Heat Could Replace Goran Dragic With Kemba Walker As Their Starting PG Next Season

One of the teams that could take a chance on Walker is the Miami Heat. In a recent article, Conor Roche of Boston.com included the Heat on the list of potential trade destinations for Walker in the 2021 offseason. The Heat just suffered an embarrassing sweep by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.

To keep their superstar duo of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo happy, the Heat should consider making major upgrades on their roster this summer.

Walker may have gone through plenty of ups and downs in the past two seasons, but Roche believes that he's still an upgrade over Goran Dragic. Walker is four years younger than Dragic and still has plenty of gas left in his tank.

Compared to Dragic, Walker is a more reliable scoring option, playmaker, and floor-spacer. This season, the 31-year-old point guard averaged 19.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.1 steals while shooting 42.0 percent from the field and 36.0 percent from beyond the arc, per ESPN.

In his article, Roche suggested a way the Heat would be able to acquire Walker from the Celtics this summer.

"There’s really only one way for a Walker to Miami trade to happen. The Heat would have to accept the team options for Dragic and Andre Iguodala and then trade them to the Celtics. Would the Celtics want to take two 35-plus-year-old players and ship Walker to a conference rival? Probably not, but they’d get two expiring contracts in return that can create cap space in 2022 or be moved as trade chips, potentially making a trade with Miami a three-team trade."

"There’s really only one way for a Walker to Miami trade to happen. The Heat would have to accept the team options for Dragic and Andre Iguodala and then trade them to the Celtics. Would the Celtics want to take two 35-plus-year-old players and ship Walker to a conference rival? Probably not, but they’d get two expiring contracts in return that can create cap space in 2022 or be moved as trade chips, potentially making a trade with Miami a three-team trade."

With his lucrative contract and health issues, trading for Walker would undeniably be a huge gamble for the Heat. However, if the Celtics are willing to accept a trade package that only includes Dragic and Andre Iguodala, the proposed trade deal would worth exploring for the Heat.

When he's 100 percent healthy, Walker is capable of helping the Heat become a more competitive team in the Eastern Conference next season. If Walker could bring back the Charlotte Hornets version of himself in Miami, he would enable the Heat to form their own "Big Three" with Butler and Adebayo without sacrificing any of their young players or future first-round picks.