Heat’ Mikal Bridges on Being Traded Again: ‘Once again I got traded I was not a free agent idk what yall want me to…
The Miami Heat are still in the hunt for a big-name offseason signing. This could come in the form of Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan, who also happens to be one of the few remaining free agents still available.
The Heat, however, do not have much cap room available, which means that signing DeRozan as an unrestricted free agent could be out of the question. Getting their hands on the six-time All-Star will likely require Miami to strike some sort of sign-and-trade deal with the Bulls — a notion that appears to be picking up steam of late.
League insiders Jake Fischer and Dan Devine recently discussed the prospect of DeRozan taking his talents to South Beach. It was reported on the latest episode of the No Cap Room podcast that the Heat could be inclined to send Caleb Martin to Chicago in order to get the DeRozan deal done (h/t NBACentral on X, formerly Twitter):
Like DeRozan, Martin is also a free agent, and he too has failed to negotiate a new deal with his current team. According to the above report, Martin could emerge as the key piece in a potential trade deal between the Heat and the Bulls. In this scenario, Miami finally gets the big-name star they have been searching for, while DeRozan is also able to secure his future outside of Chicago.