Report: Heat, Kings discussing Goran Dragic-Rudy Gay swap

Could a return to the Western Conference be in store for Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic?

According to a report by Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders on Tuesday, the Heat and the Sacramento Kings have discussed a trade centered around Dragic in exchange for Rudy Gay and Darren Collison. The two sides are said to be “kicking the tires” on the potential deal at the moment.

Gay, 30, has long been pushing for a move out of Sacramento and seems to be completely disillusioned with the direction of the Kings franchise. His contract will expire at the end of the season, and he has already informed management that he does not intend to pick up his player option for 2017-18.

Meanwhile, Dragic, also 30, is on a fairly friendly contract, at least relative to what other point guards are making, with four years and roughly $70 million remaining on his deal. With Dwyane Wade now in Chicago, the Heat would stand to benefit from seeing what they have now that Dragic, who was often underutilized playing next to Wade, is their alpha guard, free to execute his ball-dominant, up-tempo style of play.

But Dragic could also solve Sacramento’s point guard problem, and the Heat lack a primary scorer with the effective departure of Chris Bosh. Still, Gay doesn’t have the requisite skillset to play regular minutes at the 4, and Collison, who is currently suspended for the first eight games of the season due to domestic violence, is his own major question mark. As such, these trade talks may be more exploratory in nature than anything.

H/T theScore