It’s no secret the Miami Heat strongly pursued Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry ahead of the trade deadline.
And it’s no secret the Raptors wanted one of the Heat’s one players — such as guard Tyler Herro or small forward Duncan Robinson — in exchange.
So Heat president Pat Riley said it was no secret that the Heat had no choice but to turn away the Raptors and their own dreams of potentially landing Lowry.
“You can’t let go of those two assets, you can’t, because they could become truly great,” Riley reporters. “They’re very, very good players right now, and I think they’re probably a year or two away from making what their early max could be from a production standpoint.
“So I’d hate to have that come back at us if we were to do something and try to move them. But we’re not going to. So from that standpoint, what happened today is you’re going to see Duncan, you’re going to see Tyler.”
In the end, the Heat worked out a deadline deal with the Houston Rockets for guard Victor Oladipo. In the process, Miami surrendered two expiring contracts belonging to power forward Kelly Olynyk and guard Avery Bradley.
So call it a win for the defending Eastern Conference champions. They were able to get someone who should help them improve without surrendering the key young assets of which Riley spoke.
