Brooklyn Nets vs. Miami Heat preview: Post trade deadline hoops

Miami Heat v Chicago Bulls — Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, and the Brooklyn Nets are back to work. Tonight they face the Miami Heat.

A brief streak comes to a loud end. Coming into Wednesday’s game, the Brooklyn Nets were riding a three-game winning streak. The Washington Wizards took care of that on Wednesday night as they beat Brooklyn at the Barclays Center.

The opponent tonight can finally take a deep breath. It’s been a stressful few months for the Miami Heat, but things are looking up. They beat the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, but that wasn’t the big news surrounding them. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Where to follow the game

YES Network on TV. WFAN on radio. Tip after 7:30 PM.

Injuries

No Cam Thomas, Bojan Bogdanovic, De’Anthony Melton, Maxwell Lewis, or Noah Clowney. Nobody else is questionable. However, the Ben Simmons buyout talks are ongoing and there’s some thought they could get done as early as today.

Dru Smith is out with an Achilles injury. Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, and Nikola Jovic are all probable. Andrew Wiggins is still in transit and won’t play tonight.

The game

Miami won the first and second meetings. This is the last meeting of the season between these two teams.

Barring something unforeseen, this is the Nets roster the rest of the way. Gotta say, I’m pretty surprised they didn’t make any moves at the deadline, so we’ll see how the rest of the season evolves from here.

The Miami Heat had the NBA world in shock when they traded for Davion Mitchell…

Wait wait wait, let me try that again! The Miami Heat had the NBA world in shock when they traded Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors. The trade ends a year-long nightmare that saw Butler burn just about every bridge imaginable within the Heat organization as he sought his money. He got it with the Warriors so that should make life easier there for all parties involved over there. Andrew Wiggins will be making his Heat debut on Monday against the Boston Celtics.

When Wiggins does suit up, he brings something new to the table. From Matt Hanifan of Hot Hot Hoops:

There’s no question that his $85 million may be too much to stomach if Miami isn’t contending. With the impending salary cap bump, his projected percentage of cap allocation is 18.3 and 17.8 percent over the next two seasons, respectively. If needed, that’s enough for Wiggins’ salary to be a salary filler in a bigger trade, should one arise over the next two seasons, but not enough for a team to completely scoff and holler, “Bad contract!” It projects to be movable as an expiring if Miami wants to have its flexibility in 2026, even though landing a primetime free agent is far less likely than it was 10-15 years ago.

Nevertheless, Andrew Wiggins could be a perfect connective tissue around Herro, Adebayo and Ware as the Heat enter this next phase minus Butler. Miami needs as many two-way players as possible, and he fits perfectly into that with his 3-point shooting, shot-blocking, offensive-rebounding and reliability defensively against the opposing team’s toughest assignments.

Here’s to new adventures.

Speaking of new adventures, Ben Simmons might be on his way out the door as rumors are swirling that the Nets will buy him out so he can join a championship contender. The day it happens, we’ll have plenty to say about Simmons’ time here, but for now we’ll see what he does tonight, assuming he’s still around.

In the meantime, Cam Johnson being back will help the Nets offense a good deal. The Nets don’t have many shot creators on the club these days, and Johnson has worked hard to add that to his game. He played 24 minutes on Wednesday, and should be around that number again tonight as he works his way back from an extended absence with ankle woes.

Speaking of shot creators, Tyler Herro is the lead option for the Heat and is heading to San Francisco for NBA All Star next weekend. He’s got career numbers across the board and we know he’s a lethal movement shooter. Now that he’s improved on his shooting percentages at the rim compared to last year, he’s become even more difficult to handle

For the Nets, they can’t afford any lapses on defense. If they’re not locked in, Herro is in line to go for 30+ points.

Player to watch: Bam Adebayo

With Butler officially out the door, the franchise is in his hands. Adebayo has been a steadying force in recent years and he does just about everything well on the court. He’s shot at least 50 percent from the field in five straight games and has played at an All Star level.

Nic Claxton is dealing with a nasal fracture, but he keeps on keeping on. He’s worked to salvage his season after an especially awful start to the year. On the latest edition of The Backcourt, my main man Lucas Kaplan highlighted Clax’s recent run

Now that the deadline has passed, basketball.

Prior to last night’s Wizards game, Nets were 4th in defense since returning from the West Coast trip. On the pod I talked about Nic Claxton showing some signs of old: https://t.co/gXPrMuW44a pic.twitter.com/ShYnLYJqfR

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) February 6, 2025