Next season, the race for the Eastern Conference will get more interesting now that Giannis Antetokounmpo is on his way to the Miami Heat. The Milwaukee Bucks agreed to send him to South Florida for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, two future first-round draft picks and the rights to Miami’s No. 13 pick this year, which it used on Nate Ament.
The basketball world is still waiting for LeBron James to decide whether he will stay with the Los Angeles Lakers, join another team in free agency or retire. A return to the Cleveland Cavaliers is possible, but Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald floated a very interesting possibility: James going back to the Heat, the team he spent four seasons with in the early 2010s.
“The Heat could try to lure impending free agent LeBron James with its full midlevel exception, but a James return is considered a long shot,” Herald wrote.
Miami will have Antetokounmpo, who is widely considered one of the five best players in basketball and three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo, but it needs to fill out the rest of its roster. Guard Norman Powell made the All-Star team this season as a member of the Heat, but he’s about to become a free agent, and forward Andrew Wiggins, who is a capable veteran two-way wing, has a player option for next season.
When James went to Miami in 2020, he joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form a superteam, which made him the subject of plenty of ridicule that has somewhat lingered. If he were to return to the Heat and play with Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP, and Adebayo, who has made six All-Defensive teams, his critics might slam him once again for allegedly taking the easy way out.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Report: Heat ‘could try to lure’ LeBron James
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire | USA TODAY Network
