MIAMI – When Pat Riley traded Tyler Herro to Milwaukee to bring Giannis Antetokounmpo to South Florida, he solved the question the franchise had been building toward for three years. He also created a new one. Herro shot 38 percent from three last season and pulled defensive attention toward the perimeter on every possession that Giannis and Bam Adebayo opened. That gravity left Miami when Herro went north. Replacing it became the offseason’s organizing problem the moment the Antetokounmpo deal closed.
Miami now has a preferred answer, and it lives in Dallas.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported Saturday that the Heat have made acquiring Klay Thompson from the Dallas Mavericks their top priority. Jackson did not use the word “interest,” as reporters typically do when describing one option among several. He used “priority,” a designation he explicitly placed ahead of DeMar DeRozan, ahead of Bradley Beal, ahead of anything else the market is still offering. That characterization came days after ESPN’s Shams Charania told viewers on NBA Today that Miami is among “several championship-contending teams” monitoring Thompson’s situation and has expressed interest in acquiring him via trade or a contract buyout.
Two reporters sourcing the same organization have arrived at the same destination.
Thompson is 36 years old and under contract with Dallas through 2026–27 at $17.5 million. Last season he appeared in 69 games, mostly off the bench, averaging 11.7 points per game while shooting 38.3 percent from three. Those figures do not describe a player at the apex of his ability. They describe a player who still understands the specific geometry that a Giannis-centered offense requires: the spot on the floor where a defense cannot leave him alone, the recognition of when to cut and when to stay, the technical release that has not changed meaningfully since his Golden State years. Thompson does not ask for creation. He asks for the ball when the defense is already wrong.
Acquiring him will not be simple. The Heat have only $10.4 million in available cap space below the luxury tax apron, meaning a trade for Thompson would require moving existing salary. Marc Stein reported separately that the Mavericks prefer a trade to a buyout, which eliminates the path that would have cost Miami the least. Dallas is not releasing a contributor at a fraction of his contract value. They want assets in return, and Miami, having reshaped its roster entirely around the Antetokounmpo acquisition, does not hold the kind of surplus that typically funds major mid-summer trades, as Bleacher Report detailed.
The reason Miami is pursuing him anyway has everything to do with what Giannis and Adebayo cannot do together without a third piece that shoots. Antetokounmpo generates more defensive attention per possession than almost any player alive. When he drives from the elbow or operates at the block, defenses send help bodies in ways that create open looks for any credible perimeter shooter standing in the corners. Adebayo creates similar disruption from the high post. What neither player can manufacture between them is the floor spacing that makes their advantages compound into championships. Miami ranked in the middle third of the league in three-point percentage last season. For a team built around the gravitational force Giannis creates, that number represents the clearest correctable gap remaining on the roster.
Thompson at 38.3 percent from three, reading a ball-handler’s drive better than almost any catch-and-shoot player of his generation, is the correction Miami’s front office has identified.
The Eastern Conference pressure makes the timeline feel shorter than it otherwise would. Philadelphia completed a major roster reconstruction this week, finalizing a trio around LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Jaylen Brown after trading Johni Broome to the Clippers to clear the final cap hurdle. The 76ers were awarded the only A+ offseason grade in the league by multiple analysts. Rich Paul, James’s agent, arranged the entire contract structure, then stood in front of reporters and said Philadelphia is not the league’s best team. His skepticism may be accurate. It does not slow down the teams trying to match what the 76ers assembled.
The secondary options are real and worth naming. Jackson reported that Miami has also spoken with DeRozan, who was waived by Sacramento and carries proven half-court scoring ability. The Heat have had conversations with Bradley Beal as well, who declined a $5.6 million player option with the Los Angeles Clippers. Neither conversation carries the same designation as Thompson. Both are described as open. The distinction, in July, is the whole point: the Heat have decided what kind of player they need and in what order they intend to pursue him.
What “priority” means in practical terms is that Riley has made a specific calculation. Not just that Thompson would improve Miami. Not that he fits the timeline. That this acquisition, if completed, defines whether the Giannis experiment produces a legitimate championship outcome rather than an early playoff exit against a team that shoots better from the arc. Fourteen seasons of professional basketball have not reduced Thompson to a player from a prior era. They have refined exactly what Miami needs: the situational knowledge that understands which corner to occupy when Giannis has already drawn two defenders and the shot clock is running down.
The piece missing from this story is what the trade looks like. What Dallas requires from Miami, what Miami can assemble from the parts of a roster restructured around Antetokounmpo, and whether those two valuations find common ground: all of that remains unreported. Jackson’s story tells Miami fans what the front office wants. It does not tell them what the Mavericks will accept, or whether Riley can find the combination of assets that moves a negotiation from “monitoring” to closed.
Giannis and Adebayo can carry the talent. They cannot carry the spacing. Thompson carries the spacing. The question is whether Riley can carry the trade that gets him there.
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