Eastern Conference Contender Reportedly Interested In Trading For D'Angelo Russell

Published|Updated

The Miami Heat could be looking to shore up its backcourt via the addition of D'Angelo Russell. Miami has reportedly shown "some trade interest" in the Minnesota Timberwolves' guard.

The new report suggesting that Russell could be on the move comes from SKORNorth's Darren Wolfson.

The Heat kept its core group of players together this season after reaching the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago, but it hasn't exactly panned out thus far.

Miami is on a three-game winning streak, but has battled the injury bug in a major way all season and is a measly 15-15 on the year. Jimmy Butler has only played in 19 of the Heat's 30 games this season while Tyler Herro has missed eight games as well.

The fact that the Heat are the fourth-worst shooting team in the league this season isn't exactly helping things either.

Russell - whose Timberwolves have been injury plagued as well - is averaging 16.6 points and 6.3 assists per game this season. He's also shooting 46.1% from the field, which is the same shooting percentage as Herro, who leads all Miami guards in shooting.

Russell's contract carries a cap hit of $31.38 million but expires at the end of the season. The Timberwolves may look to move him in exchange for another piece instead of potentially losing him for nothing next year as an unrestricted free agent.

It's worth remembering that Jimmy Butler played alongside D'Angelo Russell during his time in Minnesota, so perhaps he'll be pushing the Heat front office into making the move.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

Tags
Written by

Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets, including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016, when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.