be called upon to help Butler, even more than Mitchell himself could have done.
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