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- Tyler Herro indicates Miami Heat are looking to finish 6th seed or higher
- Gilbert Arenas admits he couldn’t ‘beat [Dwyane] Wade for s–t’
- Tristan Thompson says Miami Heat LeBron James was ‘scariest’ version, Mario Chalmers on some ‘sucka s–t’
- Jimmy Butler admits he doesn’t start ‘playing for real’ until after the All-Star break
- Jimmy Butler on Dwyane Wade: ‘I always want to make him proud’
- Erik Spoelstra ‘open to anything’ amid Miami Heat’s ever-changing center rotation
- Stan Van Gundy says Dwyane Wade is the best last-shot player he’s ever seen
- NBA executive believes Max Strus ‘most likely’ will leave Miami Heat in free agency
- Erik Spoelstra talks about his chemistry with Kyle Lowry, calls him a ‘Hall of Fame quarterback’
Report: Max Strus was among multiple players Minnesota Timberwolves pursued at trade deadline
- Updated: February 10, 2023
Miami Heat sharpshooter Max Strus reportedly was among multiple players that the Minnesota Timberwolves pursued at the trade deadline this season.
The Wolves reportedly had interest in Strus, Saddiq Bey and Jae Crowder.
“Among the player the Wolves pursued were Denver’s Bones Hyland, Phoenix’s Jae Crowder, Detroit’s Saddiq Bey and Miami’s Max Strus, per sources,” wrote The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski. “It’s clear that after losing a high volume 3-point shooter in [D’Angelo] Russell, they were looking at options to fill the shooting void.”
Of those three players, Strus is the only one who was not traded at Thursday’s deadline. Miami elected to stand pat and not make a trade on Thursday, although it did move Dewayne Dedmon to the San Antonio Spurs earlier in the week.
Bey was traded in a four-team deal with the Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trail Blazers.
The former first-round pick ended up in Atlanta while James Wiseman went to the Pistons. The Warriors acquired Gary Payton II while the Blazers received five second-round picks.
Crowder was also in a big deadline deal, as the Phoenix Suns sent him to Brooklyn as part of the trade that brought Kevin Durant to Phoenix. Crowder has not played yet this season as he was sitting out from the Suns lineup waiting for a trade to materialize.
Brooklyn rerouted Crowder to the Milwaukee Bucks for several second-round picks on Thursday.
The Timberwolves are trying to make a playoff push in the Western Conference after earning the No. 7 seed last season. Minnesota did add guard Mike Conley in a three-team deal with the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz, but it appears it wanted to add some wing depth as well.
Strus would have been a nice fit for the Wolves, as he’s a solid off-ball shooter. The Heat wing is averaging 12.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game this season. The 26-year-old has seen his shooting efficiency drop a bit from last season, but he’s still shooting 40.5 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from beyond the arc.
It’s clear that the Heat value Strus as a rotation piece, and they may decide to bring him back in free agency this coming offseason since they didn’t move him at the deadline.
The DePaul University product is in the final season of his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. After playing himself into a major role in Miami the past few seasons, Strus should see a significant pay increase in free agency.
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