The Miami Heat’s search for shooting took on new urgency Monday, when it was reported that the Heat have “significant interest” in Klay Thompson if the veteran sharpshooter shakes free from the Dallas Mavericks, per 5 Reasons Sports.
A shoutout to our old pal @EthanJSkolnick , who has said on @5ReasonsSports platforms that Heat has significant interest in Klay Thompson if he shakes free. (A look at financial particulars of this, with Thompson and Mavs holding power in this decision.) https://t.co/MIg0yLCZFZ
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) July 13, 2026
Minutes earlier, Barry Jackson and colleague Anthony Chiang reported that per two sources over the past 24 hours, a preferred option remains in play in the Heat’s desire to add another shooter.
The interest itself is easy to understand. The path is anything but, and that tension — between what the Heat want and what they can actually do — is the real story of Miami’s pursuit of one of the greatest shooters in NBA history.
What is actually being reported
Thompson was first connected to the Heat in late June, in the immediate aftermath of the Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster, and Monday’s report indicates that interest has not cooled. Thompson and the Mavericks hold the power in how this plays out.
That framing matters, because the most significant development of the past week came out of Dallas, not Miami. NBA insider Marc Stein reported that the Mavericks are open to parting ways with the 36-year-old via trade or buyout, though Dallas would rather find a deal first.
“To this point, as much has been relayed to me is, the Mavs’ preference would be a trade,” Stein said on the Bleacher Report stream. “I think it’s still early enough in the summer that if you’re the Mavs, you would exhaust those options first, but there’s stuff we have to keep an eye on it.”
Sun Sentinel columnist Ira Winderman has been framing this scenario for nearly two weeks, floating Thompson alongside DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine as buyout-market possibilities while the Heat wait out LeBron James’ free agency decision.
Why Miami can’t simply trade for him
Thompson is scheduled to earn $17.5 million in the final year of his contract, and that number is the wall between the Heat and a conventional trade.
Miami is hard-capped at the first apron, a restriction triggered by the expanded trade exception used to acquire Antetokounmpo. A hard cap is not a suggestion. The Heat cannot exceed the first apron line for any reason, which means every dollar of incoming salary in any trade has to fit under a ceiling the front office is already pressed against after absorbing the two-time MVP’s contract.
The matching-salary problem compounds it. The package that landed Antetokounmpo sent Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis to Milwaukee, stripping Miami of exactly the kind of mid-sized contracts that grease a deal for a $17.5 million player.
What remains on the roster is either untouchable, too small to matter or too valuable to spend on a 36-year-old rental. The Heat re-signed Simone Fontecchio and added Tim Hardaway Jr. to address the shooting deficit, but neither move produced the type of salary ballast a Thompson trade would require.
That is why “Thompson and the Mavericks holding the power” is the honest description of Miami’s position. If Dallas finds a trade partner elsewhere, the Heat are spectators.
If Dallas exhausts the market and moves to a buyout, Thompson would hit free agency able to sign anywhere for a fraction of his current salary, and suddenly Miami’s constraint stops mattering.
Why the waiting game makes sense
The appeal of that second scenario is obvious once the numbers are on the table. A bought-out Thompson would cost the Heat a minimum-type contract rather than $17.5 million in matched salary, preserving what little breathing room exists under the apron while adding a career 40.9 percent three-point shooter.
Even in a career-worst season, the shooting held up. Thompson averaged 11.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game last season while shooting a career-low 39.3 percent from the field, but he still converted 38.3 percent of his three-point attempts. Across his two seasons in Dallas, he shot 38.7 percent from deep, a mark that would have led Miami’s projected rotation as it currently stands.
The fit is the argument. Antetokounmpo bends defenses toward the rim more violently than any player Thompson has shared a floor with since prime Stephen Curry drew them the other direction, and Bam Adebayo’s short-roll playmaking generates exactly the catch-and-shoot looks Thompson has feasted on for 13 years.
Opposing coaches would face the same choice Golden State forced for a decade: Collapse on the roll and concede the corner, or stay home and let the two-time MVP play one-on-one downhill.
There is also the franchise’s own history to consider. The Heat have made a habit of adding decorated shooters late in their careers, from Ray Allen to Rashard Lewis, and Thompson — four championships, five All-Star selections — profiles as the most accomplished name to fit that mold since Allen signed in 2012.
The risks in the plan
Patience has a cost, and the Heat are paying it on two fronts at once.
The first is that Dallas controls the outcome. Stein’s reporting makes clear the Mavericks would rather trade Thompson than buy him out, and a trade could route him to a contender that can actually match salary — leaving Miami with nothing but the wait. The Heat cannot force the buyout, cannot bid on the trade and cannot accelerate the timeline.
The second is that the shooter search is running parallel to the biggest domino of the summer. The Heat remain in the LeBron James sweepstakes, and every roster decision is being sequenced around a choice that belongs to someone else. Winderman’s framing — the buyout market as the payoff for patience amid the LeBron wait — captures the bet Miami is making, but bets can lose.
If James goes elsewhere and Thompson gets traded elsewhere, the Heat will have spent the heart of free agency waiting on two outcomes they never controlled. And Thompson himself is a risk.
He turned 36 in February, came off the bench for most of last season for the first time since his rookie year and is two seasons removed from his last playoff appearance. The Heat would be betting on the shot aging gracefully while everything around it declines.
What comes next
The immediate calendar belongs to the player who started all of this. Antetokounmpo will be formally introduced at Kaseya Center on Thursday at 3 p.m., an event that will double as the front office’s first extended public accounting of how it plans to finish this roster.
The Thompson question will not be answered by then. Dallas gets to run its trade process on its own clock, and the Heat’s involvement begins only if that process fails.
What Monday’s reporting established is that Miami’s interest is real, sourced and current — and that for now, the most important decisions in the Heat’s shooter search are being made 1,300 miles from Biscayne Boulevard.
