The Miami Heat may be sending the “you up?” text to one of their old pals.
Matt Moore of Action Network reported this weekend that the Heat have shown interest in reuniting with veteran center Kelly Olynyk. Moore notes that Olynyk, currently with the Utah Jazz, is a highly-sought-after asset league-wide ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
Olynyk, 32, is on a $12.2 million expiring contract. He has seen his minutes tumble to 20.2 minutes per game this season as the Jazz go young but is still connecting on a career-high 42.7% of his three-point attempts.
Former lottery pick Olynyk earlier played for the Heat from 2017-21, including as an admirable fill-in when Bam Adebayo was hurt during the 2020 NBA Finals. Miami has many of the same issues today with no consistent bigs to back up Adebayo. Thomas Bryant is a one-way offensive player who only works well in certain match-ups and 23-year-old Orlando Robinson is still too raw for an everyday role. Meanwhile, Kevin Love continues to work best as a 4 rather than as an undersized 5.
Miami already traded for guard Terry Rozier last month, but probably need to make another move after recently sustaining a seven-game losing streak. Olynyk would still be a nice fit for them but also has interest from one of his other old teams.
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