New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Teams with the Best Chance to Land Beal

2. Miami Heat

The margin between the packages the Pelicans and Heat could offer is razor-thin, with both teams having a plethora of salary to send out, young players and picks. What separates New Orleans from Miami is the amount of draft picks available for the Pelicans to choose from. Miami lacks first round picks in 2021 and 2023 and does not have an unprotected second round pick to choose from until 2027.

By stark contrast, the Pelicans have available all of the draft picks from the Lakers from the Davis trade and virtually all of their first round picks for the foreseeable future.

Despite this, the Heat can still put together an impressive package for Beal without compromising its entire young core. The Wizards would likely ask for two of three of Kendrick Nunn, Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson, if not all three.

The fairest trade for both sides would likely be Nunn, Herro and Robinson alongside salary filler in Andre Iguodala and potentially a couple of protected picks in exchange for Beal. This allows the Heat to keep Bam Adebayo and KZ Okpala, among others in their system.

The question then turns from whether this is a fair trade, to if the Heat or Wizards should even look to make this move. The Wizards would likely say yes, as Herro’s ceiling seems to be very high and Robinson and Nunn are two proven contributors, even though their potential has already been close to actualized.

For Miami though, do they believe in Herro enough to become that third star for the team? Is it worth giving up four quality contributors for someone that might not be enough to win it all?

These aren’t questions that have easy answers.

The team may very well prefer to hold onto their affordable young players while maintaining cap space to pursue someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Victor Oladipo in the summer of 2021. If Miami trades for Beal, it is essentially punting on any chance for a max free agent barring some ridiculous cap maneuvering.