OKC Thunder: Winners and losers of the Trevor Ariza trade

Losers from the Trevor Aria trade

Meyers Leonard

Over the past week, Meyers Leonard has been both fined $50,000 and suspended after he was heard using the anti-Semitic slur during a recent Twitch stream while playing “Call of Duty.”

Because of this, coupled with the fact that he’ll be missing the remainder of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in early February, skepticism already started to arise that, though he proved to be a core rotation player for the Miami Heat during their surprise 2020 NBA Finals run, his $10.1 million team-option for 2021-22 could be declined, thus thrusting him into unrestricted free agency.

Now, with this trade with the OKC Thunder, there is almost a negative percent chance that he’ll have his option picked up by the team. In fact, the idea reported by Royce Young of ESPN is that Leonard won’t actually be joining the team at all, as he’s likely to either be used in a future deal to make salaries work or perhaps he’ll just wait out the remainder of the season before hitting free agency.

Andre Iguodala

Essentially since the start of the 2020-21 season, the Miami Heat have been rumored to be interested in landing themselves a third star to pair with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

With the fact that stars are not typically cheap, specifically in the salary department, making money matchup properly is something that must be considered prior to pursuing any such moves. Luckily, from a financial standpoint, Pat Riley and co. have the $15 million salary owed to Andre Iguodala as a method to make the money of a blockbuster trade work.

Having said that, some trepidation seemingly from the front office and, more vocally, the fanbase has been the special attributes in which a guy like Iggy brings to the table, specifically his veteran leadership and his championship experience.

Now, with a guy like Ariza coming to town, the Heat are bringing in yet another player who possesses such attributes, as he has nine years of postseason experience under his belt, including six deep runs and an NBA Championship.

You see where we’re going with this?

At a cheaper cost, this Heat team can now keep these highly valuable veteran qualities by holding onto Ariza while also finding themselves more easily convincing themselves to part ways with a guy like Iguodala in an effort to create another Big-3 in South Beach.